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.

Our Mount Mansfield Union and Champlain Valley Union year round school crews are very close to completing a large project on the West Monitor Barn property that began this past summer. The final steps in the construction of an on-site composting toilet are almost complete. The structure is designed to serve the eight lean-tos on the Monitor Barns property which are frequently used by our Crew Leaders & Corps Members during trainings or when they are working on projects in the area. The toilet will also be available for hunters and others from the general public using the land.

The VYCC Champlain Valley Union High School (CVU) Crew has been hard at work this fall. The crew’s start date was September 3rd, and they have taken part in some exciting projects around the local area.

So far they have:

-Participated in watershed conservation projects with the Montpelier Parks and Conservation Commission
-Completed a trail clearing project on local nordic ski trails
-Worked on land stewardship projects here at the VYCC West Monitor Barn campus, which included sumac removal by the East Monitor Barn and cover crop planting in the garden

These students have also helped Maple Wind Farm harvest vegetables. Maple Wind Farm has been a strong educational partner of VYCC’s. VYCC swaps work on the farm for time on their ropes course, use of their farm equipment, and their advice for productive vegetable growing. It is a wonderful partnership!

As for the rest of October and November, they will be continuing land stewardship work at the VYCC, beginning with the VYCC Trail System and specifically the trail past the lean-tos. Their main focus will be drainage and erosion control, as water needs to be successfully guided off the trail, and drainage dips need to installed.

To learn more about the fantastic CVU School Instructors, Hillary and Matthew, click here.

School is in session for our VermontFutures School Program Crews! The VYCC is now operating five school crews throughout Vermont. Partnerships with local schools include The Center for Technology – Essex, Mount Mansfield Union High School, Lamoille Union High School, Woodstock Union High School, and Champlain Valley Union High School. Over 50 high school students from around the state will be participating in the School Program this year completing projects in agriculture and natural resources in and around their home communities.

Visit the School Crew Leaders webpage and learn more about the amazing people leading these crews!