Intervale Center official outlines Vermont Land Link relaunch, urges funding and outreach in H.386 discussion

Nikki Leonard, a statewide farm business specialist at the Intervale Center, told the House Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry Committee that Vermont Land Link — a free online portal connecting landowners and farm seekers — was relaunched in February after a recent redesign funded in part by a Working Lands Enterprise Initiative grant.

Leonard said the Intervale Center manages Vermont Land Link and provides direct land-access and farm-transfer services through the site. "I am Nikki Leonard. I am a statewide farm business specialist at the Intervale Center," she told the committee. "We work with about 120 Vermont farmers a year to kinda help them meet their business goals." She added that the Intervale team is "small but mighty," with four staff who support farm business planning, land-access, and financial advising.

The relaunch followed about 15 years of the site existing as a basic listing service. Leonard said the Intervale Center brought Vermont Land Link into its operations to add educational resources and wraparound services. "Because of special thanks to the state of Vermont's Working Lands Enterprise Initiative, we were awarded close to $24,000 in grant funding to be able to do a redesign and kind of overhaul of the website," she said. The updated site added a mapping tool, improved communication channels, more visually informative listings and, for the first time, explicit listings for grazing and forest opportunities.

Why it matters:…