Volunteers, land trust say VHCB funding key to protecting Windmill Ridge

Jennifer Garrett, project director at Vermont Land Trust, and Jennifer Latham, board chair of the Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association, told the Senate Committee on Institutions on Feb. 14 that state conservation grants administered by the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board have been central to protecting public forestland along the southern Vermont Windmill Ridge.

Garrett said the Vermont Land Trust has worked with landowners, nonprofits and government partners to conserve forest and farmland across the state and that VHCB grants are “an important source of funding” for those acquisitions and easements. She described a cluster of protected parcels on the Windmill Ridge in Windham County and said volunteers and small local nonprofits led most of the acquisitions.

The testimony laid out why supporters consider the Ridge important: it forms a connected forest corridor that ecologists rank as a high priority for conservation, it contains rare plants and wetlands, supports water-quality and climate resilience goals, and provides an extensive recreational trail network that local volunteers maintain.

Latham said the Windmill Hill Pinnacle Association began conserving land in the 1990s and credited VHCB funding with enlarging and sustaining that work. “We would not be 2,800 acres strong, without VHCB and Vermont Land Trust,” Latham said, describing a series of roughly 13 VHCB grants that together helped protect nearly 2,500 acres for the association and, she added, a recent 96-acre addition.

Garrett and Latham gave dollar and acreage specifics: the presenters said about 6,500 acres in the mapped area are publicly accessible forestland, roughly 5,000 acres were acquired or conserved by local nonprofits and state entities, and about 4,500 acres were conserved with VHCB assistance. They also said VHCB conservation grants to that network total about $3.4 million over roughly three decades and that the Pinnacle alone has received approximately $1.6 million in acquisition grant funds (not including feasibility or capacity grants).

Both presenters asked the committee to support VHCB funding at the governor’s recommended statutory level, $36,900,000, for the coming budget. Garrett framed the request as necessary to sustain volunteer conservation organizations’ ability to steward and provide public access in perpetuity.

The committee did not take any formal vote on VHCB funding at the hearing; the presentations were received as testimony during the committee’s legislative day.

The presentation and speakers emphasized local volunteer stewardship, the conservation easement role of Vermont Land Trust, and the dependence of small, community-based land trusts on state grant support to finish acquisitions and maintain public access.