Had an wonderful time participating in VT Family Forests Neighborwood Workshop on Saturday, July 11. 35-45 people were there: loggers, foresters, academics and forest landowners. Best practices for wood harvesting were discussed and observed, and there was expert information about burning wood for maximum benefit and minimum environmental cost. Also discussion about the capacity of the forest in our specific five town region to support wood heat/energy, considering available land and growth potential of the forest. These are critically important issues and there is likely disagreement about how much harvest our forest can sustainably support.

David Brynn, the director of Vermont Family Forests featured a presentation of the first four of five paintings I am creating for the Art of Action during the workshop. It was a special opportunity for me to show the paintings to a group of interested citizens, including some of the people who are IN the paintings! Also a special opportunity because the paintings will be split up soon, and likely not shown together more than once or twice before they are auctioned in summer 2010. My sincere thanks to David, and Vermont Family Forests.

Here are a couple photos of the group in an area being harvested by Bill Torrey. You can see him here explaining it all to us. Photos by Paul Forlenza.

This is Bill Torrey and his dog, with his forwarder in West Bolton. Bill has been a logger since he was a teenager. Hearing his story I believe he is a logger by vocation. It is something he loves and is committed to doing intelligently, in every sense of the word. He also loves to spend time hunting in the Adirondacks. I will be doing a painting of Bill in this spot, sharpening his saw.

Here is Paul Cate working in the woods with his forwarder. He jokes that other loggers ask him when this machine is going to "grow up".

Things Paul has said in conversation continue to resonate with me. He is committed to careful quality work in harvesting. As he and other foresters have said to me, it's not about the trees we cut, it's about the ones we leave standing.

As I continue to brew the painting ideas to envisage the future of our forests the idea of sustainability keeps pushing resource extraction out of the picture. It's a paradigm shift that's been underway in the daily lives of people like Paul for quite a while.