Vermont Woman endorsements are the results of staff consensus. Endorsements for the November 2016 election are published in this issue, as it is the only publication prior to the election.

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There's a fancy holster on the market today. It comes in all shapes, colors, and sizes and was designed for women. It's made by Designer Concealed Carry, a company founded by Kate Woolstenhulme, and is one of several companies that make high-end handbags that double up as gun holsters.

Women don't immediately come to mind when talking about guns, but they are the fastest-growing segment to participate in shooting sports, the National Shooting Sports Foundation says. According to the foundation's surveys, most women decide to carry for protection. Respondents also mentioned hunting and shooting with family and friends.

Despite this growing trend, statistics indicate that the number of women who hunt or carry a firearm for protection is still small. According to a recent study by Harvard Injury Control Research Center and Marie Claire magazine (February 2016), 12 percent of women own a gun, 57 percent of whom said protection against strangers was their main reason for owning a firearm.

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Wendy Butler hunts with a custom-made flintlock made from bird's-eye maple her grandfather collected. It's the type of gun that "would have been used back in the 17th and 18th centuries," says Butler. Butler, who coordinates the Japanese and Korean language programs at Middlebury College, teaches hunter education at Middlebury College and is a chief instructor for the state of Vermont, participates in primitive biathlons, a competition involving snowshoeing on wintry trails to reach targets at which you shoot with archaic pistols and muzzle loaders.

The muzzle-loading flintlock requires Butler to build each bullet, "one element at a time." It's "something you would see Davy Crockett using. No magnifying scope, no crosshairs," Butler says. The handmade bullet, the effortful challenge it presents, and the emphasis on the experience over the outcome reflect the new hunting paradigm women are building.

Women "bring a completely different face into hunting," Butler says, who asserts that she wears "dresses all summer long" and doesn't identify with the stereotype of the "camo'd up man."

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Lumbering under the weight of an overstuffed backpack, I guessed at how many pounds I was carrying. I was walking my first miles of the Long Trail, having just said good-bye to my mother where she dropped me off in North Adams, Massachusetts. The plan was to hike 270 miles to the Canadian border through the mountains of Vermont. But more immediately, the plan was to make it to Stratton Mountain, where my partner and I would mail home 11 pounds of gear that seemed so important last night as we packed for our trip but that now seemed unessential on our backs.

As I did my mental math, thunder rolled in the distance. In the pit of my stomach, I felt fear. This would be our first summer storm on the trail, and we would have to hunker down out here in the woods or keep traveling through it. It started to sprinkle, and I considered taking out my rain gear but decided to wait until the sky really opened up, which it quickly did, and all of a sudden with no warning, I was soaked, and so was my pack. First lesson: Put on your rain gear at the first sign of rain.

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When Vermont Woman editor Kate Mueller suggested a column on the health of Vermont's forests. I had no idea how much ground I would cover. Many hours and interviews later, I have a new appreciation for the work our environmental stewards do every day and a deeper understanding of the complexities facing all of us to protect Vermont's revered forests.

This column presents the current state of Vermont's forests, how they have changed, and the impact of climate change and development. Next issue we cover what we need to do to keep our precious forests and wildlife habitat healthy and thriving.

Forest History

First, a quick look at our past. Two hundred and fifty years ago, 90 percent of our state was covered in a vast old-growth forest that disappeared as European deforestation began in the Champlain Valley, opening land for farming, raising sheep, exporting the giant softwoods that made up Vermont's virgin forests, and trapping for furs. Logging became Vermont's largest industry. The 1840 census recorded over 1,000 sawmills in operation.

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