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CABOT – Most of Cabot, Vermont’s residents have watched, at least once, the sunset from high atop Cabot Plains. If you have not, you will have many chances in the future, thanks to Cabot resident Dick Spaulding. Just a few days before Christmas, Spaulding conserved his spectacular Cabot Plains farm by donating a conservation easement on 88 acres to the Vermont Land Trust. “I have helped landowners throughout Central Vermont conserve their land, but Cabot Plains Farm is surely one of the most beautiful properties I’ve seen” gushed Mark McEathron, Central Vermont Regional Director for the Vermont Land Trust. “This is still private property, but with the tremendous amount of road frontage and incredible views across the property, everyone benefits by the Spauldings’s generous donation of a conservation easement.” The Spaulding family’s connection to the land dates back to 1866, when Dick’s great grandfather Alonzo M. Foster purchased Maple Glen Farm just down the road. Other relatives settled the area, which included the Walbridge family. In 1973 Dick purchased thirty acres from a relative, and then over the next three decades expanded his ownership through a series of small purchases, assembling what is now called Cabot Plains Farm, formerly the Stone and Foster/Walbridge Farms. Dick’s deep sense of family and local history, together with a healthy dose of caprice, encouraged him to add two structures to the farm, both of which are well known. The first occurred in 1973, when he purchased the decaying Walbridge Schoolhouse from the town of Walden, rehabilitated it, and in 1974 moved it from the Walden Heights Road to the farm. He placed it near the junction of Cabot Plains Road and the Bayley Hazen Highway, at the site of the first schoolhouse in Cabot. In the early 1980s a love of covered bridges was merged with a need to harvest some spruce trees. This led to the idea of building a replica of the Martin Bridge, a private farm bridge located in Marshfield. One hundred and twenty years after A.M. Foster’s land purchase, his descendents constructed this Queenpost Truss bridge over a ravine on the farm, and named it after him. It is now a favorite subject of photographers, with the sovereign Green Mountains in the background. “We are grateful that the Vermont Land Trust can provide us the assurances we were seeking,” commented Dick Spaulding. “Now we know that the land will remain undeveloped and open, and the magnificent views of the Green and White Mountains are protected for the enjoyment of future generations.” With the conservation of the Spaulding land, there are ten landowners in Cabot who have worked with the Vermont Land Trust to conserved over 1,900 acres. The Vermont Land Trust helped the Spauldings conserve their land through the use of a conservation easement. An easement helps landowners and groups voluntarily limit development on productive farmland and forestland, and other meaningful natural and community places. Landowners continue to own, manage, and pay taxes on the land, and can sell their land; however, the conservation easement permanently remains on the property. The Vermont Land Trust is a nonprofit organization that works with individuals, organizations, and communities to conserve land for the future of Vermont. Since 1977, VLT has helped conserve more than 1,300 parcels of land covering over 455,000 acres, or about 8% of the private, undeveloped land in the state. The conserved land includes more than 600 working farms, hundreds of thousands of acres of productive forestland, and numerous parcels of community lands. This conservation work changes the lives of families, invigorates farms, launches new businesses, maintains scenic vistas, encourages recreational opportunity, and fosters a renewed sense of community. For more information, call 802/223-5234 or visit VLT on the web at www.vlt.org.
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