Dear Neighbor,
As a local landowner, you own a part of an amazing ecosystem. Healthy ecosystems require diverse and robust populations of native species and provide essential services to people including protecting air and water quality, the control of pests and diseases, and are so often the places we go to renew our physical and spiritual health.
This page is dedicated to helping you access valuable research and common practices for reliably stewarding your piece of land in our community.
Reading List
| Title | Author | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Nature’s Best Hope | Douglas W. Tallamy | The single best source to help the homeowner develop a “backyard national park”. |
| Half-Earth | Edward O. Wilson | The best easy-to-read theorist on the importance of biodiversity |
| Farming with Native Beneficial Insects | Xerces Society Guide | Lots of practical ideas on how to attract and support beneficial insects. |
| Spirit of Place: The Making of a New England Garden | Bill Noble | Bill Noble is a master gardener with an ecological point of view. Beautiful photographs of his southern Vermont garden. |
| Wetland, Woodland, Wildland A Guide to the Natural Communities of Vermont | Thompson, Sorenson, and Zaino | A comprehensive guide to good land stewardship by three Vermont authors. |
| Eager: The surprising secret life of Beavers and why they Matter | Ben Goldfarb | Beavers are a keystone species. Reading this will make you a beaver advocate. |
| Soil Animals | Friedrich Schaller | A somewhat rare book that helped me understand the importance of soil organisms to soil fertility. |
| Four Season Harvest | Eliot Coleman | Pages 16-30 explain how to build an easy to manage and effective compost pile. |
| The End of Nature | Bill McKibben | The theory that human activity has changed the course of nature on a global scale. After it brings you down it will lift you up. |
| Biodiversity and Climate Change, Transforming the Biosphere | Lovejoy and Hannah | A collection of academic papers on one of the most important subjects of our generation. |
| In Season, A Natural History of the New England Year | Estrin and Johnson | Comprehensive essays written by Vermont naturalists. |
| Listed, Dispatches from America’s Endangered Species Act | Joe Ramon | Ramon is a UVM Professor who outlines the challenges of saving earth’s endangered species. |
| Reading the Forested Landscape, A Natural History of New England | Tom Wessels | Helpful Vermont specific information about the nature in your backyard |
| Swampwalker’s Journal, A Wetland Year | David M. Carroll | A great introduction to the ecology of the most biologically important and most endangered of all habitats |
| The Resilient Farm and Homestead, An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach | Ben Falk | Practical advice on how to live more sustainably written by a Moretown resident. |
| Mycorrhizal Planet, How Symbiotic Fungi Work with Roots to Support Plant Health and Build Soil Fertility | Michael Phillips | It turns out mycorrhizae are super important to ecosystems…who knew… |
| The Hidden Life of Trees | Peter Wohlleben | Trees are important and their relationship with each other and the environment is really complicated. Every tree species is a keystone species in its native habitat. |
| The Earth Manual, How to Work on Wild Land Without Taming It | Malcolm Margolin | Living on the land without taming it is an essential goal |
| Growing a Revolution, Bringing Our Soil Back to Life | David R. Montgomery | An exploration of how agricultural lands need to be a more constructive part of their local ecosystems. |
Related Organizations
These organizations provide additional help and information when it comes land management
Local Businesses
Kenyon’s
Vermont Compost Co
Grow Vermont Compost
Johnny’s Selected Seeds