Upcoming Events
Saturday, November 8, 2025
Meet at 10am at the Mt. Sunapee Resort Lower Parking Lot
Mt. Sunapee Rd, Newbury, NH 03255
The 1,185-acre Mount Sunapee Reservation contains majestic old forest that has been undisturbed for at least 350 years, but lacks any status that would protect it from ski area expansion and other threats. This relatively steep, 4-mile out and back hike will take us into some of this beautiful forest. Coordinated by the Hanover and Newbury Conservation Commissions and other local advocates. Meet by 10am at the first parking lot on the left as you drive up Mt. Sunapee Road — carpooling and more information available at the RSVP link.
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Saturday, November 8, 2025
4 - 6pm at the Dartmouth College Church of Christ
40 College St, Hanover, NH 03755
Join us for a free, catered meal and an excellent opportunity to connect with the whole Standing Trees community. The Standing Trees Board will lead us in a brief discussion of organizational business, give out this year's Walking Stick Award, and explore the past, present, and future of Standing Trees' advocacy. Plus, we'll take in a wonderful forest photo project by Vermont artists Anne Bergeron and Tracy Penfield. Please RSVP to help us estimate dinner needs.
Saturday, November 8, 2025
7-9pm at the Dartmouth College Church of Christ
40 College St, Hanover, NH 03755
Join acclaimed, 6-time Grammy-award-winning jazz musician Paul Winter, renowned cellist Eugene Friesen, and the voices of whale, wolf, and wood thrush, for a concert celebrating wild places and the people who protect them. Plus, enjoy photographs from Tracy Penfield and Anne Bergeron, two local artists whose work celebrates the deep, embodied connections we make with our forests. Get tickets in advance — they may sell out before the day of the show.
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
7pm in the Farrell Room, St. Edmund's Hall, Saint Michael's College, Colchester, VT, and on Zoom.
Old forests are the original habitat for nearly all of Vermont's native terrestrial species, but they are now 'functionally absent' from the landscape. How can we put more forests on a path to growing old and wild?
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Join professor Trevien Stanger, Dr. Susan Masino, Representative Amy Sheldon (D-Middlebury), and Zack Porter of Standing Trees for an evening discussion of rewilding and opportunities for public wildlands conservation in Vermont, with a particular focus on the visionary bill that would recover old forests across two-thirds of Vermont state land. Expect a 45-minute presentation and plenty of time for Q & A.
Past Events and Recordings
Free Guided Hike up White Rocks in VT's Worcester Range
Saturday, October 25, 2025
Meet at 11:15am at the Hunger Mountain Trailhead
Sweet Road, Waterbury Ctr, VT, 05677
Join us for a stunning, moderately difficult hike to White Rocks, a beautiful Vermont peak in the heart of the Worcester Rage. As we hike, we'll take in the autumn forest and share the story of the Worcester Range, an essential corridor of intact forest connecting the central Green Mountains to the Northeastern Highlands. A recent 'management plan' for the range puts about half of its nearly 19,000 acres of public forest in the cross hairs for future logging. We'll discuss how decisions are made about state lands like the Worcester Range's CC Putnam State Forest, and share some exciting developments that have the potential to put the 'public' back in public lands.
5 miles and 2,200ft of elevation gain/loss. Weather date Sunday, October 26 at the same time.
Black Gum Swamp Walk
Saturday, October 11, 2025, 12pm
J. Maynard Miller Town Forest
366 Basin Rd, Vernon, VT
Join us to explore an old growth Black Gum (Tupelo) Swamp. We'll visit one of the northern-most known occurrences of a Black Gum swamp, complete with the longest living species of broadleaf tree on the East Coast. We'll be led by knowledgeable local guides who have lots to share about the place's natural and cultural history, including why this patch of forest escaped the repeated cutting that nearly all of the surrounding forest has faced. Expect a relatively flat hike of about 1 mile with one up/downhill section.
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National Public Lands Day Celebration
Saturday, September 27, 12pm - 4:30pm*
Great Falls Discovery Center, Turners Falls, MA
Join advocates and organizations from across New England to celebrate National Public Lands Day! In a time when public lands are under unprecedented pressure to be logged, mined, drilled, roaded, and sold off entirely, we will gather to learn from each other about the value of wild, public lands, and what we can do to protect them here in New England. Schedule includes free lunch, teach-ins, a collaborative art project, music, action steps, and more.
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​Co-sponsors include: Standing Trees, Mass. Sierra Club, RESTORE: The North woods, Save Mass Forests, Wellspring Commons, Atowi Project, Winter Center for Indigenous Traditions, Climate Action Now Western Mass, and Ottauquechee Water Protectors Association.
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*Plus: Join us from 10am - noon to help with the Source to Sea Connecticut River Cleanup on the grounds of the the Discovery Center. You can register for the clean up at this link.
Phonebank for Roadless Areas!
Thursday, September 11, 5 - 6:15pm, Waterfront Park, Burlington, VT
Join us at Burlington's Waterfront Park for free pizza and a chance to make calls to generate more comments in support of Roadless Areas. Trump is trying to gut protections for 45 million acres of Roadless Areas across the US in order to open these essential wildlands up to logging and road-building. We have until September 19 to stand up to this backwards plan, and make clear that our public forests, especially in Roadless Areas, are worth more standing!
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Plus, join us across the street at Main Street Landing from 6:30-8pm for a free talk about catamount re-introduction in Vermont.
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For any questions, to let us know dietary restrictions, or to get involved in phonebanking on your own time, email cgish@standingtrees.org.
The Global Struggle For Forests: From Chile to Vermont and Beyond
Sept. 22, 6:30pm, Kellogg-Hubbard Libary, Montpelier
Sept. 23, 6:30pm, Hardpressed Book Shop, W. Danville, VT
Sept. 24, 6:30pm, Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, VT
Join documentary photographer Orin Langelle and Global Justice Ecology Project Executive Director Anne Petermann for an event featuring photographs, stories, and discussions about global and local struggles for forests, justice, and sovereignty. Highlights include:
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Portraits of Struggle Photography Book: Spanning 5 decades and 6 continents, this collection documents movements for justice around the world.
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The Fight to Keep Our Forests Wild and Free from GMO Trees: A genetically engineered American chestnut threatens the integrity of our native forests. Learn about the campaign to protect wild forests and the inspiring natural comeback of wild chestnut trees across New England.
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The Mapuche People’s Struggle for Land in Chile: Facing intense repression from Chilean authorities, the Mapuche continue their fight to reclaim stolen ancestral lands. Hear how you can support their movement for autonomy and food sovereignty.
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Special guests from Standing Trees will join to discuss their important work to protect Vermont’s old forests.
Saturday August 23 at 11am. Rain Date August 24.
Warren, NH. RSVP for exact location.
Lake Tarleton is one of the largest, cleanest, and least developed bodies of water in the White Mountains. We'll explore the lake on canoes, discuss the community-driven process that added this area to the White Mountain National Forest in the 1990s, and show how the Tarleton logging project threatens to undo the protection that the local community sought for this area. We'll also update you on litigation filed by Standing Trees against the Tarleton and Peabody West logging projects. Canoes and other equipment supplied courtesy of Kingswood Camp.
Saturday August 2 at 10am. Rain Date August 3.
Gorham, NH. RSVP for exact location.
The Great Gulf Trail is a stunning and high reward hike into White Mountain National Forest history, ecology, and current management issues. For the first mile, we'll follow the gently undulating trail across and along the West Branch of the Peabody River, enjoying the spectacular and rare old-growth forest along this wild-and-scenic eligible river. The next mile and a half climbs gradually, then steeply up to Prospect Rock and a gorgeous view of the Great Gulf and the Presidential Range. The total elevation gain is 933 ft, and the round trip distance is 5 miles. We will pause along the way to enjoy the scenery and to discuss the WMNF's planned timber harvest in this beautiful old forest, which Standing Trees litigated in March of this year.
Saturday July 26 at 10am. Rain Date July 27.
Chittenden, VT. RSVP for exact location.
We'll meet at a trailhead near Chittenden Reservoir and visit some inspiring stands of old forest on our way to North Pond, a remote mountain pond near the spine of the Green Mountains. Along the way, we'll give you the latest on the massive Telephone Gap logging project that threatens much of the old and mature forest that make this area so special. Expect 5-6 miles of hiking with approximately 1200 ft elevation change.
Tuesday, July 1 at 5:30pm. Rain Date July 2.
Bolton, VT. RSVP for exact location.
We'll meet at the Honey Hollow trailhead and take an evening walk to this less-popular corner of Camel's Hump, visiting the beautiful cascades on Preston Brook and some of the many stands slated to be logged in this watershed over the next 11 years under the Camel's Hump State Park management plan. We'll get the chance to discuss timber harvest plans for Camel's Hump and other Vermont state lands, existing policy for state lands, and the expanded protection that is possible under the Vermont State Wildlands Act. Expect up to 3-4 miles of walking with approximately 500 ft of elevation change.
Saturday, June 21st at 10 am (weather date June 22).
Goshen, VT. RSVP for exact location.
This is a moderately strenuous hike around the beautiful Silver Lake, up to Chandler Ridge, and to the Dutton Brook area. We'll get a chance to discuss the Northern Escarpment burn project planned in that area (and our region's relationship to fire more generally), as well as the Dutton Brook tree cutting/herbicide application project. Expect a 3-4 hour outing with approx. 6-7 miles of hiking and 1000 ft of elevation gain/loss. Maybe we'll get a chance to see bald eagles and some of the other wildlife that frequent the area.
Thursday, April 24th, 12:45 - 2pm
Vermont Law and Graduate School Multicultural Center at 164 Chelsea Street, South Royalton, VT
Online via Zoom webinar and recording
Join conservation biologist Rick Enser, retired director of the Rhode Island Natural Heritage Program, to learn about the importance of biodiversity, unpack the ways that the term is co-opted and abused, and investigate how misleadingly-named state Wildlife Action Plans are designed to set “biodiversity” conservation priorities that focus on commodity-driven management actions like logging to increase populations of game animals.
Timber Industry Myths in the Era of "Log Baby Log"
Wednesday, March 26th, 2025, Zoom Webinar and recording
Join ecologists Bart Bouricius, Cheryl Joy Lipton and Bill Stubblefield for a deep dive into the effects of logging on forests, and discussion of pro-logging spin. We explore narratives coming from the timber industry, government agencies, and some academics that suggest our forests can only be made healthy by cutting them, and the myth that simply letting our forests develop naturally is irresponsible. We cover the science of the climate, biodiversity, and hydrological impacts of timber harvesting, compare natural disturbances to those caused by logging, and give you the backstory on how timber industry myths have developed over time
Vermont Wildlands Act: Everything You Need to Know
Thursday, March 20th, 2025, Zoom Webinar and recording
Listen in for an in-depth online discussion of the Vermont Climate Resilience and State Wildlands Act. We hear from Duxbury Selectboard member and wildlands advocate Jamie Ervin, and Standing Trees staff Zack Porter and Bob Galvin on how the Wildlands Act fits into the current policy landscape, why it makes sense to increase safeguards for state lands, and the profound benefits of old forests for flood protection, climate mitigation, clean water and biodiversity. We’ll also give you a run-down on how to contact your Vermont legislators to show your support for this bill.
Federal Public lands Round-Up: One Month of the Trump Administration in New England and Beyond
Wednesday, February 19th, 2025, Zoom Webinar and recording
We hear from Blaine Miller-McFeeley of Earthjustice and Zack Porter of Standing Trees to make sense of the Trump Administration's attacks on public lands, and what we can do to protect these invaluable public resources. We discuss the national situation, field your questions, and make connections to the Green and White Mountain National Forests, where Standing Trees and Earthjustice are actively working to stop destructive and unnecessary logging projects.
