VLT conservation easements in Greensboro
Since 2004, in every year but one, the Greensboro Conservation Commission (GCC) has obtained a $2,000 appropriation from Town Meeting for the Greensboro Conservation Fund. Beginning in 2008, the GCC has recommended to the Selectboard allocations from this fund to support projects of the Vermont Land Trust comprising conservation easements (CEs) on agricultural or forest lands in Greensboro. For these projects the Selectboard has approved allocations ranging from $2,000 to $12,000. The latter allocation was approved for three CEs of the VLT on agricultural properties in Greensboro, involving some 420 acres of land. The Selectboard has also approved a $500 allocation, recommended by the GCC, for an inventory of natural resources in our region being conducted by the Northern Rivers Land Trust.
Greensboro
Agricultural Land, Forest Land, Funding, Land Management, Land Protection, partnerships, Walks and Talks, water, wildlife
Our projects have assisted the Vermont Land Trust in conserving a total of 750+ acres comprising five agricultural and forest properties in Greensboro.
Greensboro Selectboard
Greensboro Land Trust
Vermont Land Trust
Critical to success was persuading Town Meeting to appropriate $2,000 annually to the Greensboro Conservation Fund, and persuading the Greensboro Selectboard to allocate money from this fund to support CEs of the Vermont Land Trust. The most important contribution was made by Jon Ramsay, a Greensboro livestock farmer and VLT employee, whose presentation to the Selectboard on behalf of the VLT's three CEs in 2015 was decisive.
Some members of Town Meeting and the Selectboard opposed granting tax dollars to conservation easements.
