Commentary
About The “Raven Ridge” Conservation Conversations

I have a real sense of sadness about town action on October 26 to contribute just $15,000 of town Conservation Fund funds toward the Charlotte portion of the private nonprofit project underway to conserve land in the southeast corner of town, contiguous to additional acres in Monkton and Hinesburg. Busy with other things in late summer, I was caught by surprise by this project’s timeline. I made it only to this recent meeting, not to any of the previous discussions.
I have been aware of this amazing natural area for longer than I have lived in Charlotte. I’ve only been there three times in 30 years, partly out of respect for the species at home there, partly honoring the wildness of the place by not going there. I cringe even to write about it, as too many visitors are not going to be a good thing if you’re a shy creature in residence.
Most of the acres now proposed to be included in a Nature Conservancy property (and to be managed by VT Fish & Wildlife, as I understand) have been protected by private ownership and private stewardship for at least the last three decades. Thank you to every landowner who has done that!
The properties have apparently been used by hunters, hikers and horseback riders. Human and equine impact usually has been careful, light. Most visitors have respected the sanctity of the place. Considerate use is another form of stewardship, so let’s thank those visitors. May we do as well when there is a small parking lot for and signage identifying “Raven Ridge.”
Maybe the tough dynamic here rests in the reality that this is a private nonprofit project, not a town project.
The only contribution the town can make, through our town committees and Selectboard, is a gift of funds collected and held in reserve for exactly the kinds of one-time expenses presented Monday night. After extending this one-time help, we can simply thank The Nature Conservancy, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species Grants, a Vermont Housing and Conservation Board Grant, a Town of Monkton Conservation Fund Grant and our Charlotte Land Trust’s gift, hopefully a gift from the Hinesburg Conservation Fund – and the many people in these groups who have worked toward doing the best thing now possible for this wild place.
How the area will be managed will be another, future discussion. If we are lucky, we’ll be invited to express our hopes.
At Monday’s session, a good accounting question was asked: does the one-time request for funds from Charlotte’s Conservation Fund for this conservation project represent a larger percentage of the total, three-town, project closing costs than the roughly “18 percent” of the total acreage that falls within Charlotte’s boundaries. Kate Lampton of the Charlotte Land Trust gave a very clear response, describing why the cost of closing imperatives on those Charlotte acres were in some cases higher than the same closing imperatives on the Hinesburg acres. As an example, subdivision permits are more expensive in Charlotte than they are in either Monkton (where they are nonexistent) or Hinesburg. Kate answered the question fully and asked if there were further questions.
Somehow it feels to me that few in the room were able to hear Kate’s clear explanation. The subsequent motion to grant just $15,000 from our Conservation Fund stunned me. Was that a play-it-careful response to public frustration about having little “say” in what is essentially a private nonprofit conservation project?
If so, as townspeople, we are missing the point. We’d be so lucky to always have private landowners willing to hold and protect properties while allowing public use. And when the time comes that those private individuals cannot continue to do so, we will be extremely lucky to have a group of viable nonprofit organizations to do the next-best thing, and then invite us over, forever, to treasure the results.
I urge us all to reconsider and support the October 26 request for $35,700 of Conservation Funds for one-time closing and endowment-funding costs specific to the portion of the project lying within Charlotte. The long-term benefit to habitat and species in the larger area will constitute our town legacy as stewards of the rare corner of Vermont in which we live, too.
We can, and should, do better than throw a token sum toward such a worthy project. Assistance with closing costs toward the conservation of “Raven Ridge” is exactly the sort of thing our Conservation Fund was created to help with. What happened to this opportunity?
Jennifer Adsit