JULT - Jericho Underhill Land Trust - conserving land in Vermont

May 5, 2008

Save the Date!

You are invited to Jericho Underhill Land Trust's Annual Meeting.

Location: Underhill Town Hall

6:30 PM for refreshments
7:00 PM for meeting and wildlife presentation

Please join us as we celebrate land conservation within our community. Our guest speaker is Kim Royar, wildlife biologist with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department since 1981. Her knowledge of lynx, bobcat, wolves and other "furbearers" is legendary. Please call JULT at 899-2693 with any questions. See you there!

February 9, 2008

Join us for a late winter rendezvous at Kikas Valley Farm. John Koier, who heads up our land stewardship committee, will introduce us to the power of GPS technology and how it is used on JULT properties. With snow, we will cross country ski or snowshoe the varied trails at the farm and look for tracks and signs of wildlife. Snow Buntings abound!

The walk begins at 10 AM and we’ll meet at the Kikas Valley Farm parking lot. Please call John at 899-1830 with any questions.

March 4, 2008

Look for our land trust table at both Jericho and Underhill’s Town Meeting. We are eager to talk about our latest land conservation activities and answer any questions you may have. We will also distribute a survey to gather feedback from community residents.

March 25, 2008

Village University at the Jericho Community Center. Join JULT for an evening focused on land conservation and community planning. Representatives from the Vermont Land Trust, Jericho Conservation Commission, Jericho planning commission and more will be present as well. Please call Emile Alexander at 899-3211 for more information.

April 26, 2008

Join JULT board members for a hike on the wild side at the Wolfrun Natural Area. We’ll be looking at signs of early spring in a breathtakingly beautiful and diverse land. Moose Pond will be rich with beaver activity and we’ll take a sneak peak at Big Swamp to see what’s happening there. This wetland is home to a Great Blue Heron rookery and many other wildlife species. Expect wet trails and rugged terrain. We’ll meet at 10AM at the Wolfrun entrance. Please call Livy at 899-2693 with any questions and for more precise directions.

May 5, 2008

Join us for a fun evening at our Annual Meeting at 7 PM at the Underhill Town Hall. More details to follow in our spring newsletter.

May 22 and 25, 2008 Join avid birder Evergreen Erb for a delightful slide preview of our favorite local birds and recent spring migrants at the Deborah Rawson Memorial Library’s Fireside Room at 6:30PM on the 22nd. Then meet her at Mills Riverside Park at 7AM on May 25th for her Twelfth Annual JULT Bird Walk. Bring your binoculars and get ready to celebrate the variety of birds found within the park’s numerous habitats. The event series is co-sponsored by the Deborah Rawson Memorial Library. Please call Livy at 899-2693 with any questions.

On the banks of the Browns River in Jericho, with Mount Mansfield looming behind, Mills Riverside Park offers some of the most scenic playing fields in Chittenden County.

This just in from the JULT Stewardship Committee:
Today, a fabulous crew of four were successful in totally demolishing the old Wolfrun camp. Metal roofing is piled for removal and wood is piled for burning. This was all accomplished by 12:30 PM which was amazing given I was sure it would take at least a full day. A hearty thanks goes out to Michel, Westin and Walter for all their boundless demolishing energy. Stop by on Saturday May 1st, 9:00 to 5:00 and bring your hotdogs and marshmallows, 'cause we'll have the camp fire burning!

This year's annual meeting will feature an exciting presentation by Eveleen C, Cecchini, Director of Outreach for Earth Stewardship (OFES). This Shelburne Farm-based nonprofit organization is licensed to rehabilitate injured, orphaned and ailing migratory birds and birds of prey. After administering expert medical attention, OFES returns many of these birds to the wild. In fact, OFES rehabilitated a starving great horned owl and released it this summer at Mills Riverside Park, healthy and ready to resume hunting. Some birds are so badly injured they must remain under the care of OFES. A few of these full-time residents, mostly owls and hawks, become "ambassadors" to the public, representing their wild counterparts at presentations in Chittenden County and beyond. Eveleen will be bringing a number of these special birds to our annual meeting to help her explain the impact we all have on our wild avian neighbors. The ethic of earth stewardship, notes Eveleen, involves "recognizing that all of our Earth's beings have an inherent worth, and that we have a responsibility to treat the planet and its processes with care and respect." Her broad experience in caring for birds and the environment they depend on gives her a special insight on land conservation that she will share with us.

Come join us at the Underhill Town Hall on May 3, 2004 for our JULT annual meeting and the celebration of a year's worth of land conservation in our community, as well as an update on our exciting current land conservation projects. Refreshments begin at 6:30 p.m. with a brief business meeting to follow. A selection of our magnificent Adirondack chairs will also be on display; purchases and orders will be accepted at the meeting. This year has been especially productive
and we look forward to celebrating our accomplishments with you.

Readers of our last newsletter will remember that we receivced a generous donation of 120 unfinished Adirondack style chairs....

April 15 doesn't have to be painful again next year. Instead, it can be a day you celebrate both your tax savings and the satisfaction of permanently conserving important open spaces. CLICK HERE to view the entire Land Trust Alliance news article.

WASHINGTON (Thursday, Nov. 5) – Sen. Patrick Leahy has secured $3,150,000 to conserve several tracts of working forestland in Chittenden County. Leahy secured the funds as part of the 2004 budget bill for the Interior Department that passed Congress earlier this week.

On July 16, 2003, the Jericho Underhill Land Trust (JULT) took ownership of 279 acres of extraordinary wildlife habitat. This event was the culmination of an intense, one and a half year fundraising campaign that provided the $293,000 necessary to purchase the property from West Bolton Golf Club. A proposed multi-lot subdivision was the original plan for this habitat rich land that is home to black bear, moose, deer, river otter, rare plants and countless bird species. Community concern coupled with the landowner's desire to see this land conserved were the necessary ingredients for JULT to become active in the preservation of this property.

The Jericho Underhill Land Trust purchased Wolfrun Natural Area, in Jericho and Richmond, July 16 for $293,000 from the West Bolton Golf Club. The club had owned the land since the early 1990s. The natural area is permanently protected from development and clearcutting, said Bob Linck, Champlain Valley co-director for the Vermont Land Trust.

This afternoon the title of the 276 acre piece of property hereafter known as Wolfrun Natural Area passed into the hands of The Jericho Underhill Land Trust.

MILTON -- One group saved a diner in South Burlington from demolition. Another taught the history of Jericho's Mills Riverside Park. And another renovated a building on Burlington's Main Street to provide housing for families. The Chittenden County Historical Society honored these three groups and four others for their unique preservation efforts at the society's annual meeting held at the Milton Historical Society on Sunday.

The transfer of ownership of the 265-acre Wolfrun Natural Area from the West Bolton Golf Club to JULT, originally set to take place on April 30, and then on June 30, has now been rescheduled for July 16, 2003!

As anyone who's ever been involved in complicated land deals knows, getting all the details right often takes a bit more time than anyone anticipates. In this case, West Bolton Golf Club has granted two 50-foot right of ways for better access to some of the property, which is critical to future land management. A slight boundary discrepancy has also been resolved.

The benefit to having extra time before we sign on the dotted line is that JULT can finalize other important Wolfrun agreements, such as:

" a management plan that will ensure careful wildlife habitat protection and enhancement;

" a conservation easement that will permanently conserve this land, and which JULT will donate to Vermont Land Trust at the time of purchase;

" continued cooperation with Keeping Track® and the many citizen volunteers that participate in its wildlife monitoring programs on Wolfrun.

There were 60+ people from the Jericho and Underhill communities in attendance to hear an inspiring talk by Brian Pfeiffer our Vermont bird expert of renown. Livy Strong led a lively and brief business meeting which elicited a supportive and enthusiastic response from everyone in the house. Silent auction items were bid on, a great bevy of refreshments were nibbled on, and a great deal of socializing occurred. In truth it was as good as it gets, and next year it will be even better! See you there.