The Vermont Statutes Online
The Statutes below include the actions of the 2025 session of the General Assembly.
NOTE: The Vermont Statutes Online is an unofficial copy of the Vermont Statutes Annotated that is provided as a convenience.
Subchapter
002
:
FOREST CONSERVATION
(Cite as: 10 V.S.A. § 2622)
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§ 2622. Rules; harvesting timber; forests; acceptable management practices for maintaining
water quality
(a) Silvicultural practices. The Commissioner shall adopt rules to establish methods by which the harvest and utilization
of timber in private and public forestland will be consistent with continuous forest
growth, including reforestation, will prevent wasteful and dangerous forestry practices,
will regulate heavy cutting, will encourage good forestry management, will enable
and assist landowners to practice good forestry management, and will conserve the
natural resources consistent with the purposes and policies of this chapter, giving
due consideration to the need to ensure continuous supplies of forest products and
to the rights of the owner or operator of the land. The rules adopted under this subsection
shall be advisory and not mandatory except that the rules adopted under section 2625 of this title for the regulation of heavy cutting shall be mandatory as shall other rules specifically
authorized to be mandatory.
(b) Acceptable management practices. On or before July 1, 2016, the Commissioner shall revise by rule the Acceptable Management
Practices for Maintaining Water Quality on Logging Jobs in Vermont. The revised acceptable
management practices shall ensure that all logging operations, on both public and
private forestland, are designed to: prevent or minimize discharges of sediment, petroleum
products, and woody debris (logging slash) from entering streams and other bodies
of water; improve soil health of forestland; protect aquatic habitat and aquatic wildlife;
and prevent erosion and maintain natural water temperature. The purpose of the acceptable
management practices is to provide measures for loggers, foresters, and landowners
to utilize, before, during, and after logging operations, to comply with the Vermont
Water Quality Standards and minimize the potential for a discharge from logging operations
in Vermont in accordance with section 1259 of this title. The rules adopted under this subsection shall be advisory and not mandatory. (Added 1977, No. 253 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 1997, No. 15, § 1, eff. May 6, 1997; 2015, No. 64, § 49.)