In a groundbreaking collaboration this June, the White River Natural Resources Conservation District (WR-NRCD) convened conservation planners, NOFA-VT, and leading forest and agricultural experts for an immersive three-day professional development event at Plenitud VT’s new 101-acre educational farm in Newbury. The goal? To transform how farmers using holistic and organic practices navigate and access vital federal funding streams.

Attendees get their hands dirty, delving into soil health and
conservation with NRCD Soil Health Agronomist Willie
Gibson and Agroforestry expert and Dartmouth PhD candidate
Kristen Jovanelly.

Attendees included conservation planners from across Vermont’s NRCDs, NRCS and NOFA-VT staff, Plenitud VT team, and interns from UVM, all eager to explore innovative approaches. Experts in permaculture, forestry, and agroforestry shared their knowledge, contributing to a dynamic exchange of ideas. A key highlight was the piloting of WR-NRCD’s cutting-edge holistic farmer interview, designed to better understand and support the unique needs of farmers embracing natural and organic practices. This pioneering effort aims to inspire similar initiatives nationwide.

The Plenitud VT farm served as a living case study, fostering hands-on learning, farm tours, and lively discussions. Participants bonded over shared goals, exchanging insights on how to more efficiently and effectively direct funding to farmers dedicated to sustainable agriculture, and enjoyed farm-to-table meals together.

About Plenitud VT

Plenitud VT is the new Vermont chapter of Plenitud, a 501(c)(3) non-profit rooted in service, sustainability, and community which has been serving in Puerto Rico since 2008. Plenitud VT launched in July 2023 with the purchase of their 101-acre Newbury farm where they will host educational and transformative experiences for a range of audiences, and build on their legacy of community hubs, sustainable farming, and providing healthy food to those in need. They are currently getting to know the area and learning from partners already doing good work in Vermont and New Hampshire. Want to learn more or explore partnership? Email: jessica@plenitudpr.org

About The WRNRCD

The White River Natural Resources Conservation District champions the conservation of natural resources across the Upper Valley watershed. They empower landowners and communities through education, technical assistance, and partnerships, promoting sustainable practices that safeguard soil, water, and wildlife. For more information, email: WhiteRiverNRCD@gmail.com

About NOFA-VT

The Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT) is a non-profit dedicated to a sustainable and equitable food system. They support farmers with resources and organic certification (through VOF), advocate for progressive agricultural policies, and increase access to healthy, local food for all Vermonters. Visit: nofavt.org.

“It’s not an easy story,” says Hartford’s Parks and Recreation Director Tad Nunez. “If the grassroots people don’t get behind it, it could turn into a very ugly mess.” He’s talking about Dewey’s Pond, which needs help from the public if it is to revive and thrive. Help can range from persuading administrators and representatives to work on the issue to joining a milfoil-pulling party in the pond.

The pond is a former oxbow of the Ottauquechee River, just upstream from the Quechee Gorge. A 1940 photo shows the oxbow; “somewhere along the way,” says Nunez, the loop was dredged and the material used to form a dike between the river and what was now a pond. According to a history of Quechee, the dike was built in the early 1970s. Quechee Lakes Landowners Association built the dike with more than 60,000 cubic yards of dredged material, for about $250,000. Lake Pinneo was built around the same time.

Back in the day, the pond’s clarity appealed to swimmers, and it was deep enough to maintain a fishery of pike, bass and bluegills. In the winter, it offered skating and ice fishing. But the pond has been silting up slowly over the years, and Tropical Storm Irene, in August 2011, dumped a major load of silt and detritus into it. “The pond is filling up on its own,” says Nunez. “Irene just put it on fast-forward.” Invasive Eurasian milfoil that had been trying to establish a toehold in the pond flourished in the new, pond-wide shallows, overwhelming the efforts of remarkably devoted volunteers to beat back the infestation. Left alone, the pond will gradually silt in, becoming a swamp.

Action on the problem is complicated by layers of ownership. “It’s owned by the Army Corps of Engineers, managed by the State, leased to the Town and worked on by nearby people,” says Sheila Armen, who owns the Strong House Spa, which borders the pond. She remembers when the pond was clear, beautiful for swimming, “but now it’s too shallow—mucky and weedy. I don’t even ice skate. There are trees and washing machines that came down during Irene sticking up through the ice.”

“A lot of people have to come to the table to make this happen,” says Armen. “It’s not just milfoil; the earthen dam is wearing down, and the floor of the river is coming up,” so more water—and silt—goes over the dike. According to Nunez, the Corps has asked the State to come up with a plan, and indicated that the Town should not have been working on the pond (pulling milfoil) in the absence of a master plan. The Town has received a grant from the State for milfoil suppression.

Working hard in office and underwater

Some of Nunez’s greatest praise through this process is for Gary Pelton, until recently an environmental resource specialist for the Corps at the North Hartland Dam. He’s battled Dewey’s Pond milfoil since 2004. Even though Pelton now lives in Maine, Nunez says, “he still wrote the [milfoil control] grant. He’s coming back this summer. He’s an unsung hero—he spends 12 hours a day pulling milfoil, but he’s no fuss, no drama. I administer; he does.”

Pelton says, “In the past, it was mostly me. I’d spend seven or eight weeks; I’d live in a tent. But this summer I’m trying to line up help—college and high school kids—and I would like to get more local help.” He explains that the pond is so shallow since Irene that vegetation grows better. Milfoil grows up to the surface and then spreads out sideways, shading out other plants. “It’s so thick fish won’t go into it. Aquatic animals and insects that eat vegetation won’t eat it. And when it dies down in the winter and rots, that uses up the oxygen in the water, so it makes a dead zone.”

In some ways, the shallow water seems to make weeding easier, since, as Nunez says, “you used to work on the bottom by grabbing a breath and ducking underwater, but now you can walk right out there.” But, as any gardener knows, a heavy crop of weeds is very hard to deal with, and milfoil can start a new plant from broken bits not collected. So, it’s probably impossible to eradicate, but “we want to get the population as low as possible,” says Pelton. “Fifty percent [of the pond infested] is bad; ten percent, it’s possible to keep after.” Getting out with a group to work on the milfoil can be a party. The vegetation that’s removed can be composted or tilled into gardens to add humus—anything to keep it away from bodies of water!

Seeking Public Involvement

Nunez and others concerned to revive Dewey’s Pond held a couple of open meetings in the fall and winter to gather interested people and provide information. Getting the necessary permissions and funding is clearly going to be a difficult process, however. At this point in time, we have not been able to get the Corp to come to the table,” says Tad, and nothing can be done to repair the pond without their agreement. “My job,” says Nunez, “is to say ‘What’s the consensus?’” But he clearly has opinions about what should happen: “If it fills up with milfoil it’ll be worse than those 1967 hospital green hallways.”

Want to lend a hand? Contact Tad Nunez at Hartford Parks and Rec (tnunez@hartford-vt.org). Visit the Save Dewey’s Mill Pond page on Facebook.

It’s a haven for over half the year in this climate, and a fascination any day: Dartmouth’s Life Sciences Greenhouses in their hidden—but not secret—location on the top of the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Building. The greenhouses may well be the most widely educational spot on campus: tour visitors range from pre-school groups—“They love the carnivorous plants,” says greenhouse manager Kim DeLong. Anyone can set up a tour for a group of six or more, though in the busy seasons you may have to wait to schedule a tour. The greenhouses serve Dartmouth classes in biology, but also studio art and photography, and creative writing. There are also research areas of the greenhouses that are off-limits to visitors.

Taking a tour isn’t a requirement. Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., individual visitors are welcome. Different rooms provide environments for plants from around the world. The tropical room includes many famous species: a spring visit revealed a small pineapple and some coffee beans, as well as sugar cane and banana. A cacao plant – chocolate’s source – was flourishing but not quite developing seedpods.

The Sub-Tropical Room houses many ferns that come from warm areas in California, Georgia, the Carolinas and around the world. “Right now they’re my favorite type of plant,” says DeLong, though the competition is fierce. A Key Lime plant and a Meyer Lemon, jasmines and gardenia are thriving in this room.

The Xeric Room—that’s the five-dollar word for “dry”—displays succulents and cacti. Old world deserts have no native cacti, explains DeLong, only succulents. The new world (the Americas) is home to a mix of the two. Some come from Chile/Argentina’s Atacama Desert, which has never received rain in recorded history. Signs on some of the plants provide intriguing factoids to encourage further thought. “I’m interested in ethnobotany (the study of the relationships that exist between peoples and plants),” says DeLong, “so I made labels explaining some of the plants’ uses.”

A prized feature of the greenhouses is the orchid collection donated by Alan Brout, Dartmouth Collect class of ’51. He gave over 1,000 plants and continues to add to the collection. While the plants are often rather ratty-looking, the flowers astound with their variety of form and color. DeLong explains that all orchids have some common features. They all have three sepals (the part of the plant that covers the blossom before it opens) and three petals. The sepals and petals are typically offset to appear like six petals, the sepals of orchids usually being colored like the petals. And one petal is usually of different—often quite different—shape, forming the toe of a lady-slipper for example.
The systems of the greenhouse are completely computer controlled. Occasionally you’ll hear the subtle hum of the system in action. Silvery curtains can be drawn to protect the plants from too much direct sun. To control the environment in the different plant rooms there are vertical windows between each and the hallways or vents in the roof open and close.

There’s also a multi-purpose room, which provides space to study, eat lunch or just enjoy the change from New England’s climate. For information on how to visit the greenhouses go to www.dartmouth.edu/~grnhouse/visitor.shtml.