It has been a wet and wild start, but summer is here in Vermont! We hope you are enjoying the outdoors – whether that's in the garden, on the trails, in the swimmining holes, or around town. 

This edition of E-News recognizes exciting changes at VNRC, progress on our work and upcoming events to mark on your calendars.

Thank you to the thousands of VNRC members and activists who make our work possible! Your support and dedication mean a lot to us - and to Vermont. 

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As you may have already heard, VNRC and Smart Growth Vermont are merging.

The objective of this strategic merger is to more efficiently and effectively promote land use and community development policies that best serve the state’s ecological, economic and social needs.

According to VNRC Executive Director Elizabeth Courtney, the two organizations’ decision to join forces will strengthen VNRC’s focus on community development and smart growth issues.

“SGV has been a leader in bringing people with diverse interests to the table to try to solve Vermont’s thorniest land use and development challenges,” Courtney explained.  “The programs that they have developed, such as the on-line community planning toolbox, will enhance the longstanding work VNRC has been doing on this important issue with communities, state officials, and the development community.”  

Click here for more detail on this important merger.

The Department of Public Service’s process to update Vermont’s Comprehensive Energy Plan is in full swing. VNRC has been working closely with the DPS to help organize and co-host a series of public forums across the state so that energy committee leaders, regional planning commissions and the public can help shape this forward-looking guiding document.

“A comprehensive, coordinated plan is essential to meeting Vermont’s energy needs in the smartest, most strategic way possible,” said Johanna Miller, VNRC’s energy program director. “Ensuring Vermonters put the best ideas forward — by attending an upcoming public forum or submitting written comments — is key if we are to meet the serious climate and energy challenges we face: challenges that affect everything from our economy, our food systems, our mobility and more,” she said. The last forum will take place June 28 in Colchester. 

Find out more here or check out the DPS web site for far more information about future forums, submitting written comments and this important process.

Tracy Ullom – "I am a third year, Juris Doctor and Master of Environmental Law and Policy student at Vermont Law School, focusing primarily on natural resource law and land use.  This summer I am working with VNRC on a variety of issues including Biomass, Current Use, and Zoning.  I hope to learn more about these key environmental issues, in order to help further the mission of VNRC in my time working here."

Shaina Shippen: "I’m a third year Joint Degree student at Vermont Law School concentrating on environmental and land use policies. This summer at the VNRC I will have the opportunity to work on issues concerning local land use regulations. I look forward to helping VNRC bolster land conservation in Vermont by exploring current use and conservation easement tax incentives."

Ryan Kane: "I just finished my first year at Vermont Law School. I am extremely excited to be a legal intern this summer with VNRC. I graduated in 2007 from Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts with a BA in Philosophy. This summer I am most excited to gain some valuable real world legal experience while working for an organization that shares my commitment to protecting Vermont's natural beauty."

Alex Funk: "I graduated with a BS in Environmental Policy and Planning from Virginia Tech in 2010. I am currently enrolled at Vermont Law School and just finished up my 1L year. My interests are energy law and policy and climate change litigation and I am looking forward to working with VNRC's energy program this summer."

Recently the Public Service Board appointed VNRC’s Energy Program Director Johanna Miller to fill one of the public slots — that representing environmental interests — on its “Vermont System Planning Committee.” The VSPC is a forum whereby utilities, energy experts and public interest members discuss and advance non-transmission alternatives to new transmission projects. The goal is to increase collaboration among utilities, foster transparency in the process, involve the public in decision making and ensure full consideration of all transmission alternatives (such as new generation or energy efficiency solutions to reduce demand). VNRC welcomes the opportunity to serve in this capacity as a potential avenue to support aggressive energy efficiency and conservation solutions as well as new, strategic renewable energy development in Vermont.

Find out more about the VSPC here or contact Johanna Miller at jmiller@vnrc.org 

Thursday, September 22 from 5:30 – 7:30 at the Lareau Farm in Waitsfield, VNRC will hold its annual meeting.

Join us for the celebration – American Flatbread pizza, beverages, a report from House Speaker Shap Smith – all in the good company of VNRC members and friends. We are looking forward another great event. See you there!

For more details and a list of other special events click here!

After the massive and devastating flooding this spring, Lake Champlain is finally receded below the official flood stage and Vermonters are cleaning up and repairing the damage. The Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center, for one, is working hard to get geared up for another fantastic summer of sailing on the lake. Opening date is July 4.

Check out more detail on the opening and the Rock the Dock benefit here!

Recently, Montpelier residents gave a decisive nod of approval to a district heating proposal designed to provide heat to the state capital’s downtown businesses and state buildings.

VNRC is hopeful that this project can serve as a model for how biomass can be done right in Vermont, as biomass projects like this one, which provide heat as the primary output, make the most efficient use of valuable wood supplies. In our role on the state’s Biomass Energy Development Working Group and in general, VNRC has been pressing for policies that support a commitment to high efficiency and forest health. It’s our hope that this Montpelier project will demonstrate how that’s possible.  

VNRC is deep in the policy trenches working with state officials to be sure they implement a protective "anti-degradation" policy for Vermont’s waterways. Among other things, a good anti-degradation policy protects invaluable drinking water sources, and the waters that support our great sport fishing heritage in Vermont. In fact, just the other day, Vermont’s bass season opened. What a great reason to get out and enjoy Vermont’s natural resources.

Read outdoor writer Dennis Jensen’s overview here on how to stalk these wonderful fish!  

Climate expert and VNRC member and advisor Bill McKibben recently wrote a provocative op-ed that appeared in the Washington Post recently, asking (with considerable irony) if it might not be too radical to begin to piece together the devastating wild weather events as part of a new reality in the era of climate change. A San Francisco filmmaker turned it into an arresting video.

Check out the four-minute video here and let us know what you think. 

The insurance industry is increasingly paying out big bucks for weather-related damage (like the recently flooding here in Vermont) that may be in part caused by climate change. Also, private insurers are pulling out of certain markets across the country because risks are too high. Will insurers become any sort of potent force in the climate debate  as weather becomes more severe and unpredictable? Brian Thomas, a sustainability consultant who used to work for Swiss Re, a global reinsurer, and currently a member of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, offers some thoughts.

Click here for the full article.

Two recent news reports, one in Crains Business Journal and one in the New York Times, suggest that some large corporations are trying to move some of their offices from suburban office parks and campuses back into the centers of cities. Why? In part, because young, bright workers (who these corporations want) don’t want long commutes. They prefer working close to home (and that often means walking, biking or taking public transit) in vibrant areas. Sounds good, huh?

Check out more here.  

Join VNRC communications director Jake Brown in downtown Montpelier for a lively video briefing on VNRC’s recent work. Check it out here.