I was in my teens the summer that I first got to work with a logger. I was the unskilled labor and gopher -- carrying his gear and doing what he told me. Franklin County Forester Sam Hudson advised my family on our woodlot, and we logged it according to his plan.

In between swatting black flies and mosquitoes, we talked forestry. This logger was (and still is) a hard-working logger and a scholar of the forest. He impressed upon me just how many species of trees live in the woods, and how alive a forest is. I learned how forestry starts with the dirt, and its interaction with trees and sunlight. I learned about preventing erosion, and managing sunlight.

I also learned to see the forest as an asset, and us as its stewards. When a town sets aside land for a green or a town forest, its obligation is to use it and care for it.

120 Vermont towns have town forests, some in existence for more than 100 years. Together, Vermont’s town forests account for about 80,000 acres.

The first time a town forest got my attention, I was cross-country skiing with a group that treks annually from St. Albans to Sheldon. When I looked around to see a pristine stand of 200-year-old maples, I asked, and learned, that this was the St. Albans town forest.

When the Macutchan family gave the town of Stowe 60 hilly acres, within walking distance of Stowe Village, in the 1920s, it was on open field. Today, it’s the Macutchan Town Forest -- used for walking, mountain biking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, hunting and trapping. Volunteers care for the woods and trail network. Local snowmobilers are interested in creating snowmobile trails. When a town forest oral history project linked 30 of Stowe’s community elders with 4th graders from Stowe Elementary, the forest became a bridge from one generation to another.

All 226 residents of Goshen own a 1000-acre town forest, on challenging terrain that’s not easy to get to. In the roughly 20 years since Goshen inherited the forest, it has generated about $280,000 from sugarmaking and timber sales for the town. There are some recreational trails through these woods that volunteers look after, but while Stowe’s is primarily a recreational forest, Goshen’s is a working forest and source of revenue.

Brattleboro has a town forest that covers about 16 acres, within walking distance of neighborhoods and schools. Brattleboro is creating a management plan for this gem right now. Their goal is to restore the forest’s old trails, and restore its health.

Sharon’s town forest is called The Minister’s Lot. I met some people from Sharon Academy, and learned about the 7th grade’s plan to map the forest using GPS technology. The class visited the forest with foresters and wildlife experts. They learned about forestry and forest management. They learned about tracking wildlife, and building trails. The students also wrote essays on what the town should do with the forest. It has already served as a great educational resource.

Putney has a forest that’s accessible from Putney Central School. The town talked about selling the land, but decided to invest in a management plan, develop new trails and build a bridge over a stream that really opened it up. Now, Putney Elementary uses the woods extensively for its forest education program.

A forest makes a great classroom. It’s also a place -- and this is especially useful for people in public life -- where you can appreciate your own smallness in the context of a continuum that reaches far back in time and far ahead, and a forest that will be here long after we are gone. A forest is a great place to relax, find peace and gain perspective.

A town forest is a town asset, and townspeople are its stewards. An asset plus stewardship equals higher value -- as a place where children can play and learn, where elders can walk and enjoy the woods, and where a town can model its forests to reflect its own value for the land.

That’s why I am so excited about Vermont’s Town Forest Project, operated by the Northern Forest Alliance. They are helping Vermont towns to restore, manage and enjoy their town forests, or to create them where they don’t exist today.

But town forests serve another purpose.

Town forests educate Vermonters of all ages about good forestry practices, how to grow healthy forests, working forests, and forests where wildlife flourishes.

About 370,000 of Vermont’s 4,500,000 acres of forestland are federally-owned, about 350,000 acres are state forests, 80,000 acres are municipally-owned, and the rest – some 3,800,000 acres -- is owned by private woodlot owners. What’s the best way to influence private landowners to be stewards of their woodlands?

Abraham Lincoln said something that I keep written on a piece of paper in my wallet. He said, “He who affects public sentiment does far greater service to society than he who enacts statutes.”

Town forests can affect public sentiment, educating Vermonters from school children to elders, by example, and through exposure to the benefits of good forestry.

It’s in common experience that we see the forest for the trees. The uncommon experience comes when we begin to see the trees for the forest. That’s something I learned from a logger. But it’s something every Vermonter can also learn in a town forest.

To learn about creating or restoring a town forest where you live, contact the Stowe-based Northern Forest Alliance (http://www.northernforestalliance.org), or Vermont’s Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation (http://www.vtfpr.org), where you can also contact Ginger Anderson about an award-winning educational program called Project Learning Tree. Craftsbury-based Vermont Coverts (http://www.vtcoverts.org) has seminars and workshops to demonstrate how well planned forest management enhances wildlife habitat and provides timber benefits at the same time.