Vermont conservation districts ask lawmakers for $948,200 to sustain locally led farm assistance and leverage federal grants
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Summary
Michelle Monroe and county conservation district managers told the Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry panel that $948,200 in state support would sustain operations that historically help districts leverage roughly $9 in federal or project funding per state dollar; they described projects from veterans incubator farms to chestnut agroforestry and an EPA PFOA proposal.
Michelle Monroe, executive director of the Vermont Association of Conservation Districts, asked the committee to include $948,200 in legislative funding for the state’s 14 conservation districts, asking the panel to fold prior one‑time funds into the base and to provide a modest increase to cover rising costs such as health care for staff.
Monroe said districts provided technical assistance to 452 farms in fiscal 2025 and ran 222 outreach events; she said base state funding historically leverages about $9 in additional public and private funds for conservation projects. "For every dollar that we've historically ... that has allowed us to draw down an additional $9 in funding," she said, and urged the committee to put the increase in its budget memo.
County managers and board members gave concrete examples. Sarah (executive director, Orleans County Conservation District) said legislative funds supported irrigation‑design engineers, local fund pools and tree‑planting programs; Joanna Lindback, a Westmore dairy farmer, said the district helped her secure and coordinate multiple funding sources and develop nutrient management planning.
Michael Fernandez (Bennington County Conservation District) described a local fund pool that in one year spent roughly $45,000 on payroll and helped preauthorize about $615,000 in federal project funding, producing what he called an approximately 9:1 technical‑assistance to project‑funding ratio. Fernandez also described a veterans incubator farm developed with local partners and a congressionally directed allocation; he said legislative flexibility allowed districts to prepare larger federal grant proposals, including a $2.2 million EPA PFOA remediation application that was not awarded but required substantial local work.
Speakers also described larger market and infrastructure projects supported by district coordination: Fernandez said a regional chestnut processing facility won a $3.5 million AMS grant and will have capacity to process roughly 3.5 million pounds of chestnuts per year once complete.
Committee members asked for more detail on how federal funds flow to farmers and how districts use state dollars; Monroe and Fernandez offered to provide written follow‑up and noted that federal funding patterns vary by district and program. No budget appropriation was adopted during the hearing; Monroe asked the committee to include the increase in its budget recommendations.
The districts said their work also serves nonfarm landowners (erosion control, septic assessments) and local water quality goals, and they highlighted shared equipment programs, marketing assistance for conservation practices and locally led climate adaptation cohorts for farmers.
Monroe asked the committee to consider the request as an investment that helps districts secure larger federal and private dollars for local projects.