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: committee members are considering H.386, a bill that would support farmland-transfer work statewide. Committee members said funding, outreach, and options to make large parcels more accessible to beginning farmers are central to the bill’s intent. The witnesses and committee discussed how to pair existing programs, conservation tools and housing strategies to expand opportunities for new farmers.

Committee members pressed Leonard on how the portal addresses questions of soil quality, land scale and owner engagement. Senator Bratton asked how deeply Vermont Land Link works to identify parcels with high-quality soils and to match future farmers with those lands. Leonard said the site links users to the Vermont Natural Resources Atlas so landowners and farm seekers can review soil maps and other land-quality indicators. "These tools exist on the website and we're here to teach how to utilize those tools," she said.

Representative Nelson asked about parcel sizes and affordability, noting large regional farms can be 50 to 300 acres and that many beginning farmers cannot buy such properties. Leonard said Vermont Land Link lists both sale and leasing opportunities, and the Intervale Center helps groups of beginning farmers explore cooperative purchase and shared-management models. She also described coordination with the Vermont Land Trust and other conservation partners on easements and alternative ownership arrangements to reduce purchase price and preserve agricultural use.

Several committee members—including Representative O'Brien—urged better outreach so that prospective farmers learn Vermont Land Link is available. Leonard said partner organizations across the Farm and Forest Viability Network already direct clients to the portal but that broader awareness remains a priority. She described early relaunch metrics: in roughly two months after the redesign the site saw about 88 new users, 5,000 site visits, 10 new land listings and roughly a dozen new farm-seeker profiles.

Committee discussion also turned to policy options included in H.386. Jake (committee staff) and others noted the bill includes a section directing the Agency of Agriculture and the commissioner of taxes — and that the committee might also ask the treasurer — to study tax incentives and other mechanisms to reduce transfer costs and accelerate farmland succession. A committee member said the bill intentionally left room for the agencies to design recommendations that fit Vermont’s current agricultural landscape.

Members discussed alternative approaches to make large conserved or privately held parcels workable for multiple, smaller-scale farms — for example, allowing smaller house sites or densification that could generate revenue to lower the remaining acreage’s cost for farmers. Representatives and witnesses flagged both opportunities and risks of shared-ownership arrangements: while subdividing or shared-ownership can create affordable parcels, members noted shared ownership models can be legally and operationally complex.

Leonard and committee members also discussed trust and participation: farmers sometimes hesitate to publicly post a sale or transfer because they fear being inundated with inquiries from people not ready to take on a farm. Leonard said the Intervale Center can vet inquiries, improve listing quality and require stronger application materials so landowners feel more confident posting opportunities.

The committee did not take a formal vote on H.386 during this session. Members agreed it would be useful to hear additional testimony from conservation partners, VHCB (Vermont Housing & Conservation Board), and other agencies to better understand parcel-scale barriers and potential policy options. Several members suggested scheduling follow-up testimony from VHCB, Vermont Land Trust and other groups.

Leonard closed by emphasizing that the committee’s bill could amplify work already under way: "I don't want to increase redundancies in work that is already out there. I just want to make sure that if there are gaps and opportunities to really round out some of that really critical work that is being done," she said.

Ending: The committee signaled interest in pursuing more targeted research and outreach tied to H.386, including asking agencies to report back on tax-incentive options and parcel-scale strategies. No formal committee action was recorded in the transcript during this session.