Vermont Housing and Conservation Board details farmland conservation, farmworker housing and business support

Gus Selig, director of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, told the Agriculture, Food Resiliency & Forestry committee that VHCB uses conservation easements, development-rights purchases and business assistance to keep land in farming, expand farm access and support rural economies.

The presentation summarized VHCB’s portfolio and programs and why the board sees them as central to both conservation and rural housing: protecting farmland and natural resources, facilitating farm transfers, improving farmworker housing and providing hands-on business planning and grant assistance to working lands and forest businesses.

‘‘By statute, there needs to be a farmer on the board,’’ Selig said, describing VHCB as a ‘‘quasi-public corporation’’ that pairs state investment with private, municipal and federal funding. He said the agency’s state investment has been ‘‘a little over a half a $1,000,000,000’’ and that total leveraged public and private investment exceeds $2,400,000,000.

Stacy Sabula, VHCB’s agricultural director, said VHCB has protected 822 farms across roughly 176,000 acres — about 18% of Vermont’s farmland acreage — and that 64 projects (about 12,000 acres) are in an 18-month pipeline that would cost about $30,000,000. She also described the National Resources Conservation Service’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) as providing roughly a 50% match on many development-rights purchases.

Liz Leeson, director of VHCB’s Farm and Forest Viability Program, described that program’s business-planning work for farms and forest businesses: about 100–150 businesses receive some level of assistance each year; roughly 75% receive multi-year, in-depth advising. Leeson said clients commonly improve bookkeeping, cash-flow planning and human-resources capacity, and that recent program participants averaged a 36% increase in profitability in follow-up years.

VHCB staff highlighted co‑benefits of conserved farmland: 33% of conserved acreage is forested, 10% is wetland and much of the rest is pasture or crop land. Since 2019, staff said projects have protected roughly 80 miles of streams (with 50-foot buffers applied in many easements) and about 1,400 acres of wetlands. VHCB also reported that 71% of cultivated acres statewide were no‑till or reduced‑till as of the 2020 Ag Census.

Selig and Sabula flagged housing and federal funding as ongoing challenges. Selig described a prior housing revenue bond and said VHCB does not itself have general bonding authority; Sabula and Selig said a $30,000,000 ARPA allocation for a farmworker-housing program is no longer available and that continuing that work will require budget decisions and federal engagement. Committee members asked about federal funding prospects under a new administration; staff said the picture is uncertain and urged continued work with the congressional delegation.

Committee Chair David Durfee and several representatives asked clarifying questions during and after the presentation; VHCB staff said they are available to provide constituent referrals and individual project help.

VHCB provided multiple farm examples during the presentation — from small vegetable operations using viability assistance to larger dairy operations that used development rights to lower capital costs — to illustrate how easements and business support combine to keep farms operating and protect water and habitat values.