TO THE EDITOR: THE NORTHFIELD NEWS

At Governor Douglas' direction, the Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation is doing everything it can to generate economic activity and create jobs. We're pleased to report that your investment of tax dollars is achieving important results and producing meaningful returns.

The forestry division, for example, works everyday to strengthen Vermont's $1 billion forests products economy. As part of our long range management plans, we are offering stewardship timber sales—harvests to promote forest health, improve wildlife habit and help keep loggers working, trucks running and saw dust flying—at a time when many private landowners are holding onto their timber. We expect to administer a nearly 15% increase in timber sales this year.

We are also assisting entrepreneurs establishing, or considering, biomass facilities in Vermont. As the threat of another painful spike in fossil fuel prices looms, more and more Vermonters are interested in cleaner, more affordable and renewable wood energy. In fact, Vermont Wood Pellet in North Clarendon, Vermont's first pellet manufacturer, recently opened and is now accepting pine pulp deliveries; and Vermont now has a higher percentage of schools using biomass energy systems than any other state in the nation.

Fundamentally, it is our working forests that make our state different—and better—than, say, southern New Hampshire, New York or Massachusetts. Nevertheless, like farming, the forest products economy in Vermont teeters on the brink. If lost, it would deeply damage our economy, alter our identity and undermine our reputation as a place where farms and forests remain productive and agrarian self-sufficiency and commonsense environmentalism prevail. Preserving this legacy industry is an economic, environmental and cultural imperative—it is truly too important to fail.

Vermont's state parks are also a significant economic tool— contributing nearly $60 million annually to the economy and hiring 280 seasonal employees— and we are hard at work converting state capital dollars into immediate economic stimulus. All told, we've more than 120 projects underway. Projects were selected based on criteria used in selecting projects for federal stimulus funding—they are "timely, targeted and transparent."

Our projects meet the strictest definition of "shovel ready," and are moving forward swiftly. We've targeted long-term, infrastructure projects that create good trade jobs—carpentry, plumbing, masonry, electric, excavating, roofing and others— critical to immediate, and sustained, economic growth. And, we are transparent. It is important that taxpayers and policymakers see the immediate economic, and the lasting environmental, values of investing in these natural resources.

The average project is nearly $50,000—making our contracts very attractive to small and midsize employers. Our projects are also geographically diverse. With 52 state parks, we're able to ensure that every region benefits from its fair share of this investment.

When our nation confronted the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) was created to generate the economic activity by investing in parks and other natural resource infrastructure. While our contemporary federal government largely overlooked these assets in its stimulus package, Governor Douglas and the Legislature have not—and they deserve much credit for that. With a deliberate and carefully focused capital investment of $6 million in our park system, we're creating trade intensive jobs; generating economic activity in rural areas; and investing in natural resource infrastructure that will benefit many more generations of Vermonters.

Our state forests and parks are valuable economic assets. With your continued support, we will continue to be successful stewards of these resources and ensure a valuable return on your investment in them.

JASON GIBBS Department of Forests, Parks

and Recreation