Union Brook Road, Northfield, VT 05663 - Washington County

Northfield Hills Forest is an affordable recreational forest, offering seclusion, an attractive forest, streams, and vernal pools as well as off-grid cabin and long-term timber management options, all within the appealing Central Vermont Region. The property is in the town of Northfield, where the landscape is dominated by forested mountains and narrow valleys. Northfield Village, 3 miles east of the property is centered around Norwich University, the nations oldest military college. The twin cities of Montpelier and Barre are within a 20-minute drive of the property. Boston and Montreal are within a 3-hour drive and New York City is a 5-hour drive

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Northfield Hills Forest lies to the west of Northfield Village in the foothills of the Northfield Range. The property rises from Union Brook Road with a generally southern aspect. The property can be described as a series of drainages separated by rounded ridges. The property is completely forested with hardwoods predominating. Rock outcrops are common and there are numerous vernal pools, some of which are quite large. The property provides a large and secluded spot for recreating and managing timber on a long-term basis. An off-grid cabin could be built, either on a ridge top site with potential, local views or in one of the valleys by a stream.

Historically, the property was likely cleared for pasture in the 1800s and later abandoned in the early 1900s. Allowed to regenerate on its own, most of the forest is 90-100 years old. The forest, last inventoried in June 2008, is a mixed species forest dominated by sugar maple, beech, red maple, yellow birch, hemlock and spruce. There are also small amounts of red oak, aspen, white ash and black cherry. Overall, the forest is currently adequately stocked. High-quality trees are found throughout the property, but unacceptable growing stock accounts for at least half of the total stocking.