Press Release: Indigenous Vermonters Speak Out for Trees at Telephone Gap

Members of Vermont’s Indigenous communities, Indigenous Peoples consisting of a diaspora of relocated Native Americans who have put down roots in Vermont, and allies of these groups, acting as the Vermont Coalition of Indigenous Communities and Allies, are petitioning (attached) the US Forest Service to extend the deadline for commenting on a proposal to timber 12,000 acres of Telephone Gap in the Green Mountain National Forest. In a letter to Deb Haaland, US Secretary of Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs (attached), they have requested intervention to direct the Forest Service to provide time to comply with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) which calls for “prior informed consent” and consultation on projects impacting Indigenous Communities.

Vermont’s Indigenous peoples do not have reservation homelands and therefore have a unique need for access to protected forests which they argue are a critical sanctuary. In the spirit of reciprocity Abenaki coalition members can contribute their Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of the Green Mountains and the Telephone Gap in particular. This traditional wisdom and empirical (observation based) indigenous science can and should be included in Forest Service planning by engaging in the consultation process that UNDRIP requires.

Last week members of the Coalition, including Abenaki from the Nulhegan, Elnu and Missisquoi bands, provided input on implementing Vermont’s new 30 by 30 biodiversity law,  Act 59 -  “An act relating to community resilience and biodiversity protection” - which is cited in the Coalition’s petition to the Forest Service. Forest Service plans for Telephone Gap logging in old growth forest, as defined by Region 9 of the U.S. Forest Service, contravene this biodiversity initiative, according to the petition.   The Coalition is asking the public to add their petition language to individual comments submitted at tinyurl.com/m8uyf5ye by the Monday, April 8 midnight deadline.

“For Indigenous Peoples, and those who share our perspective, this is not about  timber resource objects growing on a mountainside. This is personal and spiritual. Trees and the flora and fauna in the forest are our kin. We have a special relationship with the natural world and have a special obligation and opportunity to help officials rethink what is involved,” Whiting Vermont Potawatomi tribal member and Coalition member Randy Kritkausky notes.

Additional background and contact information for members of the Vermont Coalition of Indigenous Communities and Allies can be obtained from Randy Kritkausky at rkritkausky@ecologia.org or 802-623-8075.

Press release as a pdf available here.