Vermont Land Trust Annual Report 2008-2009 Protecting the Land that Sustains Us Feature Stories | |  The Value of Vermont's Forests
In 1944, a young soldier named Ed Buttolph was in England awaiting orders to ship to Normandy... read more. | |  Dairy Farming Past and Present
When faced with the state of the dairy industry, Dick Longway reflects on his humble origins... read more. | |  Community Vision, Powerful Solutions
When the 20-acre Kingsbury Farm went on the market after 55 years of ownership by the Kingsbury family.... read more. | |  Conservation and Creativity
Poultry farming is in John Palmer’s blood. His grandmother ran a successful business raising layers and broilers ...read more. | | Contact us for a copy or download the PDFs below: | | This Year’s Work - 6.6MB  Stories - 665KB Donors - 1.3MB Financial Statements - 104KB Complete 2008-2009 Annual Report - 5.3MB | | 
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The impact of conservation can be seen in every Vermont community: the productive farms make the most of Vermont's fertile soil; the thriving farmers' markets that spur our local food movement; the famed agricultural products that are sold across the country; the farm-related businesses that rely on a critical mass of farms; and the thousands of acres of protected farm and forest land that support our dairy, maple, and timber industries.
The health of Vermont’s economy relies in part on many individual decisions. Landowners or communities make the decision to conserve their land in order to create a small business, support a family’s livelihood, invest in the next generation, protect natural habitat, or encourage recreational opportunity. The overall result of these myriad decisions is the strength of our working-land economy.
We can measure many of the direct economic impacts, such as the feed and farm stores that remain open, farmstand sales, and the jobs that conserved farms and forests provide. There are also results that are far more difficult to measure. These include our quality of life and the satisfaction that we receive from knowing that our family or community has taken its future into its own hands. This is the sort of optimism that cannot be measured, but it is almost palpable on most days in Vermont.
Dairy farms have struggled this year and the abundant rain has made growing crops harder. Still, acre by acre, individuals are making sure the places they value most will always be around. And family by family, Vermonters are applying ingenuity to make ends meet, providing food for those who can’t provide it for themselves, and forging our state’s future.
Without question, Vermont’s working landscape drives both our economy and our way of life. It turns out that what is good for Vermont’s economy is also good for us: it is our working landscape that sustains us and kindles our appreciation for what the world around us has to offer.
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