Land Link Vermont: Keeping Land in Farming by Connecting Farmers with Land, Farmers and More
June, 2004

Land Link Vermont is a farm linking program at the University of Vermont Center for Sustainable Agriculture. "It's not farmland without farmers." Land Link Vermont is addressing this American Farmland Trust slogan through it mission of keeping farmland open and productive.

Land Link Vermont connects farm seekers with farmland and farming opportunities, and provides information and support on farm start-ups and succession by offering a matching service, education, referrals, and outreach. The matching service provides the linkages among farm seekers and farmland owners. Interested parties share information on goals, acreage, location, enterprises, and tenure options considered. Participants are interested in a variety of tenure options including buy/sell, lease, joint farming and other arrangements. Farm seekers are interested in a number of different farming enterprises including dairy, vegetables, small ruminants and CSA's.

Through publications and on-going workshops, Land Link Vermont provides farmers, land owners and agriculture professionals with links to education on topics like estate and retirement planning, effective leases, farm financing, business planning, and direct marketing. Land Link Vermont also helps link farmers and landowners to professionals and Vermont agricultural organizations through consultation and referrals. Because no two farms and no two farm families are exactly alike, addressing individual needs is critical to success.

Through collaboration with existing agencies and programs, Land Link Vermont helps connect farmers to a wide variety of expertise on business management, legal issues, agricultural production, retirement and estate planning, and marketing. Cedar Hill Farm owner, VLT Board member and Land Link Vermont participant Sally Mole sums up the importance of Land Link Vermont's efforts in placing a farming couple on her farm. “Success," she said, "is having these guys on the farm…These young farmers are really making a big difference in strengthening agriculture here--it's neat to see."

For more information on Land Link Vermont, please contact program coordinator Debra Heleba at the UVM Center for Sustainable Agriculture, 63 Carrigan Drive, Burlington, Vermont 05405; phone: (802) 656-0233 or visit the Land Link Vermont web site at www.uvm.edu/landlinkvt.

These links provide other information about VLT's farmland conservation program:

• Statewide Farm Project Guidelines

• Local Farm Project Guidelines

• Operating Farm Easement: A Guide to the Legal Document (PDF)

• What do owners of conserved farms think of the program? Results of American Farmland Trust (AFT) survey

• Visit Vermont's conserved produce farms
• Complete list of VLT publications on the web
• Contact the VLT office in your area
• News of some recent farm conservation projects

The following links provide information for you, if you are interested in conserving land that is not a working farm:

• Managed Timberland and Forestland Conservation
• Lands Important  to Local Communities
• Family Lands

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