Retired UVM professor reflects on decades helping interpret Intervale's sustainability story

Tom Hudspeth described a long association with the Intervale dating to 1972 and recounted teaching environmental-interpretation courses that partnered students with local farms and conservation organizations. He said those classes produced roughly 300 local sustainability stories and engaged students in creating guided field trips and exhibits for partners such as the Intervale's farms.

Hudspeth framed the Intervale's incubator-farmer program as a replicable, place-based model for sustainable, local agriculture that helps some farmers move to conserved properties with the Vermont Land Trust. "Over the 46 years that I've had the chance to interact with this amazing and special place called the Intervale, there's been a lot of continuity," he said, and he credited experiential learning for connecting students, researchers and community partners.