Vermont Timberland Owners' Association, Inc.

The Vermont Timberland Owners' Association was formed in 1915 by owners of large timberlands in Vermont, including the Berlin Mills Co., Connecticut Valley Lumber Co. and Champion International Corp., who were concerned about the lack of forest fire monitoring and control. At that time, much of Vermont had been recently cut over for logs, leaving large tracts of dry, fire-prone logging residue. Several years of dry weather coupled with sparks from steam locomotives resulted in large fires. Private forestland owners organized VTOA to create an early warning system of fire lookout towers and to employ a crew of patrolmen to follow behind trains to spot and extinguish fires. The effort was largely effective and, as membership in the association grew, the scope of protection expanded to include monitoring for harmful forest insects and diseases. As technology improved, VTOA adopted the use of telephones in fire towers by supplying the wire and other hardware. After World War II, the association provided several surplus military trucks to towns for use as fire control vehicles. Eventually the Vermont Forest Service assumed most of the forest protection responsibility for the state's forest. However, VTOA continued into the 1980s providing funding for books and laboratory equipment for insect and disease identification.

Membership numbers remained small, from 26 in 1940 to 28 in 1961 while total acreage covered fluctuated between 400,000 and 500,000 acres. With the advent of use value appraisal for taxation, membership numbers grew from 86 in 1987 to a high of 174 in 1991 while the acreage covered remained about the same. Acquisition of some large tracts for Green Mountain National Forest and the State of Vermont and increasing numbers of smaller tracts due to the improved tax situation probably accounts for the change in numbers without much acreage change. In the 1950s the Vermont Timberland Owners' Association became the sponsor of the Vermont Tree Farm Program, providing funding and administrative support. Since 1975, VTOA was a strong supporter of Use Value Appraisal, a program that allowed well-managed forests to be taxed at the value of their current use rather than potential development value. This program, still active today, has allowed many thousands of acres of woodland in Vermont to remain productive and undeveloped.

On May 17, 1996, Vermont Timberland Owners' Association merged with Vermont Woodland Resources Association and became known as Vermont Woodlands Association (VWA). Today VWA carries on the role of sponsoring the Tree Farm Program and advocates fair taxation of forestland.

From the description of Vermont Timberland Owners' Association, Inc. records, 1915-1996. (Vermont Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 60577194