Stewarding Your Land for Joy, Sustainability and Profit

land stewardship IMG_20180602_224226_228cEver wondered what you could do with your land to encourage wildlife, healthier trees, climate resilience and financial return?

LandVest can help.

land stewardship

From huge tracts of timberland to your own backyard, LandVest’s team can offer advice to help you enjoy your land even more, whether it is a few acres or a few thousand.

LandVest’s Story Jenks, Dia Jenks, and Ruth Kennedy Sudduth gathered a group of landowners at the Connors’ beautiful Birch Tree Farm in South Woodstock, Vermont on a recent summer day..

Director of Timberland Management and Consulting, Rich Carbonetti, gave an overview of how his team helps landowners to steward their land:

  • Improving forest quality to increase investment value and generate sustainable cash flow
  • Improving wildlife habitat
  • Creating recreational amenities – particularly, carefully locating roads used for timber operations to create well-considered trails and woods roads for future enjoyment of the land
  • Managing invasives

land stewardship. Photo_Jun_02_18 11-54-37 PM-4cCarbo told the story of his stewardship of his own land as a personal case study. His own land is certified sustainably managed, protected by a conservation easement, and a Tree Farm.

He used the classic Vermont woodland setting of Birch Tree Farm’s woodland as a teaching lab.

Carbo also shared a reading list with the group (*see below) of resources to learn more about stewardship.

LandVest Woodlands Tour from LandVest on Vimeo.

Some of the tips?

  • Local diversity promotes biodiversity: a range of species and sizes of vegetation help promote wildlife habitat.
  • Healthy trees help with climate resilience.
  • Invasive exotics happen – but they can be dealt with. In the case of Japanese knotweed, cut it down, dispose of the cuttings safely (because they can promote new growth) and cover what’s left with black plastic.

land stewardship. Photo_Jun_03_18 12-04-15 AM-2The group gathered for drinks and a bite to eat in the party room in the Connors’ barn loft – the sun eased down slowly over the mountains. A fine way to end a summer day.

For more information on how LandVest can help you make informed decisions, contact us.

If you’d like to join a landowner gathering in another location, we’d love to hear from you as well!

land stewardship. VT0627-1Click for more information on Birch Tree Farm, which is offered for sale, for more great properties in the Woodstock area or other great Vermont real estate for sale.


*Carbo’s reading list:

Beattie, Mollie. Levine Lynn. Thompson, Charles. Working with Your Woodland: A Landowner’s Guide. University Press of New England, 1993

Landowners’ Guide Wildlife Habitat Management for Lands in Vermont. Vermont Fish & Wildlife, 2015.

Long, Steve. More Than A Woodlot: Getting the Most from your Family Forest. Northern Woodlands, 2012.

McEvoy, Thom J. Planning Family Forests, Forestry Press. 2013

Minckler, Leon S. Woodland Ecology: Environmental Forestry for the Small Owner. Syracuse University Press, 1980

Rutkow, Eric. American Canopy, Scribner. 2012