Ultimate Means

Vermont’s Natural Assets

Much of Vermont’s economy depends on the state’s natural assets, including healthy agricultural soils, forests, scenic landscapes, clean water, and wild spaces. These natural assets provide resources and recreation opportunities, and they are also key to Vermonters’ cultural identity and heritage.

Every year, the amount of land protected from development by land trusts, conservation easements, and tax incentives is growing. Even so, Vermont’s natural assets are not secure: 90% of our prime agricultural soils remain at risk of being lost to other uses.¹

Vermont landowners’ ethics: in a survey, half of family forest landowners in Vermont were willing to take on forest management expenses in order to reduce soil loss, provide habitat for wildlife, and allow access to recreation.²

Putneypics via Flickr

Affordable ownership: land prices in Vermont are rising quickly, making ownership out of reach for many prospective farmers and forest landowners.

To address this issue, the Vermont Land Trust created the Farmland Access Program, which guarantees that farmland is conserved and continues to be owned and worked by farmers.

VLT also teamed up with Vermont Family Forests to create the 115-acre Little Hogback Community Forest. The forest is protected by a conservation easement and managed sustainably for timber harvests. Community members own shares of the forest as part of a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), allowing them to benefit from timber sales and recreation without owning a physical parcel.

[one_third]

Farmland lost to development between 1997 and 2007: ³

6%

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[one_third]

Vermont land that will likely remain undeveloped as a result of tax incentives: ⁴

38%

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[one_third_last]

Vermonters who value the state’s working lands: ⁵

97%

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