Current News

Vermont Business Magazine Today, US Senators Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) joined US Representatives Nick Langworthy (R-NY-23) and Joe Courtney (D-Conn.-02) in leading their colleagues in the bicameral, bipartisan introduction of the Making Agricultural Products Locally Essential (MAPLE) Act, legislation that supports the maple industry by providing a new market for maple syrup producers while increasing seniors’ access to nutritious, locally sourced maple syrup products. The MAPLE Act would add maple syrup to the eligible products under the Seniors Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP), which gives low-income seniors access to locally grown fruits, vegetables, honey, and herbs at farmers’ markets, roadside stands, and community-supported agriculture programs.  

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Council on Rural Development (VCRD) is seeking applicants for the fifth Climate Catalysts Leadership Program. Over the past four years, Climate Catalysts have worked to implement projects such as building a county-wide Farmer Climate Network; establishing community-wide weatherization efforts; facilitating the development of community solar projects; starting a town energy and climate committee; and more. The Climate Catalysts Leadership Program participants arrive with, or develop, transformative, community-scale climate economy related projects and work toward developing their concepts into reality while building peer connections, strengthening leadership skills, and receiving project development support. 

Vermont Business Magazine Here’s another great example of generous Vermont Electric Co-op members contributing to the success of young people in our region. The VEC Community Fund – supported by VEC members who voluntarily contribute by rounding up their electric bill or donating their member capital – recently awarded $1,000 to go toward prizes for North Country Supervisory Union students competing in a regional science and engineering fair. Aaron Miller, the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) coordinator for NCSU said the donation will add to the excitement of the North Country Science and Engineering Fair and contest, where students from grades 5-8 compete for prizes with science and engineering related projects.

Vermont Business Magazine The Northern Forest Canoe Trail (NFCT), based in Waitsfield, has announced its stewardship programming for the 2024 season, which will be supported by a growing professional staff and provide opportunities for as many as 50 volunteers to help steward the waterways along the trail. The NFCT is a nonprofit organization that stewards a 740-mile water trail that weaves through New York, Vermont, Quebec, New Hampshire and Maine. Projects this year span from the Saranac Lakes in the Adirondacks to Maine’s Allagash Wilderness Waterway. With an ambitious slate of work scheduled, the NFCT has hired an assistant trail director and an Allagash crew leader to support its work. 

Vermont Business Magazine The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a list of projects, including the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge Complex Aquatic Connectivity and Forest Restoration project in Vermont, to support climate resiliency and ecosystem restoration in a landscape called the northern forest. This area encompasses 12 states, including nearly 450,000 forested acres of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service administered land in the Midwest and Northeast regions. Through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, this $1.3 million investment in Essex County is part of a $25 million allocation through the Inflation Reduction Act — the largest climate investment in history. 

Vermont Business Magazine Despite warnings that gasoline prices are certain to climb and soon, average gasoline prices in Vermont are $3.25 per gallon, unchanged from last week. They are 2 cents/g higher than a month ago and 20 cents/g lower than this time last year. The lowest price in the state is $3.05/g in Middlebury, Rutland and West Dover, while the highest is $3.44/g in Burlington and Lyndonville. The national average price of gasoline has risen 1 cent per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.42/g today.

Vermont Business Magazine Vermont Fish and Wildlife is asking drivers to slow down and be cautious when travelling at night in early spring or to take alternate routes to avoid driving roads near wetlands and ponds that salamanders and frogs cross during their breeding season. Every year, typically in early spring, many of Vermont’s amphibians leave their overwintering sites and migrate to the wetlands and ponds where they will breed and lay eggs.  The timing of this annual event, termed Big Night(s), coincides with melting snowpack, thawing soils, relatively warm evening temperatures, and rainfall.  Due to this year’s mild winter, these conditions are expected to align and trigger spring amphibian migration, earlier than usual.

Vermont Business Magazine If you are an avid Lake Champlain angler or someone who would like to learn more about the vast array of fish species that live in Lake Champlain, be sure to reserve March 23 to attend a meeting with fisheries biologists in Essex, New York. The Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative -- a working group of fisheries professionals from the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service -- will host a ‘State of the Lake Fisheries’ meeting at Whallonsburg Grange, 1610 NY-22, Essex, New York from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 23.

Vermont Business Magazine Hiking Vermont’s hillsides is a great way to enjoy a spring day, but the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department and Audubon Vermont recommend people check to see if the area they are planning to hike or climb is open.  In addition to trail closures to reduce impacts during mud season, several cliff areas are also closed to protect nesting peregrine falcons. Over the next couple months, biologists and community scientists will be identifying cliffs occupied by peregrines this year.  Sites listed will remain closed until August 1 or until Fish and Wildlife determines the risk to nesting falcons has passed. 

Vermont Business Magazine Taiga Motors Corporation (TSX: TAIG), a global leader in the electrification of powersports based in Montreal, has announced that it is now a supplier of electric snowmobiles for Alterra Mountain Company. Alterra is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and transitioning its snowmobiles to electric to achieve carbon neutrality across its North American mountain destinations. Alterra owns Stratton and Sugarbush resorts in Vermont.

Vermont Business Magazine Farmers who had been denied federal loans won only 17 percent of appeals in the USDA’s National Appeals Division, according to new analysis by the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law and Graduate School, with partners Farm Aid and the Rural Advancement Foundation International. The report, “Appealing for Relief: An Analysis of Appealed Direct Farm Loan Decisions 2009-2022 and Opportunities for Reform,” analyzes National Appeals Division cases concerning direct farm ownership and farm operating loans between January 2009 and July 2022; spanning 14 years, three Farm Bills and three presidents. 

Vermont Business Magazine US Senators Peter Welch (D-Vermont) and Angus King (I-Maine) have introduced the Advancing Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs) Act, legislation to boost investments in grid-enhancing technologies (GETs), a type of transmission technology that expands capacity of existing transmission infrastructure. Companion legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives by Reps. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.-14), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.-20), and Scott Peters (D-Calif.-50). The bill comes a week after Welch and King and Castor and Tonko sent a letter to U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) leadership urging the Commission to implement shared savings incentive that promote the deployment of grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) to expand transmission capacity and meet rapid growth in electricity demand.