rewards of stewardship - beaver brook farm

Do you ever wonder what it is like to live on a property carefully designed to fit into nature and surrounded by a beautiful, sustainably managed forest? The owners of Beaver Brook Farm in Marshfield, Vermont describe the joy they have found in stewarding their property.

Walking out of our own back door into nature – after living in cities and suburbs for so long, we had forgotten how much we enjoyed the outdoors with its ever-changing landscape, the solitude, and wildlife all around us.

Longing to explore every part of our own backyard through the different seasons; the desire to find our own “special places” on the land and connect them together through walks that we would do so many times. These were some of the reasons we started developing a trail network.

Realizing we lived in a truly special natural place and sharing it with others and seeing their joy after they came back from a hike or a ski, led us to really open up the property in the winter, enhance the trail network even more, and start grooming the trails for cross country skiing.

Enjoying the wildlife all around us and then realizing we could improve their environment, even encourage animal species to return and flourish through our actions.

Learning from Rich Carbonetti, our LandVest consulting forester, that we could improve the forest by doing forestry operations, and he got us starting to think about these positive shifts over the long term. It was a huge first step to see that the right type of forestry could truly improve the forest.

Utilizing the natural resources on the property in a self-sustaining manner to minimize our impact on the environment and to develop a much farther-reaching positive impact. The firewood on the ground heats our home and creates our hot water. The high fields provide the perfect spot for our solar array to provide our electric needs. The forest has yielded enough saw logs to build 100 homes, enough pulp wood to create 2,000 tons of paper, and enough wood chips to heat a large school through 10 Vermont winters. And yet today, the forest is stronger and more diverse than ever even after these carefully planned forest operations.

We have been so fortunate to be stewards of this amazing piece of land. To enjoy it every day, to share it with others, and to set it on a positive direction into the future. We never knew that owning a piece of forestland could nourish us so much.

For more information on Beaver Brook Farm, click here. For all of Vermont’s listings click here, or visit our Burlington office page or contact Wade Weathers or Averill Cook.