2007 is an important year for the Willowell Foundation and the Willowell Land. In 2005, we successfully purchased our 230-acre land parcel in Monkton, Vermont, thanks to a generous bridge loan from the Chittenden Bank. Since then, we have dedicated our work at the Willowell Land to supporting initiatives for local and global sustainability and place-based education while working hard to protect the ecological integrity of the Land.

 

Since 2005, we have made the Willowell land available to hundreds of students, teachers and community members from three Addison County districts, as well as visitors from around the state and the country.  We have worked hard to preserve its rich farming heritage while ensuring ecological sustainability for future generations. Additionally, we have made great strides in restoring damaged habitats on the property and making it a place fit for ourselves and our wild neighbors to use and enjoy.

 

Land

Conservation

 

 

 

 

 

 

Land Preservation

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”--Henry David Thoreau, Walden

 

Yet the future of the Willowell Land remains in jeopardy. In August 2007, our complete payment for the Chittenden Bank’s bridge loan is due. At that time, we must pay the remainder of the $250,000 that we owe in order to prevent the Willowell Land from being subdivided, developed, or even seized entirely.

 

Here in Vermont, the importance of conserving land and providing our children with engaging educational experiences rooted in place is acutely felt. Though Vermont’s forested land is increasing, warm valley woodland habitat areas such as the Pond Brook Valley where the Willowell Land is located are becoming progressively smaller more fragmented, due to the desirability of these areas for farming and development. Additionally, children of the digital age have become increasingly alienated from the natural world around them—resulting in risks to their health and emotional well-being.

 

For many of the youth that we work with at the Willowell Foundation, their time at the Willowell Land represents the only full days they have spent outside in many years. Though this is hard to believe, we have received this feedback again and again from the many teachers and students that we work with. This represents a great opportunity for the Willowell Foundation to instill in children a love of the natural world and of the resources right in their home communities.

 

Addison County’s youth need the Willowell land conserved so that they may grow up visiting it and learning from it. Teachers, too, need the Willowell Land for use as a laboratory to test their place-based education philosophies out in real time. The land provides a home for the Walden Project, the Walden Community Garden, and many other programs that benefit the Addison County community and the national community. Without it, these programs could not continue.

Students from Ferrisburgh Central School enjoying a Forest Stewards trip to the Willowell Land. Photo <c> EKWB 2006

 

In addition to fundraising extensively to pay off the bridge loan in summer 2007, the Willowell Foundation is exploring many avenues for land conservation. We are working with the Natural Resources and Conservation Service (NRCS), the Nature Conservancy, Vermont Family Forests and the Vermont Land Trust to explore options for not only preserving the land in the short-term through our purchase of it, but through conservation easements that will preserve the land for the future regardless of who owns its deed. We are hopeful and excited about these conversations and look forward to keeping you posted on future developments!

 

 

The continuation of all of Willowell’s unique projects and programs depends on the conservation of the Willowell Land. Without your help, that goal will be impossible to reach. There are several ways to get involved. Ways to help include: