By Christine McGowan, Forest Program Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund People in the forest products industry find their way to wood in different ways. For some, it’s a part of their family DNA. For others, it’s a passion. For Lucas Jenson, owner of The Tree House...
By Christine McGowan In the hip city of Burlington, Creston Lea builds one of a kind electric guitars, while in southern Vermont, Douglas Cox turns out violins for classical musicians around the world. Creston Lea and Douglas Cox live about as far apart as two Vermonters can...
By Christine McGowan As development creeps into our rural landscapes and woodlot ownership changes hands, our forests face an uncertain future. Vermonters value working landscapes, but do they value the work it takes to keep these landscapes intact? Not unlike other Vermont business sectors, our forest...
By Christine McGowan, Forest Program Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund From urban forests to thousand-acre parcels, Vermonters own 80% of the state’s forested land. Vermont’s forests are one of our greatest natural resources, contributing to the economy through industry and recreation to the tune of $3.4 billion,...
By Christine McGowan, Forest Program Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund Northeast Kingdom logger models responsible forestry with small-scale, low-impact logging. “Good forestry equipment does not have to be big and heavy,” says Joel Currier, owner of Currier Forest Products in Danville, Vermont. “There are big operations doing...
By Christine McGowan, Forest Program Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund Green Mountain Grain & Barrel producing locally-sourced, locally-made oak barrels. Woodworkers by hobby and Vermont National Guardsmen by training, Tony Fletcher, Josh Waterhouse and Mac Broich are finding their niche as coopers for Vermont’s craft spirits industry....
By Christine McGowan, Forest Program Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund If you ask Malcolm Cooper Jr. how long he has been involved with J.K. Adams, he’ll tell you 68 years, or since the day he was born. His father, an engineer by training, bought a half...
By Christine McGowan, Forest Program Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund Vermont forests a critical part of global bird conservation effort This spring, when the Black-throated Blue Warblers, Wood Thrush, and Scarlet Tanagers make their annual return to Vermont from Central and South America, they will find new...
By Christine McGowan, Forest Program Director, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund April 13, 2018 While an aging industry struggles with succession, Colleen Goodridge cultivates the next generation through education, relationships. Every industry needs a matriarch, and Vermont’s forest products industry has Colleen Goodridge. Goodridge Lumber, owned and operated by Colleen...
By: Christine McGowan, Forest Products Program Director Maple: Vermont’s Agricultural Enterprise in the Forest Butternut Mountain Farm in Morrisville, Vermont epitomizes both the quaint history and bright future for Vermont’s maple industry. The third generation sugaring operation, now run by siblings Emma and Ira Marvin, stands poised...
Owner, Dustin Glasscoe Named 2017 Vermont Woodworker of the Year Dustin Glasscoe, owner of Vermont Farm Table, is quick to point to his team of woodworkers in Bristol when asked about being named 2018’s Vermont Woodworker of the Year. “I’m a business owner,” he clarifies, “not...
Most Vermonters would agree we live here among the Green Mountains so we can enjoy a quality of life as individuals, families, and businesses that affords us a decent standard of living, our independence, and the use of our natural resources now, and for generations...
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