Association of Vermont Conservation Commissions

The Linking Lands Alliance (LLA) is a grassroots citizen group focused on conserving wildlife habitat and restoring forestland. The LLA is comprised of 10 towns located in the Upper Valley of Vermont (Hartland, Woodstock, Hartford, Vershire, Thetford, West Fairlee, Pomfret, Sharon, Strafford, and Norwich). In 2009, LLA contacted the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department in hopes of creating a map of natural resources in their area. This resulted in a very collaborative effort between the membe.. Read More

The Staying Connective Initiative is an international collaboration which aims to sustain, create, and promote habitat connectivity throughout northern New England (Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine), New York, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Maintaining a viable, unfragmented landscape for wildlife is one of the main focuses of this effort. In total, there are 21 partners working together at a variety of scales to achieve the greater goal of connectivity throughout the Norther.. Read More

The Forests, Wildlife, and Communities Project is a collaboration among the Mad River Valley Planning District, local and state conservation organizations, state and federal agencies, and representatives in the towns in the Mad River Valley. The Forests, Wildlife, and Communities Project is involved in various efforts throughout the Mad River Valley which seek to implement a regional and landscape level approach to wildlife and forestland conservation through public and community involvement. On.. Read More

The White River Partnership (WRP) is grassroots, non-profit organization formed in 1996 by a group of community members who wished to protect and improve the long-term health of the White River and its watershed. The WRP approach attempts to address natural resources issues while preserving the cultural and economic integrity of the White River watershed communities. The WRP has three primary focus areas: collecting data to monitor and assess watershed health; educating the public to spread a.. Read More

A Place in Between is a collaborative effort through the Staying Connected Initiative and the Wildlife Conservation Society. The goal was to create a platform from which all the environmentally-focused organizations within a particular geographic boundary (the region between the Green Mountains and Adirondacks) could visualize the work of all others, determine whether there was overlap of goals and strategies between groups, look for gaps in geography and focus, and begin a conversation abou.. Read More

A Place in Between: Landowner Resource Guide is a collaborative effort instigated by the Staying Connected Initiative to create a local directory of organizations that aid landowners in maintaining a healthy landscape in a specific region between the Adirondacks and Green Mountains. Those involved in this collaboration realized that it was difficult for landowners to navigate through the numerous organizations and options when thinking about doing land management, conservation, or learning n.. Read More

In 2015, Newark implemented a natural resource inventory in partnership with Beck Pond Limited. The goal of this inventory was to map and identify important natural resources found in the town, so that future recommendations could be made on high priority areas for conservation. In partnership with Dr. Fritz Gerhardt of Beck Pond LLC, an extensive study was performed which looked at relevant literature available in both state and federal databases. Maps depicting the distribution and concentr.. Read More

Williston is largely made up of agricultural-rural residence zones. When land is proposed to be subdivided in Williston, 75% of the land is set aside permanently as conserved space. In the past a parcel of land had to be at least 10.5 acres in order for current bylaw standards to be enforced. In 2014, the Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC) developed enhancements to the zoning bylaws which changed the size threshold and land type requirements. Additionally, maps were created to identify .. Read More

Prior to 2009, the town of Jericho had a zoning district that covered land within 100 feet of major floodplains and rivers. The town was in the process of updating its zoning bylaws and came to realize that it needed to do something more to protect smaller streams. Sedimentation was occurring not only in the larger streams, but the smaller streams as well, which suggested that in order to protect the larger Lake Champlain watershed, streams of all sizes needed to be placed under protection. T.. Read More

The conservation project began when Bill and Ursula Johnson, who owned and operated a large dairy farm for more than 30 years along the Connecticut River in Canaan and Lemington, contacted the Vermont Land Trust to discuss transitioning out of ownership. The Vermont Land Trust, recognizing the diversity on the farm, partnered with The Nature Conservancy to determine a plan for the conservation of the 849 acres and more than 6 miles of frontage along the Connecticut River. As the project evolv.. Read More