Learning off the land A look at the College's stake in local land and forests

Author: Cloe Shasha

In the early 1900s, Middlebury College received over 34,000 acres of land from Joseph Battell.

Many students recognize Battell's name from the first-year residence hall that bears the same title. Battell was a major benefactor of the College in the early 20th century, donating most of Middlebury's forestlands that border the main campus and surround the Bread Loaf campus, and also giving the College what is now the Snow Bowl.

The majority of those 34,000 acres of land from Battell were sold to the forest service. Middlebury now owns about 300 acres of campus, 1,600 acres of farmland and 4,000 acres of forest. The College designated more than 900 acres of its land as protected areas.

College Forester Steve Weber explained the College's mission to sustain its forestland.

"We're trying to manage our forestland as best we can with an ecological perspective," said Weber. "We have to do periodic harvesting of timber according to best management practices. Some of our lands are enrolled in the Vermont Family Forest, which is a forest stewardship council, and it certifies our land as green."

The forestlands provided timber for portions of various College projects such as Ross and Atwater dining halls, the library, the Recycling Center and the renovation of the Franklin Environmental Center at Hillcrest.

In Professor Emeritus of Religion Steven Rockefeller's 1995 blueprint for sustainability, "Pathways to a Green Campus," worthwhile green pursuits for the College are articulated as the preservation of the health and biodiversity of the lands' ecosystems, the development of aesthetically pleasing landscapes, the low use of natural resources and the reestablishment of damaged ecological processes.

The College currently consumes two million gallons of Number 6 fuel oil per year. In order to cut this intake, a wood-burning biomass plant is being constructed in the service building in order to replace one million of those gallons of fuel oil with woodchips.

Middlebury is in the process of deciding whether it will be possible to obtain all of the necessary wood for the facility from College land.

"We might use our own planted willows to fuel our new feeding plant," Weber said. "But this winter, we'll be making the decision about whether it is feasible - economically - to grow willows on a large scale."

The College planted over 30 varieties of willows on the north side of Rt. 125, half a mile west of the campus. They will be harvested in two years.

Between the 1960s and 1990s, Middlebury College acquired approximately nine farms. Only one of the College-owned farms is operating; the majority of them are leased to farmers. The College bought many of these farms to preserve the land and keep them in their natural state. But they can be altered when needed for other purposes.

"The modular student houses are located on what was once a farm property acquired in the 1960s," Weber said. "And the Recycling Center was built on what was once the Harris farm."

According to the Master Plan updated this summer, the College is evaluating its properties in order to work even harder towards a carbon-neutral future.