Lauren Oates introduced a number of colleagues on Wednesday morning to help explain the work they do with Vermont Housing & Conservation Board (VHCB) funding across Vermont. Michael Monte (CEO, Champlain Housing Trust) reviewed a slide deck profiling a number of projects they have worked on. The three projects reviewed will total 1750 homes over time and about 650 will remain perpetually affordable. None of them would have been possible without the support of VHCB.

Jon Binhammer (Land Protection Director, The Nature Conservancy) was next, and shared a slide deck about the Tanguay Farm Retirement project. Dairy market weaknesses led a local farmer to retire his cows and sell the farm through the Nature Conservancy. Clean water funds were available through VHCB to restore some of the water quality benefits of the land. This included 102 acres with 2 miles of frontage on the Connecticut River.

The project was with $492K from VHCB and an even larger grant from Upper Valley Mitigation and Enhancement Fund taken from FERC Re-licensing of Dams in the Connecticut basin.