Much of Vermont’s capacity for recreation is contained within its town forestland, filling up more than 67,000 acres in 168 municipalities.

Beginning this fall, an initiative called the Vermont Town Forest Recreation Planning Community Assistance Program will aim to help 10 communities develop strong stewardship and usage plans for their town forests, utilizing a template organizers hope will eventually benefit every such area in the state.

Hartford, Bradford and Weathersfield are among the towns to receive up to $10,000 in technical planning assistance as part of the program, thanks to a grant funded by the United States Department of Agriculture. The USDA also provides general funding for the Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Program, which will administer the program along with SE Group, a Burlington-based landscape designer.

Outside the Upper Valley, the towns include the Northeast Kingdom community of Hardwick, Marshfield and Woodbury in north central Vermont, Middlebury and Wells in western Vermont and Richmond and Huntington in Chittenden County. Twenty-four towns applied for the program.

“(Choosing the candidates) was a hard process,” said VCF community forestry specialist Kate Forrer, a project leader along with SE Group associate planner Drew Pollack-Bruce. “We wanted the towns to be spread out geographically and also represent a wide range of issues and opportunities.”

Each town is forming a steering committee to gather community input and help put ideas into action. A kickoff event will gather representatives from each group later this fall.

Every town will receive a forest recreation toolkit, with five categorical steps — evaluating existing conditions, public engagement, natural resources inventory, plan development and implementation — from which to work.

“The forest recreation toolkit is comprehensive, and it’s something we’re excited about,” said Pollack-Bruce, whose specialties with SE Group include environmental analysis and transportation planning. “After this process is complete, it’s something we hope will be available for every town to utilize.”

Many towns were motivated to apply for the assistance in part to help enhance the role of their town forests as economic drivers. According to Forrer, a statewide outdoor and recreation plan found outdoor recreation as a whole to account for 12 percent of Vermont’s gross state product and $2.5 billion annually in retail sales and services, along with 35,000 jobs.

While much of that impact presumably stems from high-tourism locations such as ski resorts, municipal forests are increasingly drawing outside visitors. East Burke’s Kingdom Trails network and the Millstone trails in Barre Town are two examples of greater usage, with the latter receiving more than 7,150 estimated annual visitors from outside the local community.

“These areas can have a huge impact on the local economy, and community leaders are aware of that,” Forrer said. “The other side of that is that with increased usage comes increased pressures. There is more need for basic infrastructure like parking and outhouses, for example, and more things to pay attention to for the health and sustainability of the forest.”

Weathersfield is just getting started, entering the program in hopes of improving a 310-acre parcel that was donated to the town seven years ago. The area, which abuts the southeast edge of Mount Ascutney State Park, remains underutilized.

“There are some old roads and trails within it, but the area itself is fairly land-locked at the moment,” town manager Ed Morris said. “There is virtually no access to it from town, so we’d like to get a strategy going about what to do with it and how to use it.”

Ledge areas in the parcel could potentially afford a vista point, and wetlands might lend themselves to interpretive or educational areas.

“There’s abundant ecology through there,” said Morris, who also noted potential to connect the area with the Futures Trail on Mount Ascutney.

“There could certainly be some kind of educational aspect to it as well as multi-use recreation, but we need to figure out the best uses for it.”

The assistance comes at an opportune time for Hartford, which is home to 565 total acres of town forestland within Hartford Town Forest and neighboring Hurricane Forest Wildlife Refuge.

The town’s last recreation management plan was conducted 15 years ago, and its last forest management plan came eight years back.

“A lot has changed since 2002, especially an increase in mountain biking activity in Hartford Town Forest,” longtime Hartford planner Matt Osborn said. “We need to determine where bridge work or other infrastructure improvements should take place, but do it in a way that doesn’t impact the resource more than necessary.”

Hartford Conservation Commission chairman Jon Bouton is particularly fond of Hurricane Wildlife Refuge, a series of short trail loops close to U.S. Route 5 South.

“That’s a great recreation spot because it’s so easy to get to,” Bouton said. “People who work at the VA (Medical Center) go there during their lunch break.”

Bouton said a timber harvest within the forestland should be considered as a revenue source. At the same time, he hopes adhering to the protection of wildlife habitat will be emphasized.

“It’s a balancing act when you have a resource like this with so many benefits,” Bouton said. “You want to have a holistic approach.”

In Bradford, Conservation Commission chairman Nancy Jones hopes to continue promoting the town’s nearly 10 miles of trails across approximately 800 acres in the Wright’s Mountain area. She also would like to learn how to better maintain a strong volunteer base.

“If we do more public outreach and attract more visitors, that means more potential issues and the need for more volunteers,” Jones said.

Jones added the network has already earned a place in numerous hiking guides and that its reach already extends outside the immediate area.

“In one (recent) six-month period, we had people from 29 different Vermont communities, eight states and two countries,” she said. “I’d be interested in learning how to show the connection to the town economy, because you have to believe a lot of those visitors are dining in town, getting gas and snacks or stopping by places like Farmway.”

The Vermont Town Forest Recreation Planning Community Assistance Program kickoff event will likely take place in November, Pollack-Bruce said, though a location has yet to be determined.

Jared Pendak can be recahed at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.