MILTON, Vt. (AP) — A sandplain restoration project is going to begin at the Sandbar Wildlife Management Area in Milton with a timber harvest, according to the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The first step of the project, along U.S. Route 2, will be the harvest that will remove some red pine, the non-native black locust, Japanese Larch, and honeysuckle.
Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Christopher Herrick said they’ll restore the native pitch pine and oak habitat, and that the wildlife management area has one of the largest remaining examples of this increasingly rare habitat in Vermont.
Sandplain forests have been lost primarily to development and there are only a few examples left of this size in Chittenden County, Herrick added.
A sandplain forest is an open woodland canopy dominated by the evergreen pitch pine.
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A healthy sandplain has its own vegetation, including certain species of oak and pitch pine, gnarly trees that have little commercial value. The restoration of the sandplain should also benefit a variety of wildlife.
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