Judge Dismisses Camel's Hump Logging Lawsuit 

A Vermont judge has dismissed an environmental group’s effort to block logging in Camel’s Hump State Forest and other state lands.

Standing Trees, a Montpelier-based forest preservation group, sued the state Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation in 2022, arguing that state lands are regularly approved for logging without a transparent public process. The suit asked a Vermont Superior Court judge to ban new logging on state lands until clearer rules protecting forests could be instituted.

The suit focused on the 2021 management plan for Camel's Hump, which calls for logging about 3,800 acres of forest in 34 different areas over the next 15 years. That’s a dramatic increase in harvesting there compared to the past 25 years.

Logging would happen on about 7 percent of the 26,000 acres in the management area around iconic Camel’s Hump, Vermont's third-tallest peak.

When filing the suit, Zack Porter, executive director of Standing Trees, said public forests were "being sold to the highest bidder while the public is kept in the dark about how decisions are made."
Reached this week, Porter vowed to continue the fight.

"This is far from over," he told Seven Days.

Porter noted that the judge dismissed the case "on procedural grounds" and the group would plot its next course of action in coming days.

The group believes mature forests across New England must be protected for wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, storage, flood prevention and other benefits. The group has also called for a moratorium on logging of mature forests in the Green Mountain National Forest, the state's largest.

The debate underscores the increasing unease many residents feel about logging on public lands as the climate crisis worsens. Foresters argue that sustainable logging supports the rural economy and makes room for new, faster-growing trees that absorb carbon. Critics counter that northeastern forests are still recovering from widespread decimation over the previous two centuries and could absorb far more carbon if conserved and allowed to grow old.

Porter noted that the department agreed to move forward with a rulemaking process after the suit was filed, but since then, there's been "absolute silence."

He vowed to keep the pressure on despite the legal setback.

"We are going to move forward until we have certainty that this rulemaking will commence in a fully transparent, accountable fashion," he said.