The Fund for North Bennington launched its ecosystem resilience project by adopting new management plans for The Mile-Around Woods and for its forested land east of Lake Paran. The plans aim to create a breathing space for a healthy habitat’s key species by helping insects, native plants and animals to hold their ground in the face of a tidal wave of invasives, extreme weather and climate change.
This page provides a summary of The Fund’s work to date to support sustainable fields and woodlands, and to educate the public about ecosystem resilience.
2024. Fields. With the “no corn” farming policy now in place, the fields are managed only for cool-season grass hay. Our farmers will use manure (rather than commercial fertilizer) to the extent feasible.
Invasives. To further exhaust the considerable seed bank of invasive plants, regrowth was permitted for a year after initial treatment in 2022. In 2024 the areas were brush-hogged or treated with low-dose herbicide. (This was a targeted, virtually zero-drift backpack spray method with an application rate just 4 percent of that typically applied to prepare a field for corn.) Removing these re-sprouts greatly increases the survival chances for native trees and shrubs. After all the work accomplished in the last three years, less intensive methods will be required in the future to control invasive species.
Native tree and shrubs plantings. More than 600 dormant native trees and shrubs were planted in the fall of 2024 along the Mile-Around Woods’ former hedge rows and perimeter These natives will provide nutritious food and safe nesting sites (unlike the previous invasives-only hedges) and will function as wildlife travel corridors to and from woodlands. To protect the saplings from persistent deer browsing, they will remain caged for several years. The plantings include a grove of blight-resistant chestnuts that will be “adopted”, and studied, by children at The Village School. In addition, 400+ natives were planted in what was a 13-acre impenetrable honeysuckle thicket near Lake Paran. Species include: white pine, serviceberry, hazelnut, elderberry, paper birch, persimmon, quaking aspen, red oak, dogwood, shagbark, sugar maple, butternuts, and chestnuts.
2023. More mulching, more planting and weakening of the long-lived seed bank. In 2023 we started to stifle the long-lived and enormous invasive plant seed bank while encouraging growth of native species. In addition to mulching more mature invasives and planting hundreds of native shrubs and tree in new areas, we allowed the hidden invasive plant seeds to germinate. This helped us to find and remove them in 2024. A new kiosk was set in place with a new map to share information and news about The Mile-Around Woods.
2022. Mulching of mature invasives and impenetrable honeysuckle. Two-million feet cubed (a volume comparable to 50 railroad cars) of seed-producing, mature invasive plants were shredded by the “Brontosaurus” — a giant mulching machine. Work occurred near The Mile-Around Woods and on 13 acres east of Lake Paran. This was the first step to restore an ecosystem with the plant, shrub and tree diversity needed to sustain local wildlife. Tick habitat was drastically reduced and the no-waste method resulted in organic matter that will break down to benefit the soil and limit erosion.
2021. 10-year plans approved. Consultations with multiple conservation experts (ecologists, The Nature Conservancy, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Vermont Center for Ecostudies, the Vermont Land Trust, regional Conservation Districts et al.) helped guide the prescriptions in our ten-year management plans. We planted 220+ native shrubs in the Monarch Meadow, and identified and mapped severe invasive species infestations found throughout the property. The “big five” are buckthorn, bittersweet, burning bush (euonymus), barberry, and multi-flora rose.
More about The Fund’s conservation work may be found here.