Vermont Business Magazine At its June meeting, the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board awarded $4,597,550 to conserve nearly 3,260 acres of farmland, recreational land and town forests in 20 towns and to provide for home ownership and housing accessibility around the state. VHCB commitments of state funds will leverage an additional $7.8 million in town funds, local fundraising, bargain sales, donations, mortgage financing and federal dollars. Fourteen of the farm projects include special water quality protections and three projects use federal funding from the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, focused on protecting and improving water quality in the Lake Champlain Basin.
Left: open land in Westford to be transfered to a dairy farm as part of a project to conserve a town forest (Vermont Land Trust photo);
center: Georgia Town Forest land conserved by the Vermont Land Trust, with VLT Biologist Liz Thompson, John Moseley (landowner), County forester Nancy Patch and Ken Minck with the Georgia Conservation Commission. (VLT photo);
right: Gale Meadow Pond in Wiinhall where 192 acres will be added to the Wildlife Management Area there (Pieter van Loon/VLT photo).
Gus Seelig, VHCB Executive Director, said, “These VHCB investments will bolster Vermont’s agricultural economy, protect permanent public access to water and forestland, improve water quality and flood resilience, subsidize home ownership opportunities and provide for accessibility improvements in private homes for people living with physical disabilities.”
Commitments of $2,060,000 in VHCB funding and $2,884,000 in federal funding from the Natural Resources Conservation Service will be used to conserve 2,259 acres on 15 farms in the towns of Westford, Shelburne, Cambridge, Fairfield, Monkton, Barre Town, East Montpelier, Charlotte, Randolph, Tunbridge, Troy, Shaftsbury, Essex Junction, Swanton and Georgia. Grants to famers selling development rights through the Vermont Land Trust will assist with nine farm transfers to new owners and provide capital for reinvestment, diversification, debt reduction or retirement. The conserved farms will include dairy, hay, beef and vegetable operations. Additionally, VHCB provided funding to facilitate the transfer of a previously conserved farm in Granville to new farmers.
Providing public access to recreation, protecting town forests and wildlife habitat, VHCB committed $690,000 to conserve 1,000 acres as follows:
- Bean Pond, Sutton – with a $40,000 VHCB grant, the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation will add 30 acres and 3,600 feet of pond frontage near the headwaters of Crystal Lake to Willoughby State Forest;
- Rikert Swimming Access, Sharon – The Vermont River Conservancy will use $55,000 in VHCB funding to purchase and conserve 10 acres, creating boating, swimming and fishing access with frontage on the White River and the Broad Brook, including a primitive campsite for paddlers;
- Brattleboro - With $18,750 in VHCB funding, the Vermont River Conservancy will undertake a floodplain restoration project on 12 acres along the Whetstone Brook in a neighborhood near the downtown, providing trails and public access to the river;
- In Sharon, The Nature Conservancy will use $119,500 to purchase 450 acres with diverse natural communities and rare species that includes two miles of frontage on the White River and links a Wildlife Management Area with other conserved land;
- A $175,000 grant will assist the Vermont Land Trust and the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife to purchase 192 acres for addition to the Wildlife Management Area at Gale Meadows Pond in Winhall;
The towns of Georgia and Westford worked with the Vermont Land Trust to conserve town forests. In Georgia, $132,500 in VHCB funding will protect 177 acres near Silver Lake, which is used as a back-up water supply for the town of St. Albans. On the edge of the village of Westford, 130 acres will be conserved, providing access to trails from the village and the local school, securing future wastewater treatment capacity for the village. Open land will be conserved and sold to a local dairy farmer.
Housing commitments included a $445,000 VHCB grant to enable the Vermont Center for Independent Living to make accessibility modifications to homes and apartments around the state. The HOMELAND Program, which assists moderate-income households to become home owners, will use $600,000 in VHCB funding to make purchase subsidy grants to 14 homebuyers. A grant of $157,500 will help Habitat for Humanity and Vocational Education Programs to purchase land and make site improvements for the construction of seven single-family homes.
Source: www.vhcb.org 6.29.2016