Act 59 was passed on the wings of the nationwide “America the Beautiful” initiative, a call to action issued by the Biden Administration to conserve and restore 30% of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030. States around the country have followed suit with their own “30×30” legislative and administrative efforts.  Here in Vermont, Act 59 is really just an extension and articulation of what we have already been doing for nearly a century: we have kept our footprints of development compact and surrounded them with farms, fields, forests, rivers and lakes. We have helped our lands recover from centuries of deforestation and resource extraction. Our investments in farmland conservation have helped numerous producers protect the lands that grow our food and produce the Vermont beef, milk and cheese everyone loves, as well to implementing practices for forest and wetland protection, soil health, clean water and climate resilience.

Vermonters have repeatedly expressed their love of our landscape by supporting policies and practices, and even the establishment of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board (VHCB), which has shaped Vermont into the beautiful state we all know and love today. VHCB, organized in 1987, has worked with federal and state partners and private landowners to secure funding for the conservation of 450,000 acres. There are ribbons of trails throughout the state that allow us to get out and enjoy our shared natural heritage. We are blessed with the fruits of earlier, forward-looking conservation efforts as we enjoy abundant opportunities to hunt, fish, hike, ski, bike, camp, see wildlife, and access remote lands for spiritual renewal. At the same time, we celebrate our vital rural communities.

However, we are at a challenging crossroads. As the climate warms, our rivers flood and our winters shorten, Act 59 directs us to redouble our efforts and increasingly focus our efforts to make the state more resilient in the face of these intensifying threats, while protecting what we treasure about Vermont. This is why VHCB is an enthusiastic steward of this renewed and explicit commitment to protect Vermont’s biodiversity across our full conservation mission, and to work with diverse perspectives and stakeholders in figuring out what that will look like.

One of our main partners in conservation is the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, which is responsible for managing hundreds of thousands of acres of wildlife management areas, state forests, and parks across the state. They are the intermediary working with federal officials who manage the Green Mountain National Forest and the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge. Both VHCB and ANR have fundamental obligations to support smart growth through strategic investment. Our conservation work is not done in a silo. The work of Act 59 will proceed in concert with other initiatives like the Forest Future Roadmap, the Farm to Plate movement, as well as new and amended environmental and land use laws. And this braiding will also help us identify the best sites to meet our critically under-addressed housing needs, produce and market local wood products, and of course increase the viability and capacity of Vermont’s farms, all while looking for opportunities to increase and protect ecological health.

VHCB has a long history of supporting affordable housing in a manner that has revitalized many downtown and village centers across the state. We have built housing that is highly energy efficient, which has minimized sprawl, decreased fossil fuel consumption, and reduced the need to convert more natural lands for development, while also making our downtowns and village centers more vibrant. Act 59 is a part of a larger effort to look for these win-wins for current and future generations. In that time, we have also worked with numerous communities to help protect and restore historic and culture sites, plant urban gardens and shade trees, and protect thousands of acres of community forest that connect our downtowns and village centers to the outdoors.

Achieving Act 59’s important goals is not going to be easy work, but this is a critical investment in the future of Vermont. Conserving 30% of Vermont’s land base will require conservation of at least 185,000 acres in the next five years. This would mean more than doubling our current efforts, funding, personnel capacity, and coordination. We won’t be doing this alone. Given historic levels of federal funding currently available for conservation, there is a tremendous opportunity to get new funds flowing into Vermont to help us realize these ambitions and get the municipalities, conservation commissions, regional planners and conservation districts the resources they need.

The inventory report we just completed is setting the stage, and over the next couple of years, we convene experts and stakeholders to write the script in partnership with local communities, scientists, land use specialists, economists, conservation leaders, farmers and landowners, and whoever else is interested in implementing Act 59’s vision. Realizing this vision will require a balancing act and a greater understanding of the essential inter-relationship between our needs to develop some lands and protect, restore and/or change how we manage other lands. Through a healthy integration, we will face our future with resilience and protect the strengths of Vermont.

We note that it will take an enormous effort to reach the goals the legislature set in the passage of Act 59; it will take both funding and the good will of Vermonters. As we move to developing an implementation plan, we look forward to ongoing opportunities for engagement and continuing the spirit of cooperation and collaboration among private, local, state, and federal entities that have already set Vermont on a path towards success.