it's an awful lot like what the place looks like and you know it really could be that people don't even know  appointed by the select board so it's not a you know obviously it's volunteer but it's not you can always go play you can't just decide to start managing money because it is a town own piece of property so this is the  is now gone pear away from straight road there's no i don't want to too stupid to know the traces of the road and it's also too stupid to know that you know this is a thing that used to belong to the browns but so this is also want to be recognised by modern society  collective as you know as a town or owners of it and there are a number of things that we really really want to do we don't want to just exclude uses because you know one may not particularly enjoy doing that yourself when feels it's a farm and i think it's important to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to enjoy it without fear somebody else so on so that it's primarily really recreational  we have an interest and some work to for for sort of you know habitat maintenance if you will but you know we're not in the business of you know eco tourism or something it's a recreational facility really and  and so i'll talk about we talked about things like we're going to manage and so on but it just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense for us really we're just trying to make it sustainable such an overused word but you know without to try to make sure that we're doing something that's not the major purpose but we want to make sure that we don't hear too much there are some say adjacent weapons and in terms of real wildlife habitat there's there are only a few guys in princip if you want to read all the words here you don't really there are it's composed of of some open fields and again this is the this is basically where the landfill was over here and and so we we don't maintain this this is all part of  we have some of them some forces and it takes work and it takes money to keep it open but what we don't do is brush our teeth in the spring because that would other than discussing this with the brush of people not quite sure how to implement this softening of but but you know there's clearly some incentive to provide some edge where grassland creatures woodland creatures can interact apparently this now so here's here's some comments again from a management about about timber and at one time we really had a vision of doing some small level commercial tempering there to you know free up this and get some money out of it you know and so on and it really hasn't it just hasn't worked out to be a really useful thing to do not only  then we also have some microbursts which can sometimes query all of its own so it's just it is yours it's just not a priority i guess that's how that's how i'd put it i mean if somebody were to feel very strongly that something there's far more to this and some more sophisticated infrastructure to do she actually know how many miles per hour but i don't know what we do have as we have some really nice maps that are very pretty recent just if anybody's playing it galloping through they're more than welcome on their way do not do not recommend he go on the bridges to the certain trails that really are not appropriate for that kind of he's just can't think of any other band in the west season be you know you could be miles from civilization there's one trail here stone bench well this comes down to the property line right here that this is the river  broke in a bus the property owned by the university of vermont on which is right over here which is also also available for public access it is also public property and you're welcome to access and that's that made me a different and this is one of the new structures here which was a kind of fun to put in this is a martian spot very wet very side here and hard to plug for anybody but in particular we made sure when this was  rock right these are these are really kind of common sense things and beings being around being a good user with with others and i don't think there's generally a problem with this people are pretty to like a big box inside there's a notebook and items that you can trade and stuff get to the question about current you seven there is no town taxes out of your tax payer dollars does support the mob's committee for work that needs to be done and it is a line item in the in the town report and they have a nice general general means you actually could do it because there was a big fight at the given within the zoning in the planning commission and select court over whether it should be general or passive and it was decided that passive is better which means there is if you don't do any construction if it was ever turned into general recreation then they would have to go through the zoning to get anything per permitted change but i think it's a great deal but but that's where the public has a lot of input happened i know and i was involved in the mediation that allowed finally the parking lot with the top ten parcels looking at forest land recreation wildlife habitat and yeah those three criteria the mills property right at the top of our lives that was jericho conservation commission meanwhile i'm driving home and i see a big for sale sign on guess what the mills property and it was remarks and then i'm driving by gary a month later  looked up what the mills family was asking for their property and it seemed very reasonable three hundred fifty thousand dollars and i respect of the conservation commission said we need to do something gave a wonderful presentation about conservation options and how you can permanently conserve your property pay while several of us were racing around past include boards we had to go in one was do you care about the mills property the other one was would you like to start away in trucks and we were getting people signing up and then afterwards we went through we looked at who signed on but there were filled with not knowing how we're going to raise the money but somehow it happened and it's mostly because of the great community that we all live very very caring and giving and so in one thing this started one nine hundred ninety we're talking about a legal document which follows that property no matter who owns the house restrictions not necessarily development only other restrictions as well to protect that property him perpetuity which is a big one we're bring close to three hundred thousand dollars and it was staged where there were big penalties if we didn't raise a certain amount and i signed it and i came back to the board and i said i course and writing grants our local interest collaborates with the towns and getting them to the mills property we asked for thirty thousand dollars from the town which thank heavens  something to do to try to take if you're in that special situation where you don't want to have to or you can fundraise from dollar word all the way to three hundred thousand so in bills and the  mills purchase we asked for thirty thousand asked for a town meeting i looked at a sea of hands go up to approve it and it was just wonderful we also asked for twenty thousand from the town of underhill that was much harder they do not have that line item in their budget so that was a little bit more difficult for the mills property i don't want to jump ahead but there was a simpson property waterfront was  wildlife habitat with rudimentary trail system mostly just like everybody critters our wildlife critters have a place where they are going to be intruded upon slew of birds and nesting birds and so we actually close one of the trails for a long while just because we don't want to be pushing on their sensitive birthing time  always going to be available for sliding for generations it could have been a house like that in fact it was planned proposed to be a house when we got in the landowner called me and said i really don't want unusual situation worse night or companies the developer left a message on my answering machine and said we'd like to talk to the jurors from homeland trust about you receiving some property ok and i met with the vice president that time and this is why and he said well you know it's been farmed for years a good majority of the ninety acres o would like to see the farm continue it also has an extensive trail system through the wooded area we like to see the trails continue and our concern is that if it became the homeowners has a fast trail i mean we talk about land management besides seeking opportunities to conserve important lands in our two towns as we continue to do we are actively managing six hundred  if any well you know whether it's three hours on a saturday or you want to join the board everything in between but there is no trails for many there is a trails jericho committee a committee that areas more parking it was not a sensitive wildlife habitat and so again mobile phone raising raised about sixty thousand dollars to purchase what we call the gateway property which we've photos of them and everything and then later on we we learned a little bit more about we also found a lot of syllables we found an enormous farm foundation so there's a lot of cultural history in the southern section of the country unlike the wildlife you know diverse habitat that's rugged and difficult to get to this is much more accommodating and as a result it's been used in the past for all kinds them you've got the last five years huge chunks away and are just waiting i mean it's all ready to happen it's just it's just the energy level getting the right people with the right time to take the next step well actually we are just like any private land owner we haven't rolled all of our property stick or some of it's the will from natural area the wildlife remote area is and world and conservation ready we are talking to landowners who are interested in conserving our property and that's how it all starts it's never top down process it's never regulatory process or you know you better do this or you better do that it's strictly voluntary a landowner desires to see their property stay primarily undeveloped doesn't have to be their whole property but some of it there they're interested in keeping the conservation values of their property intact and then usually talk to a land trust and start the conversation it could be true here project it could be a twenty year project sometimes mom and dad want to do it the kids do thank heavens we have a great community because that's how we operate that's what the like blood of our organization is the membership that we have the kind of things that keep our all volunteer organization the jewel you speak of you know those are super important to us fortunately i think it's i think been involved in this since nine ninety eight i think it's getting harder and harder the money's tight or direct competition is very tough development is you know it seems to get easier and easier and keep your mind open it's harder and harder and there's a lot of reasons for that those are little bit as far as that goes but it's not something where we can sit back and go oh not to worry you know jerk was always going to have it's role that's it's not necessary or we're a small nonprofit organization  parcel any training for any scenic any area that you care about is a mission it starts with the landowner but it's also good to get feedback with the town residents are interested in conserving you can go to the mills riverside park website and right at the top it says about the park and you will see conservation easement right below and you can click on there and you can see what it looks like what the legal language looks like  directs the current board as far as managing their property it's pretty complex or various zones that the park is divided into and each zone has its own permitted uses and restrictions so there's a right kerri anne along the river there's the forest land and then the most sensitive like habitat which is the very top of the park no trail system intrudes on there and then there's the open recreational scenic which is actually protected so when you drive down route fifteen you don't ever have to worry about a snack bar or are you know goal you know scoreboards or anything that's going be here forever and that you are going to be monitoring that property forever to make sure that no violations take place and that's usually done well that's a huge huge responsibility and if you can't do that work then you are in serious trouble as a way of trust if you take on that work you can't do what the other is in for violation does occur you had better have a lot of money set aside in case it goes to court value is determined by a lot of things but it's not conserving land for for certain let's say the land has to have some really exceptional values to it why it's why it's important enough to conserve it you know membership base just the way we are and you know they're eager to get your membership to who they are they have a very large stewardship and down and that they work hard to get several million dollars at least set aside just to ensure that there's an organization have the funding available to have the staff to do the monitoring of those year to year so with like so sometimes property has a section where they can see a future home or a future subdivision or whatever and there and they can serve a part of the property with the most conservation we all have our different and unique abilities i mean we excel at local fundraising we do a really good job of raising money we do pretty good job it ran right and getting grant funding for my interest as a very good job with a lot of their grants and broader support than we could ever hope for here are two towns so we all get together and decide how money money we have to raise and how fast but it happened three cases still was another miracle we didn't we wanted to raise eighty thousand dollars we knew we had to raise it  we didn't know if we'd make it and i got a card in our little pill box and i opened it up it was a nice little card and i just said i'm looking forward to seeing my grandchildren slide on hill and i looked at the check it was ten thousand  and i don't see anywhere where a checkbook appreciated security ok he said i'll send you something if that's ok i said sure and then our next procedure had appreciate the up there was a ten thousand dollars by the time you know it went through all the channels and got to us it was ten thousand dollars towards the park and everything from two cents to five dollars to twenty dollars all helps and all goes to great things and we're out and poising and all of those things for an opportunity if if and when it ever gets to the point where there's enough of a public process and the desire is to conserve any of that land which i hope it gets there we would certainly want to be a to see development there and the only way to ensure that doesn't happen is if it's primarily concerned because things can change even if we can't imagine it here sitting here fifty years from now things can change initiated activity so we don't really come along and say we're going to do this for you we have to wait for the for the opportunity and then when it's there really we definitely will jump in with both feet