Dummerston's farmland plays a significant role in defining the town's rural landscape. It is a landscape of fields, wooded hillsides and uncluttered hilltops and ridges. This landscape creates a "sense of place" that helps define Dummerston and, once lost, it cannot be recreated. Farmland is especially vulnerable to conversion to non-farm uses. Characteristics of best farmlands (level topography and well drained soils) make them highly desirable for development.

Dummerston is committed to conserving land for agricultural use. A Farmland Protection Fund has been established to help protect the town's farmland from residential and commercial development. Uses of the fund include, but are not limited to, purchase or assistance in the purchase of rights of first refusal, options to purchase conservation restrictions (purchase of development rights) and purchase by the town of land through bargain sales. Applications for use of the Fund are evaluated by the Farmland Protection Committee, which advises the Selectboard on matters pertaining to the preservation of agricultural lands. Current Committee members are Vernon Grubinger, Diana Lischer, Jack Manix, D. Read Miller III, and Elizabeth Wood.

Please call us at 257-1496, or email TownClerk@dummerston.org, if you'd like more information.