News

At 5:30PM on Tuesday (June 30th), the Norwich Land Management Council will be hosting a picnic in honor of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps at Huntley Meadow and we’d love for you to come!

Since 2001, the VYCC has had a consistent presence in Norwich, working tirelessly to rehab various sections of the Bill Ballard Trail. The trail is at the center of Norwich’s extensive web of recreation trails, including connections to the Appalachian Trail, Connecticut River, Silvio Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, Montshire Museum of Science, and the local elementary school. This year, the VYCC will be constructing a hemlock bridge across a small tributary of the Charles Brown Brook which will allow improved access for all ages and abilities.

If you are interested in attending this picnic and meeting the valiant crew members who will perform this important work, please RSVP to this email by Sunday afternoon at the latest. Hope to see you there!

Directions: From the Norwich Exit on Highway 91, (Exit 13) head north on Route 5 and go through the town of Norwich. You will pass Dan & Whit’s General Store on your left. Go past Dan and Whit’s about ½ mile. Take left on Turnpike Rd. Turn left into Huntley parking lot about ¼ mile down the road.

On Friday, October 9th, 2009 the VYCC will host our annual Denim & Diamonds event!

We are adding carrots to our karats! Join us for an evening full of local food (including produce from the Monitor Barn garden), area entertainment, dancing, games and trivia, and fine company in support of Vermont’s leading youth and conservation organization. Additional information about the event can be found online at www.vycc.org or by contacting Breck Knauft at 802.434.3969 x110 or breck@vycc.org.

Serving as an AmeriCorps (AC) Corps Member for the VYCC’s Park Program is an opportunity to gain firsthand experience in public lands management and environmental education. AC Corps Members work on a broad array of conservation and environmental education projects, ranging from tree plantings to teaching children how to hold frogs. The work is challenging and rewarding with great opportunities for growth.

Join the VYCC Team! For more information, visit here.

Spring is finally in the air and the VYCC’s 2009 Field Season has begun! On March 30, 2009, five young men from all over the country arrived at the West Monitor Barn to begin their training as the first ever Park Educators (PE’s). Over the subsequent weeks of intensive training, PE’s gained certification as CPR/AED First Aid Instructors, Project Learning Tree Instructors, and as Interpretive Guides. The PE’s also developed comfort with the VYCC’s Environmental Education Curriculum that they will be teaching over the course of the summer.

In their next month of training, they will meet their fellow Crew Leaders, work on a watershed restoration project in the Mississquoi Valley, and visit their respective parks: Elmore State Park, Quechee State Park, Moosalamoo Recreation Area, and Hapgood Pond Recreation Area. The PE’s are excited to welcome and work with the visitors and campers to Vermont State Parks.

This month, we are starting a new and recurring section of the VYCC Enews. “On The Land” will be a forum to describe the activities and initiatives on our 400-acre property. We have lots of exciting things happening here, all directed at meeting our broad goals for our land, including stewarding the land sustainably, developing an effective outdoor classroom, and using the land as a valuable community resource.

This month, we started a partnership with Camels Hump Middle School (CHMS) to monitor reptiles and amphibians on our property. Our first step was hosting a training led by the Vermont State Herpetologist and Director of the Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas, Jim Andrews. Jim trained over 30 CHMS teachers and parents, as well as VYCC staff and instructors, on the identification and ecology of frogs, salamanders and snakes that we are likely to find on our land. Jim also discussed how to construct monitoring stations (called cover boards) for snakes and amphibians. This week, 80 students from CHMS visited our property and constructed 15 cover boards for amphibians and 10 for snakes. More students will be visiting next week to construct an additional 5 stations for amphibians and 30 or more for snakes.

If you would like a map showing the locations of VYCC monitoring stations, contact our Land Stewardship Specialist, Bradley Materick and he will send you a copy. This partnership represents a perfect example of the use of our land as an effective outdoor classroom and a valuable community resource, and we want to thank Jim Andrews and the teachers at CHMS who have helped get this project of the ground!

On Saturday, January 24, a hardy group of volunteers gathered for a day of community service, manual labor, and occasional hot chocolate breaks. Volunteers cut, hauled, and shredded over two dozen trees and saved the larger ones for firewood. The area cleared will allow construction crews safer and more efficient access to the East Monitor Barn, a vital step in preparing the barn for its renovations. Additionally, the wood chips produced will be used by school and summer crews for trail maintenance projects on the VYCC’s property. Thanks to all the folks who braved the winter winds and cold weather to help the VYCC with its efforts to preserve, restore, and revitalize the East Monitor Barn.

The VYCC announced today that the Connecticut-based 1772 Foundation has generously awarded the VYCC with a $50,000 grant to support the rehabilitation of the recently purchased East Monitor Barn. Once renovated, the East and West Monitor Barns and nearly 400 accompanying acres will return to a single, conserved ownership for productive and sustainable, agricultural, educational and recreational use. These combined facilities will be training headquarters for the VYCC, allowing for continued organizational growth, including the expansion of a year-round and statewide alternative education program.

In April of 2008, following the purchase and successful rehabilitation of the West Monitor Barn, the VYCC acquired the neighboring East Monitor Barn, Carriage Barn, Farm House and 160 acres in order to fully develop the ‘Monitor Barn Leadership, Education and Training Center.’ Representing a highpoint in human and animal powered agriculture, these turn-of-the century barns are one among Vermont’s most important examples of architectural and agricultural heritage. The barns’ unique ventilating system runs from the windows in the clerestory to the stalls in the lowest floor, and allowed farmers to “monitor” the air flow. At the time of their construction, they represented a major advance in agrarian architecture.

Initially, the East Monitor Barn will need to be raised, a new foundation will be installed, and internal post and beam rehabilitation work completed. The VYCC is in discussion with various contractors and hopes to begin the first stages of work later this year.

Support from the 1772 Foundation makes this first phase of work possible, and according to Tom Hark, founding President of the VYCC, “this gift symbolizes a new beginning for a great Vermont structure. These barns are a great source of pride and we can’t wait to use them in ways that strengthen our programs and deepen our ties to the traditions and landscape of the region.”

In other development news, the VYCC is excited to announce that we have a new development director, Breck Knauft. Breck brings a true passion for youth-oriented outdoor programs. Prior to the VYCC, he worked as the development director at Woodbury College. Breck lives in Huntington with his wife and two young daughters. Welcome Breck!

The Woodstock School Crew is building upon a strong foundation of partnership with Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historic Park by adding the Vermont Land Trust’s King Farm and Woodstock Union High School to the mix. This crew of five males, freshmen thru senior, is solo-led by Kevin Chap, Community Crew Leader, ’08. The crew focused their first quarter of work on building their community through construction of a 30’ x 6’ stone turnpike, designed to elevate trail tread above a perpetually wet drainage on the One Less Traveled Trail within the park. They are now setting their sights on designing a work-plan for the park’s new Stewardship Trail. The Corps Members are all resident experts on animal tracking, anything related to hunting, and many features of trail design and drainage. They will be hosting a Solstice celebration in collaboration with WUHS’ Agriculture and Earth Beat clubs as well as the Farm to School Committee. The crew hopes to team with Farm to School to establish a garden in the spring that will feed students in the cafeteria next year.

The VYCC is actively pursuing applications for work projects for the 2009 season and beyond. Now is a critical planning period for the VYCC Operations staff as we work together with prospective sponsors to develop projects for our crews to complete starting as early as next spring. Whether your project is ready to go as soon as the snow melts or it’s just in the idea stage, contact us. We can help develop your project - from layout or design to collaborative fundraising. The VYCC again anticipates receiving funding from the Vermont Agency of Transportation for the completion of transportation enhancement projects and we have extended our application deadline for these types of projects to January 15th, 2009. For more information, visit the project page on our website or contact Justin Kenney, Operations Coordinator, at 802-434-3969 x 140 or jkenney@vycc.org.