USDA TO PUCHASE FIRST GRASSLAND CONSERVATION EASEMENT IN VERMONT

WEST PAWLET, VT, and HUDSON FALLS, NY, April 22, 2011— The United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS) closed Monday, April 18, on the first Grassland Reserve Program permanent easement in Vermont. In this voluntary program, the USDA purchases development rights and limits future use of grassland. The atypical nature of this purchase is fitting for a farm with an extraordinary history and an optimistic future.

Consider Bardwell Farm’s 300 acres span over parts of Rutland County, Vermont, and Washington County, NY, and are the home of over 100 dairy goats. The farm was the first cheese-making co-op in Vermont, founded in 1864 by Consider Stebbins Bardwell. Almost 150 years later, two unlikely Vermont farmers are ensuring a sustainable future by not only outputting award-winning artisan cheese, but also by conserving the viability of their grassland.

A prominent literary agent from New York City, Angela Miller, and her husband, K. Russell Glover, purchased a charming southern Vermont farm to provide a reprieve from an urban lifestyle. They planned to restore the pleasant nineteenth-century farm while taking in the picturesque beauty of the Vermont landscape. This venture into tranquility led to the original purchase of six goats, which Miller refers to as her “girls”. The Girls offered Miller and her husband a hobby that blossomed into a full-blown devotion to artisan cheese making. This devotion has won Consider Bardwell national acclaim, and Miller has since written her memoirs, HAY FEVER How Chasing a Dream on a Vermont Farm Changed My Life, published in 2010.

The USDA Grassland Reserve Program (GRP) offers a voluntary sign-up for landowners and operators to protect grazing uses and related conservation values by conserving grasslands. Easement program participants are compensated based on a percentage of fair market value of the property enrolled. GRP also offers rental contracts to landowners and operators who have general control of acreage.

GRP emphasizes support for working grazing operations; enhancement of plant and animal biodiversity; and protection of grassland and land containing shrubs and forbs under threat of conversion or development. GRP is jointly administered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Farm Service Agency (FSA).

For additional information about the Grassland Reserve Program, please visit http://www.vt.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/GRP/Index.html or call the USDA-NRCS State Office at 802-951-6795 during business hours. For additional information about Consider Bardwell Farm, please visit http://www.considerbardwellfarm.com.

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Media Contact:

Mary E. Sturgeon, 802-951-6795, Mary.Sturgeon@vt.usda.gov