Vermont Land Trust - Montpelier Office

Stories, Summary of This Year’s Work, 30 Years of Conservation, Financial Statements (pp. 1-27) 2.6MB

Conservation Projects Completed this Year by Region (pp. 28-37) - 881K

Donors (pp.38-56) 400K

We extend to you our heart-felt appreciation as we celebrate the Vermont Land Trust’s 30th anniversary. This occasion is both a time to honor what we have accomplished with you and a time to reflect on the ways in which the deep roots we have established together provide an anchor for the conservation challenges that lie ahead. We are very proud of our measurable accomplishments: with your help, we have now protected nearly eight percent of Vermont, completed 1,417 projects, conserved 470,150 acres, and protected more than 600 farms. But the following pages also describe success through the less tangible narratives of individuals, families, land-based enterprises, and communities that reflect our shared culture, illustrate our rich and abiding relationships with our place, and help support a rational optimism about the future of Vermont and its people.

We at VLT are privileged to work in a context where working forests and farms, lakes and streams, green mountains and town greens, wetlands and natural communities lie at the very core of how we define Vermont as a community, as a culture, and as an economy. Vermonters do not treat land with recklessness, as a commodity, without regard for its heritage, or in disregard of land’s fundamental role in sustaining life. We are ever curious about creative ways in which land can be protected while also serving the needs of a changing society. This curiosity requires VLT to face the organizational challenges of existing in an increasingly complex world and to work hard to answer some difficult questions: How can we help to sustain Vermont’s local agriculture and forestry, and foster farm and forest enterprises in a global economy? How can we help keep farmland affordable for the next generation? How can we protect Vermont’s natural resources and allow for necessary smart growth? Might we find ways to assure that all Vermonters, regardless of economic means, share in the benefits of land conservation and land access?

Your commitment to VLT’s work gives us the confidence to begin the hard work of examining these questions. Our first 30 years have been enriched by hundreds of relationships with people who have made a personal commitment to be trusted, proficient, and innovative stewards of this land legacy. Those years have also been especially fruitful because of the hard work, collaborative philosophy, and diverse contributions of the network of philanthropists, foundations, local and state governmental leaders, and fellow conservation organizations that have made Vermont the nation’s environmental leader. We will thrive in the days ahead if you continue to provide VLT with your candid advice as we begin our second 30 years of service to Vermont communities.