Fighting Forest Fragmentation in Halifax

March 2007

As part of our Forest Conservation Campaign, VNRC is representing six landowners in Halifax, Vermont, who have filed suit in Windham County Superior Court to challenge forestland development in two rural locations in town.

The landowners filed the suit against a Halifax Board of Selectman decision to reclassify two recreational trails to Class 4 roads to facilitate subdivision development in areas that are rich in forest resources. The recreational trails are popular for skiing, hiking, horseback riding, snowmobiling, hunting, and mountain biking and are located in core forest areas for bear and other wildlife habitat.

One trail – Josh Trail – climbs through rugged northern hardwood forest and is located adjacent to a Class 2 wetland and Deer Pond Brook, a tributary of the Green River that drains a 2,700-acre watershed. The other trail – Bell Trail – has traditionally been managed for timber resources and includes important VAST snowmobile and recreational trails.

The case represents the first time a lawsuit has been filed over the reclassification of a trail to a road. VNRC is concerned that real estate pressure in Vermont will promote additional cases where developers are asking Select Board’s to reclassify trails to meet local zoning ordinances that require frontage along public roads. In this particular case, road frontage would promote a 500 percent increase in amount of subdivision that could occur along the trails. According to Jamey Fidel, VNRC Forest Program Director and legal counsel in the case, “this case will set an important legal standard for the manner in which recreational trails can be reclassified to roads to facilitate subdivision development.”

The Judge and three Commissioners are currently scrutinizing whether the trail reclassification will be in the “public good, convenience, and necessity” of the inhabitants of the town. VNRC recently argued that the Halifax Town Plan, public opposition to the reclassification, and unacceptable wildlife habitat, water quality, recreation and forest management impacts dictate that the trails should be left alone and not developed for additional homes, driveways and utilities. The Commissioners have sent a report to the Judge agreeing with VNRC that the public good requires that the trails should remain as recreational trails. A final ruling is expected sometime this Spring.

For more information about this effort or for technical assistance in your community, contact Jamey Fidel at 802-223-2328 ext. 117 or email jfidel@vnrc.org.