Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Payment For Ecosystem Services: Incentives To Support Environmental Quality & Farming In Vermont, Stephen Posner, Taylor Ricketts, Eric Roy

Reports and Policy Briefs

Environmental quality is an ongoing concern in the Lake Champlain Basin. Vermont farmers are in a unique position to manage land in a way that maintains and improves environmental quality. A payment for ecosystem services (PES) program for Vermont would both support the economic vi- ability of Vermont farms and incentivize farmers to improve water quality and soil health. How- ever, conceptual and practical implementation challenges remain.

Master's Project: Maple: A Sap To Syrup Guide, A Manual For Career And Technical Centers Of Vermont, Lynn Michelle Wolfe

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

Maple syrup production is a very important aspect of Vermont life and history. Every year in the early spring, people of all ages find their way to the woods to tap trees, collect sap, and participate in the great tradition of producing maple syrup. Maple syrup production is an essential industry from a historical, cultural, agricultural, and economic perspective. As the industry continues to grow, it creates potential employment opportunities for people of all ages, including recent high school graduates.

Through a collaboration between Vermont high school agriculture/natural resources instructors, the UVM Extension Maple Specialist, Shelburne Farms, and the UVM …

Modeling Agricultural Outcomes In A Warmer, Wetter Vermont, Rachel Mason

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This thesis aimed to model agricultural outcomes that are important to Vermont dairy farms and their surrounding communities -- runoff, erosion, nitrogen and phosphorus losses, crop yields, and timeliness of farm operations -- under a set of possible future climates. The Agricultural Policy/Environmental eXtender (APEX) model was used for this work, and the models were calibrated using data from a project that measured most of these outcomes on a set of local farms. The model setup and calibration methodology is thoroughly documented and may be a useful starting point for others who are new to agricultural modeling.

Applied to two …

Consumer Support For Renewable Energy Systems: A Case Study Of Community Biodigesters In Vermont, Katelynn Maria Conedera

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

From the steady rise in dairy farm closures to concerns over algae blooms in Lake Champlain, Vermont’s dairy industry is facing a multitude of challenges. While many potential solutions have been proposed, this study focuses specifically on community anaerobic digester systems (CADS) to aid in manure management, help to mitigate runoff, produce renew energy, and even provide an alternative revenue source to participating farms. CADS technology converts the gas emissions from manure and other organic substances into biogas through a process called anaerobic digestion. Unlike traditional on-farm biodigesters, which are often only financially viable for the largest dairy farms, CADS …

New Hybrid Protected Lands Layer For Vermont Conservation Design Analysis (February 2019), Carolyn D. Loeb, Anthony W. D'Amato

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

This shapefile (.shp) is a hybrid of the March 2017 Edition of the Vermont Center for Geographic Information's (VCGI) Vermont Protected Lands Database (VPLD), the Vermont Land Trust's February 2019 Protected Lands database, and The Nature Conservancy's Secured Areas (SA 2018+) database. The VLT and SA 2018+ datasets were used as the scaffolding for the hybrid protected lands layer, with some VCGI VPLD polygons retained if they contained unique contributions. These datasets were combined by C.D. Loeb because each input dataset was missing some protected lands polygons in the state of Vermont. Additionally, the VCGI VPLD dataset contained many overlapping …