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Abstract: In recent years, an increased number of mature paper birch (Betula papyrifera Marsh.) and heart-leafed paper birch (B. papyrifera var. cordifolia (Regel) Fern.) in northeastern United States forests have exhibited decline symptoms including foliar loss, reduced fine branching, and tree mortality. We assessed crown health, radial growth, and available soil cations in 2006 as a preliminary assessment of factors that may be influencing paper birch decline. Tree rings began to decrease in width in 1998—the year of a severe region-wide ice storm. All trees (regardless of their current decline status) experienced reduced growth starting in 1998 and tree growth continued to decrease for two years following the ice storm. After this generalized growth decrease, trees that now have vigorous crowns showed a marked increase in growth, whereas trees that now have low crown vigor did not rebound in growth, but instead exhibited a significantly higher incidence of locally absent annual rings. Extractable soil-aluminum (Al), a phytotoxic element mobilized by acid deposition, was significantly higher in soils associated with declining trees compared to those adjacent to vigorous trees. Higher soil calcium (Ca) availability was associated with both vigorous crowns and increased radial growth following the 1998 ice storm. Furthermore, increased soil Ca availability was negatively correlated to the percentage of declining trees, and positively related to increased radial growth, whereas elevation was not significantly associated with either parameter. Although previously overlooked as a factor influencing paper birch recovery from injury, we found that available soil Ca was linked to crown vigor and rebounds in growth following an inciting event. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In increasingly cross-cultural global settings, the performance and promotion of healthy food, "good" food (comida saludable) have become conflated with a narrowing range of iconic vegetable and "superfood" trends that often reflect the health and dietary preferences of an affluent and/or aspirational consumer culture. These colonizing cultivars, and the haute cuisine trends they embody, often displace indigenous food knowledge, techniques, and products already compromised by the penetration of processed foods. Through experiential pedagogical examples from Guatemala and Vermont, this paper explores the ways in which participatory, indigenous food and seed sovereignty curricula can help decolonize these newest kinds of hegemonic impositions and reaffirm traditional food systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The forest sector can play a significant role in climate change mitigation. We evaluated forest sector carbon trends and potential mitigation scenarios in Vermont using a systems‐based modeling framework that accounts for net emissions from all forest sector components. These components comprise (1) the forest ecosystem, including land‐use change, (2) harvested wood products (HWP), and (3) substitution effects associated with using renewable wood‐based products and fuels in place of more emission‐intensive materials and fossil fuel‐based energy. We assessed baseline carbon trends from 1995 through 2050 using a business as usual (BAU) scenario. Emission reductions associated with different forest management and HWP scenarios were evaluated relative to the BAU scenario from 2020 to 2050. We estimated uncertainty for each forest sector component and used a Monte Carlo approach to estimate the distribution of cumulative total mitigation for each scenario relative to baseline. Our analysis indicates that the strength of the forest sector carbon sink in Vermont has been declining and will continue to decline over coming decades under the BAU scenario. However, several scenarios evaluated here could be effective in reducing emissions and enhancing carbon uptake. Shifting HWP to longer‐lived commodities resulted in a 14% reduction in net cumulative emissions by 2050, the largest reduction of all scenarios. A scenario that combined extending harvest rotations, utilizing additional harvest residues for bioenergy, and increasing forest productivity resulted in a 12% reduction in net cumulative emissions. Shifting commodities from pulp and paper to bioenergy showed a 7.3% reduction in emissions. In contrast, shortening rotations to increase harvests for bioenergy use resulted in a 5.5% increase in emissions. In summary, model simulations suggest that net emissions could be reduced by up to 14% relative to BAU, depending on the management and HWP‐use scenario. Combining multiple scenarios could further enhance reductions. However, realizing the full climate mitigation potential of these forests may be challenging due to socioeconomic barriers to implementation, as well as alternative management objectives that must be considered along with carbon sequestration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reexamines Douglass C. North's claim that the Farmers' Populist Movement in the late nineteenth century was not because of rural distress. North used wholesale prices for farm and other products, in addition to farmland prices, to conclude that farm products' terms of trade were improving. By constructing a rural consumer price index using Thurston M. Adams' detailed study on Vermont farmers, we find that wholesale farm prices declined more than the consumer prices, with no correlation between the increase in farmland prices and farmers' income. The findings reinforce the economic hardship thesis as an explanation of the farmers' protest movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives -- To examine the prevalence and strength of patron confidentiality policies and practices at academic and public libraries in Vermont; to examine variances in policies by type and size of library and by qualifications of library directors; and to examine the level of support among Vermont library directors for strengthening state law to clarify that personally identifiable information about library patrons is confidential and should only be released with a court order. Design -- Survey (non-randomized) of 213 library directors. Setting -- Academic and public libraries in Vermont (USA). Subjects -- The initial audience was defined to be the directors of the 213 academic and public libraries in Vermont (as the persons to whom the survey was directed). Ultimately, results from 149 returned surveys were used as a basis for analysis. In addition, a written report of the information gathered was provided to the governing bodies of the Vermont Department of Libraries and the Vermont Library Association. The author also anticipates that the results of the survey will be of general interest to academic and public librarians. Methods -- A literature review of previous research on library policies and practices regarding patron confidentiality was completed. As well, the author examined the various state and federal laws and library association codes of ethics which address issues of the confidentiality of library patron data. A paper questionnaire was mailed on January 11, 2006, to directors of 188 municipal and incorporated public libraries (including 11 combined public and school libraries) and 25 college and university libraries, for a total of 213 libraries targeted. Cover letters explaining the purpose of the study and assuring respondents of the confidentiality of their responses were included in the mailing. The contact information came from a list supplied by the Vermont Department of Libraries. The questionnaire had previously been tested by five librarians from the aforementioned list, and slight changes had been made to clarify questions and instructions. Survey respondents were given an initial deadline of February 1, 2006, but responses were received and included through March 13, 2006. Various tactics were used to boost response rates, including electronic discussion list announcements, usage of pre-addressed stamped return envelopes, usage of personalized address information and a personal signature by the researcher on the cover letter, reminder postcards, and a coupon for free ice cream. One hundred and fifty-one questionnaires were returned. Two questionnaires were returned incomplete, and were removed from both the target population and the responses, leaving a total of 149 out of 211 possible responses and a response rate of 71%. For this response rate, all calculations were determined to have a margin of error of 4.4% with 95% confidence. The survey was constructed to address five research questions, as detailed below: 1) How many requests for personally identifiable patron information have libraries received in the past year, and from whom did those inquiries come? 2) How many libraries have a written confidentiality policy, and what are the characteristics of libraries and library directors that have policies? 3) How current are those policies? 4) How many policies prohibit release of patron information without a court order or other binding legal document (e.g., subpoena or search warrant)? How many policies call for attorney review of any such court orders or other binding legal documents? 5) Do librarians support the idea of strengthening the state law relating to confidentiality of library records? The questions were closed-ended in order to allow responses to be coded and easily analyzed, although space was provided for respondents to offer additional comments. Though a deadline of February 1, 2006 was set, responses were received as late as March 13, 2006.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Vermont's Act 250, a set of conditions that nearly every development must meet before starting operations in Vermont. The act is meant to promote development that is compatible with the environmental quality and with the quality of life in Vermont. With visual and environmental sociology in mind, the author and his friend Douglas Harper were able to take interest in the compatibility of development with Vermont's Act 250, and convert it into a study of perceptions of development in Vermont. When completed, the study was to be a comparison and analysis of how Vermont environmentalists and developers perceived development in Vermont, as shown through his photographs. The ten photos in the final paper showed the new mall development in Berlin, the new condominiums in Montpelier, and the new and old ski resort developments in Bolton. For Vermont people development may mean more than just a changing lifestyle. There are many reasons to recommend the photo elicitation method as a feasible one for students as well as professionals.

Responds to papers that deals with the relationships between writing and therapy, writing and spirituality and therapy and spirituality. Incorporation of meditation into a writing course at the Breadloaf School of English, Middlebury College; Conclusion that spirituality is about getting better in the sense of healing, in becoming a finer person and in becoming more competent at some activity.

Unregulated land development, dramatic increases in population, soaring land prices, and environmental degradation are significant factors responsible for the widespread concern among Vermonters that the state is losing its distinctive rural character and its small, picturesque villages. The citizen legislature responded by adopting Act 250, Vermont's principal land development and land use law. This paper describes the events leading to the passage of this law, examines the major components of this progressive legislation, and analyzes its effectiveness in protecting Vermont's natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]