Vermont Land Trust outlines easement stewardship, farm transfers and funding needs

Tracy Shao, president and CEO of Vermont Land Trust, told the Center of Agriculture on Jan. 24 that the organization has conserved large amounts of land in Vermont and is increasingly acting as an interim owner to help new farmers acquire farms.

"We've been, working since 1977," Shao said, and the trust now holds conservation easements on a large portfolio of properties. She said the land trust has conserved roughly 11 percent of the state and holds easements on hundreds of thousands of acres while stewarding 2,300 individual parcels.

The nut graf: Shao emphasized that the trust's conservation work is intended to keep land available for productive use, and that the trust’s ability to move land from outgoing to incoming farmers depends on a steady mix of state, federal and philanthropic funding. Without regular easement funding, the pipeline of farm transfers stretches years.

Shao described three main…