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Vermont Farmers Buy Important Addison County Farm

Vermont Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy ensure land stays in agriculture

Orwell, Vermont—30 March 2003—cMagloire and Betty Audet sought to conserve the farm in 1994 with the help of the Addison County Community Trust and three other non-profits that together hold and oversee the easements.

In September 2001 the Vermont Land Trust, for the first time in its 25-year history, exercised its right-of-first-refusal, and with The Nature Conservancy of Vermont (TNC), purchased the conserved Audet Farm in Orwell. This unprecedented action was initiated when a non-farm buyer made an offer on the agricultural property, which by then had been on the market for more than 6 years.

On March 11, VLT and TNC sold 230 acres of the farm to a local dairy farming family. The other co-holders of the easement (Addison County Community Trust, Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, and the Vermont Department of Agriculture, Food and Markets) supported the sale.

TNC and VLT were equal partners in the purchase. The two organizations joined forces to purchase the property in order to keep valuable agricultural soils in active production, to support owner-operated farms, to explore ways to insure farm affordability, to update the conservation easement and to establish a riparian buffer strip along East Creek.

Three full-price offers were received from working farmers. Mark and Sarah Russell of Sudbury purchased 230 acres of the Audet farm on March 11. TNC retained 43 acres along the east bank of East Creek, which is now part of the East Creek Natural Area. The sale met the goals of both organizations.

"The Vermont Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy of Vermont took a big financial risk in September 2001 when we chose to purchase the Audet farm," said Alex Wylie, agricultural director for the Vermont Land Trust (VLT), "but one that was entirely counter-balanced by the potential gains to Addison County farming and the East Creek."

The Russells have been farming in Orwell and Sudbury for 17 years. They started out on the Russell family farm in 1985, and two years later moved their own herd to a leased barn. The Russells have been certified organic for five years. They use pasture-based techniques, and sell organic milk from their 50-cow herd.

They are active members of the Northeast Organic Farming Association and founding members of the Vermont Grass Farmers Association. They plan to transition the farmland to organic certification over the next two years and expand their herd to approximately 80 cows when they move onto the farm.

The Nature Conservancy’s 43 acres along the east boundary of the farm will become part of the East Creek Natural Area. This brings the size of TNC’s preserve to 549 acres owned in fee and 1,185.5 privately owned acres with conservation easements held by the Conservancy.

The natural area contains many important natural communities, including one of the state’s largest narrow-leaf cattail stands, several examples of floodplain forests, two rare species of fish and a number of rare birds and plants. Its deep emergent marshes total 380 acres and extend more than seven miles along the lower reaches of the creek. TNC plans to plant native trees and shrubs on the new 43-acre parcel in order to restore the floodplain forest along the creek.

"We are very pleased with the outcome of this complex project and to see this landmark farm remain in productive use, while transitioning to organic methods," said Joan Allen, TNC associate director of land protection. "This is an economically important farm district and in addition to making this important addition to the East Creek Natural Area, we wanted to demonstrate that economically viable agriculture is very compatible with ecologically sound agriculture. We were thrilled to get an organic farmer on the site."

"For one of the first times we were also able to create a legal structure that could help ensure that successive owners of conserved farms can stay in farming," Wylie said. This option to purchase gives the Vermont Land Trust, and other co-holders of the easement, the right to purchase a conserved land its agricultural value when it is being offered to non-farmer buyers. VLT can then offer it to farmers at an affordable farming price.

Conservation transactions are usually much simpler than those that took place over the past year and a half leading to the sale of the Audet property to the Russells, Wylie said. She envisions an increasingly complex future for farm owners and land conservation in general.

"The complexity of projects increases precisely where the land is most desirable for the most people and the most uses," Wylie said.

The Audet farm, for example, has arguably one of the most spectacular settings on Lake Champlain, is host to important natural communities, boasts some of the best agricultural soils in the state and is a significant farm in the local agricultural community.

"The question is often, ‘whose need gets met?’ Wylie said. "We increasingly decline to answer that singularly and work instead to understand the potential benefits for all the stakeholders in a project."