Click for a list and map of conservation projects from our Winter 2002 newsletter!

Study Finds Farmland Conservation Program Helps Farmers Thrive:
Successful Program Protects Farmland, Benefits Communities

Montpelier, VT - November 10, 1999
Vermont’s farmland conservation program performs a valuable service for Vermont residents by protecting the state’s productive farmland while helping farmers stay in business, according to a study released by American Farmland Trust in conjunction with the Vermont Land Trust, the Vermont Housing  and Conservation Board and the Vermont Department of Agriculture.

The study found that 98% of landowners participating in the state’s farmland conservation program felt satisfied with the program, which compensates farmers for selling the development rights on their land. The sale permanently protects the land for farming. 

"Vermont’s farmland conservation program achieves its goal of protecting farmland by providing farmers with a tool to improve their business and by reducing costs for new farmers wishing to enter the business,” said Jerry Cosgrove, American Farmland Trust’s  Northeast field director. “The result is that farmers can pass their farms on to their children and reinvest in their communities.”

“By protecting the state’s agricultural resources, the farmland conservation program ensures that we use the right land for the right purposes,” said Gus Seelig, executive director of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, which administers the program. “The program is good for farm families, which in turn, benefits the state’s resource-based economy.”

The study found that the majority of program participants used funds from the sale of development rights to improve or expand their farms.  In addition to reducing debt and making capital improvements, the study found that one-fourth of program participants made specific operational changes that included establishing new conservation and farm management practices as well as branching out into new agricultural enterprises.

“Farmers are using the proceeds to improve their bottom line,” observed Leon Graves, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Agriculture, “And that is critical in today’s tight farm economy.”

“Too many of our farms, the essence of rural Vermont, are being lost irrevocably to careless or unplanned growth,” said Darby Bradley, president of the Vermont Land Trust.  “The Vermont farmland conservation program takes an important step by protecting our landscape and the heritage of communities that is essential to our state’s economy and well-being. ”

The study, which was conducted by Market Street Research between March and April of 1999, involved telephone interviews with 130 program participants and in-depth interviews with ten agricultural service providers such as bank officers and equipment and seed dealers.  MSR is an independent marketing research firm based in Northampton, Massachusetts.

The study is available by contacting the Vermont Land Trust at 802-223-5234 or the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board at 802-828-3250. Click here to view an executive summary of the study.

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American Farmland Trust is a private, nonprofit farmland conservation organization founded in 1980 to stop the loss of productive farmland and to promote farming practices that lead to a healthy environment. Its action-oriented programs include public education, technical assistance in policy development and demonstration farmland protection projects. To receive an electronic version of this news release, please e-mail AFT at rmiller@farmland.org. For more information, visit AFT’s homepage at http://www.farmland.org/.

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Champion Lands Have New Owners
On December 9, 1998, The Conservation Fund (The Fund), a national conservation organization based in Arlington, VA, announced it had signed a contract with Champion International to purchase 294,000 acres of land in New York (144,000 acres), Vermont (132,000 acres) and New Hampshire (18,000 acres). The Fund purchased the New York lands in late June, 1999, and the New Hampshire lands in mid-July. Acquisition of the Vermont lands, and the reconveyance of the property to federal, State and private buyers, was largely completed in late July and early August. A final conveyance of 5,600 acres to the State of Vermont took place in March, 2000.  Click here for more.

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Darby Bradley and VLT Receive EPA’s Environmental Merit Award
On the heels of being named "Vermonter of the Year" by The Burlington Free Press editorial board in January, VLT President Darby Bradley received the Environmental Merit Award on April 22 at a ceremony in Boston. Given by the Environmental Protection Agency, the award was established in 1970 to recognize scientists, teachers and others committed to preserving and nurturing the natural surrounding. Governor Howard Dean nominated Darby and VLT for the award, and at his weekly press conference on April 15 officially announced the honor saying, "The Vermont Land Trust has really been the lynchpin of the whole conservation movement. The Land Trust has been involved in practically every major conservation effort we’ve made, certainly in the eight years that I have been governor, and well before that."

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Acreage Update
As of April 2, 2002, Vermont Land Trust had been responsible for protecting 388,300 acres.

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Hands on the Land - A History of the Vermont Landscape
VLT highly recommends a new book written by Vermont author and historian Jan Albers, and published for The Orton Family Foundation by the MIT Press.

In this superbly illustrated book, Jan Albers examines the history -- natural, environmental, social, and ultimately human -- of one of America's most cherished landscapes: Vermont. Albers tells the stories and examines the personalities behind the development of a succession of Vermont landscapes. She observes the growth of communities; follows the development of agriculture, forestry and industry; demonstrates the influence of technology; and traces the growth of environmental consciousness that has made Vermont stand out as a national ideal of unspoiled rural community.

Hands on the Land is available at local Vermont bookstores for $35. It can also be ordered from The Orton Family Foundation web site at http://www.orton.org/.

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VLT's Bradley and VHCB's Libby Contribute to New Book on Property and Values
Vermont leads the nation in developing innovative approaches to land conservation and perpetually- affordable housing. Three well-known Vermonters, Darby Bradley, VLT president; James M. Libby, Jr., general counsel for VHCB; and John Davis, co-founder and principal of Burlington Associates, share their expertise in Property and Values: Alternatives to Public and Private Ownership, published by Island Press in April 2000.

The Libby/Bradley chapter, "Vermont Housing and Conservation Board: A Conspiracy of Good Will Among Land Trusts and Housing Trusts," tells an exciting saga of a unique coalition of Vermonters, and distills the lessons and future for Vermont and elsewhere.

Special Offer from Equity Trust: Property and Values: Alternatives to Public and Private Ownership, can be ordered from Equity Trust for $28 (a 20% discount), plus $3.50 for shipping and handling ($1.50 for each additional copy). Send a check to Equity Trust, Inc., 539 Beach Pond Road, Voluntown, CT 06384. Tel: (860) 376-6174.

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