Vermont Land Trust tells Natural Resources & Energy panel it protects land, helps farmers and pursues climate resilience

On Jan. 22 at a Natural Resources & Energy meeting, Abby White, executive vice president of the Vermont Land Trust, and Peter Van Loan, the trust’s forest program director, gave an overview of the organization’s conservation tools, stewardship work and programs to help farmers access land.

The Vermont Land Trust (VLT) holds perpetual conservation easements on farms and forests, White said. "We help people protect land, care for that land, and also connect to the land," she said, and noted VLT has conserved roughly 647,000 acres — about 11% of Vermont — through easements and ownership.

The presentation emphasized three core functions: acquiring or holding protections for land, monitoring and stewardship to ensure easement terms are upheld, and programs that connect people to land and help new farmers gain access. Van Loan described an easement as a payment to a landowner "to promise to never develop their land in certain ways," adding that VLT commits to ensuring those promises are enforced in perpetuity.

VLT staff monitor conserved properties using a mix of remote tools and in-person visits, White said, with an intent to walk properties at least every other year. The trust reported relationships with more than 2,000…