Willowell_Land_Use

Introduction: An Invitation for Exploration

Imagine yourself walking south down a dirt road lined on either side by stately trees, pausing now and then to pick a berry, or examine one of the hundreds of herbs and flowers lining the path. It is mid-fall, and the road is carpeted with red and yellow leaves from aspens, red maples and oak. Today is Open House day at the Willowell Land, and you have come to see the unique educational preserve that you have heard so much about.

Suddenly you are in an orchard: above you arch plums, cherries, apples, mulberries, and many other fruit trees. A group of fifth and sixth graders works with the owner of a local apple orchard to prune some of the older trees and splice new grafts into others. Some students are harvesting kale and broccoli from the vast, undulating vegetable gardens surrounding the building and loading them into a van that will make a delivery to the local food shelf, while others pick the last of the tomatoes and carry them inside for the afternoon’s canning class. A group of seventh graders can be seen at the edge of the native plant woodland, writing in their journals as part of a unit on Henry David Thoreau. The sounds of voices, birdsong, and rustling leaves fill the air…

You have stumbled into a vision held by a small group of people in Addison County, Vermont. The location of this vision is the Willowell Land, a 230-acre property located in Monkton, VT. At present, the educational preserve described above does not exist: the Willowell Land is currently an undeveloped mixture of forest and farmland with only one permanent structure, a renovated barn. Over the next 5-10 years, however, the Willowell Foundation hopes to transform the Willowell Land into a fully-developed educational preserve. The Willowell Land is now home to Willowell’s many programs including the Walden Project alternative high school and the Center for Arts Environment and Sustainability, a hub of sustainable education initiatives for the region.

In order to begin articulating their vision, the Willowell Foundation enlisted the help of then Hampshire College senior Emily Watson-Blagden. Watson-Blagden, who graduated from Hampshire College in May of 2006 and served with the Willowell Foundation as an AmeriCorps VISTA member from September 2006 to September 2007, was then an Ecological Design major with a focus in Permaculture. Watson-Blagden spent her senior year at Hampshire creating an in-depth ecological landscape design for the Willowell Land. The design includes detailed site analysis and assessment, design directives to shape future land use, detailed plant species matrices, and much more. It takes the form of intricate maps and written material.

We are pleased to announce that we now have the results of this design process available in PDF form and hard copy! If you would like to view these results, and learn more about future plans for the Willowell Land, please Click Here.