ANR: Vermont losing forest cover; reaching 30x30 will require about 85,000 additional conserved acres

Secretary Julie Moore and Agency of Natural Resources staff told the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee that Vermont’s lands play a dual role as working forests and climate‑relevant carbon sinks, but the state is losing forest cover and will need substantial additional conservation to meet statutory goals.

Moore said the state’s inventory shows about 27% of Vermont’s landscape is permanently conserved and that reaching the 30‑by‑30 target would require roughly an additional 85,000 acres of permanent conservation — “which works out to something like 30,000 acres a year for each of the next five years,” she said. Moore described an average acquisition cost that “varies, but it's somewhere between a thousand and $4,000 an acre.”

The nut graf: Agency testimony emphasized that sequestration and land conservation are climate strategies distinct from—yet complementary to—emissions reductions.…