from the Vermont Land Trust 2008-2009 Annual Report

The Value of Vermont's Forests

In 1944, a young soldier named Ed Buttolph was in England awaiting orders to ship to Normandy. He had already been awarded the Silver Star for his service in North Africa and he considered himself lucky to have survived. His good fortune continued when he met a Royal Air Force radar operator named Barbara. After the war, Ed married her and they moved to Vermont, where he had grown up on a farm.

Soon after returning home, Ed began buying large parcels of timberland. “Back at that time, cut-over timberland was considered almost a liability to own,” Ed recalls. “I walked the land and could see there was enough good stuff to make it worth more than the price.” Eventually, the Buttolphs would own forestland in 10 different towns. “From the landowner’s standpoint, timber is a good investment,” Ed explains. “First of all, it grows. Then, there are tax incentives and capital gains. It’s also a long-term, non-perishable good, so you don’t have to cut it at a certain time, like hay.”

“It helped put our kids through college,” adds Barbara.

Last year, with the help of VLT, the Buttolphs conserved more than 2,700 acres of their land in Moretown, Bakersfield, Waterville, and Bolton.

By conserving this huge tract of forested land, the Buttolphs have ensured that hunters, hikers and snow-mobilers, will have access to exceptional recreational opportunities within 20 miles of Vermont’s largest city.

Having just celebrated his 91st birthday and his 64th wedding anniversary with Barbara, Ed remains active in the management of their forests. Most of the timber is Acer saccharum, a tight-grained hardwood that sells on the worldwide market for furniture and flooring. Of course, Vermonters have other reasons to value this species, commonly known as the sugar maple.


The World’s Finest: Vermont Maple Syrup

Bob and Bonnie Baird run a booming maple sugaring business at their farm in Chittenden. Last season, they produced 2,800 gallons of syrup from 5,000 taps. “That’s a pretty good yield, thanks to efficiency,” Bob explains. “We don’t work as hard at it today as we did 20 years ago, when we only made 400 gallons.”

The Bairds conserved their land in 1997 after deciding to ramp up their maple business. They purchased a vacuum pump, a reverse osmosis machine, and a Vermont-made device called a Steam-Away that captures heat from the sap boiler. These led to greater syrup yield and lower fuel consumption. “We used to burn over four gallons of oil to make a gallon of syrup,” says Bob. “Now it’s half a gallon so we’ve saved a lot of money.”

Bob says that these sorts of improvements have become industry standards as producers try to meet the growing demand for Vermont maple syrup. “One thing we’re doing that’s a bit unusual is making maple a retail business,” he says. “We’re on a dead-end road but we sell about a thousand gallons a year from our home.”

Thanks to exposure from road signs, a website, and word of mouth, the Baird Farm sees visitors from all over the world. Bob and Bonnie get calls from people in Boston and New York who want to know if the sap is boiling, so they can drive up for the day. The locals come too. “We know everybody now,” says Bonnie. “We’ve become a community asset.”

Conservation also factors into their long-term view of the land’s economic potential. “At the scale we’re doing it, maple isn’t a hobby, it’s a business,” Bob explains. “The land can’t be developed, so if someone were buying this property, they’d probably be interested in sugaring.”

“We need young people in Vermont, and they need to make a living,” says Bonnie. “Ours is another small business that can stay in the state and encourage young people to do the same.”

Vermont’s sugar maple legacy is rooted in good business sense and a desire to keep forests intact— values shared by the Bairds and Buttolphs.

 

Dairy Farming Past and Present

Longway Farm, Conserved 1995

When faced with the state of the dairy industry, Dick Longway reflects on his humble origins. His father and grandfather spent their lives working on farms they didn’t own. “I started from nothing,” he says about buying the home farm in 1979. “I had $300 in my checking account and was milking 45 cows.” It’s a memory that keeps Dick smiling through the tough times. “At least I know I’ll get out better than I got in.”

Dick and his sons, Travis and Adam, now milk about 400 cows and are raising 300 heifers and calves. And they are showing no signs of giving up. The growth of Dick’s dairy operation can be traced back to the conservation of their land in 1995. “Business-wise, conservation was a great decision,” says Dick. The Longways were able to invest the proceeds from selling the development rights to their farm into buying a neighboring farm, which had also been conserved through VLT.

For the Longways, conservation has also meant protecting water quality. They’ve put in fences to keep cows out of sensitive areas and have set aside 25 feet of protective buffer along streams. “My grandkids are going to be down in those brooks playing and catching frogs,” says Dick, who serves on the board of the Franklin and Grand Isle Farmer’s Watershed Alliance.


The Graf Farm, Conserved 1990

For Jeremy Russo, his grandfather’s act to conserve the family farm almost 20 years ago is exactly what made farming possible today. Jeremy grew up just down the road from the Mettowee Valley land his family had farmed since the turn of the 19th century. Jeremy spent a lot of time on the farm as a kid—it’s where he and his brothers would go to get out of their parents’ hair.

None of Jeremy’s grandfather’s three daughters wanted to take over the farm, so he was forced to sell his cows in 1986. The land was conserved with VLT in 1990. “My grandfather told me, ‘I could have sold it for development and retired in Florida’,” Jeremy remembers. “I was a teenager and I knew what was happening but I didn’t really understand it. Looking back now, I see conservation kept it in the family.”

Jeremy went to college and ended up working for Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords in Washington. In 2000, when his grandfather passed away, Jeremy returned to Vermont. “It was sort of a now or never moment,” says Jeremy. “I knew at some point I’d like to have my own herd. By the following September I had cows.”

Jeremy now has over 100 milking cows and close to 100 young cattle. After initially renting from his grandmother, Jeremy and his wife ended up purchasing the farm in 2007. “The fact that it’s conserved meant we could actually come to the table,” remarks Jeremy, noting real estate prices near Manchester. “If it weren’t conserved, the value would have been so high that we wouldn’t have even been in the room.”


Moulton Farm, Conserved 2009

Blair Moulton has also observed increasing real estate prices around his farm in the Northeast Kingdom. Blair and his brother Jay are the third generation to farm along Echo Lake. Over the past 30 years, they’ve watched their quiet farming community transform into a tourist destination.

As owners of the last lakefront farm, you might think the Moultons would consider cashing in on the desirable property under their cows’ hooves. “Subdivision was never an issue,” says Blair. “Development was never an option for us. We wanted to keep the land open.”

Last December, the Moultons conserved their 168-acre dairy farm with VLT. Blair recognizes that every farmer is in a slightly different situation, but for him, Jay, and their mother, Geraldine, conservation just made sense. “We sold the development rights and paid off our debt,” explains Blair. “And that’s what allowed us to keep operating.” At a time when farmers are digging into savings to keep afloat, the Moultons were able to purchase 104 acres that they had been renting from an uncle for haying and pasturing their 150 cows.

The Moultons’ neighbors in the Echo and Seymour Lakes community didn’t want to see Echo Lake Farm developed either. The community rallied together to raise over $92,000 for the conservation effort, a gift that helped protect this piece of Vermont’s working landscape for future generations.

For the Moultons, Longways, and Russos, conservation was an important tool to stay in business and transition from one generation to the next. Despite the ups and downs of the dairy industry, conservation is one piece of the financial puzzle that will help keep Vermont’s dairy farms alive.

Community Vision, Powerful Solutions

A community takes its future into its own hands

When the 20-acre Kingsbury Farm went on the market in 2006 after 55 years of ownership by the Kingsbury family, many people in Waitsfield and Warren agreed that it would be a tremendous shame to see this scenic riverside farm disappear. The initial sale price was so high that no one thought anything could be done to save the farm. But then, after a year on the market, the price dropped and VLT and a handful of community members saw an opportunity to act.

Robin McDermott, co-founder of the Mad River Valley Localvore Project, was one of the people who joined the initial committee meeting. “That first meeting showed how committed people in town were to seeing the farm stay in agriculture,” says Robin. “There was a strong desire to not only secure the land and find someone who would keep it in productive agricultural use, but also to find an owner who would support the river’s ecological protection, scenic preservation, and connect the community to the farm.”

In response, VLT—with a contribution from the Town of Warren, and the guidance of a local committee representing such groups as the Mad River Valley Planning District, the Friends of the Mad River, and the Localvores—purchased the farm with the goal of conserving it and finding an agricultural operation that would grow food and contribute the local-food movement in the Valley.

“The Warren selectboard set up our conservation fund years ago and it is used as a catalyst in projects like this where there is the opportunity to do more than the Town can do on its own,” says Mac Rood, who was the Warren selectboard chair at the time and the voice for Warren on the local committee. “A quick decision was called for; all five selectboard members were in almost immediate agreement that this was a good use of the money.”

After the Town of Warren committed their support, the next step was to find a new owner of what became known as the Kingsbury Community Farm.

The Kingsbury committee began the search for a new owner by turning the community’s dreams into guidelines for the future use of the property. A request was put out to the public for proposals from prospective farm buyers. Out of many excellent proposals, the Vermont Foodbank was selected. They intend to make substantial farm improvements and grow food for food shelves in the Valley and neighboring communities. Their plans for the farm also include a river protection zone and a public trail along the river that will become a new section of the Mad River Path.

“The Foodbank already had on its radar to diversify our food sourcing operation when we saw the request for proposals for this farm,” says Dave Thurlow, Vermont Foodbank Kingsbury Farm Project Director. “Our plan is to work directly with the local food shelves and make sure the right foods are grown on the farm.”

After a fundraising campaign with more than 300 donations from Mad River Valley families and businesses, and with generous support from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and the Forrest & Frances Lattner Foundation, the farm was conserved and sold to the Foodbank.

This past summer the Foodbank began preparing the land, tilling cover crops, and renovating one of the farm buildings. They plan to work with an experienced farmer who will help manage the land and grow food.

“We are now stewards of the land for the future,” says Dave Thurlow. “So we’re looking at land through the filter that VLT does: the long-term filter. This helps to give us the confidence that the land will produce nutritious food well into the future.”

Nancy Pignatello, the director of the Mad River Valley Food Shelf said that she is not surprised about the result of the Kingsbury Farm and the Vermont Foodbank partnership: “It truly is a community farm that we all have a sense of ownership for and responsibility for what happens there.”

“When I drive past the farm I get a tear in my eye,” says Robin. “What occurred here was beyond anything that we could have expected. This community really cares about meeting the needs of the most vulnerable. Now there is another chunk of land that we won’t have to worry about. It will always be there.”


Conservation and Creativity

Fowl Pursuits

Poultry farming is in John Palmer’s blood. His grandmother ran a successful business raising layers, broilers, and breeding stock, and he grew up on the family poultry farm in New Haven. In 1982, while working at IBM, he got back into the business with 20 turkeys. Twenty-seven years later, John and his wife, Carmen, sell over 20,000 turkeys and 200,000 chickens a year under one of Vermont’s most recognizable brands—Misty Knoll Farms.

The secrets to their success: hard work, good business planning, and a healthy dose of creative marketing.

In the early days, John would go from store to store offering to help fill Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey orders. They also bought a food stand to tour agricultural fairs around Vermont and raise awareness of their business through turkey burgers and roasted turkey breast sandwiches.

Expanding into chickens helped break up the seasonal nature of turkey demand and allowed Misty Knoll to employ a year-round workforce. “We didn’t start out selling 4,000 chickens a week,” John notes. “We started with 100 in a summer and went from there.”

Earlier this year, VLT helped them purchase and conserve more than 240 acres north of the farm. This conservation project fits well with both the Palmers’ expanding business and their ethic of environmental responsibility.

“Our primary motivation was to protect the land,” says John. Compost from the poultry operation will be spread on this new land, allowing them to grow barley free of pesticides and fertilizers. The barley grains will be mixed with feed while the straw will be used for bedding.

And John’s neighbors couldn’t be happier. “They are well taken care of at Thanksgiving and Christmas time,” John adds.

Beyond Cheesemaking

The relationship between agriculture and banking intrigues Mateo Kehler of Jasper Hill Farm. “The banking and cheese industries of Italy and Switzerland grew up together,” he explains. “Cheese was a means of storing wealth as it increases in value over time.”

Mateo and his brother Andy have married traditional European cheesemaking with modern technology and design to build a one-of-a-kind cheese-aging cellar in Greensboro. This sophisticated cheese cave is where their signature “Constant Bliss” product is carefully aged, with 15,000 pieces in inventory at any time. In total, the cave can hold over two million pounds of cheese, which would be the output of roughly 40 dairy farms the size of Jasper Hill.

The Kehlers are currently working with 13 Vermont cheesemakers, all dairy farms that are turning milk into cheese rather than shipping it off as a commodity. They then send their green cheese over to Jasper Hill Farm for aging. “We help them capture the processors’ margin at the farm gate,” says Mateo. “And we centralize marketing, sales, and logistics to capitalize on economies of scale.”

“Cheesemaking is an economic vehicle to support dairy farms,” says Mateo. “As milk pricing becomes more volatile and markets more globalized, we see a real need to empower producers to control their price. You do that by adding value and shortening the chain between the farm and the fork.”

Last year the Kehlers added 37 acres to their farm and conserved the land through VLT. They are also working with VLT and Vermont Technical College to pair up young farmers and cheesemakers. And Mateo continues to think creatively about business opportunities. “We’re looking at using whey, a waste product from making cheese, as feed for pigs. Historically the cheese and pork industries were intertwined as well.”

“We’re not just cheesemakers,” remarks Mateo. “We’re in the business of farm viability.”
 

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