Then, Now, Tomorrow- Context for Planning

by Rob Terry, Executive Director

As we look to the future of Merck Forest & Farmland Center, it is important for us to stay grounded in our past. To do that, we must look back to 1939 when, in the interest of establishing a country retreat, George Merck (then president of Merck & Co) purchased several adjoining hill-top farms in Rupert, VT. With global tensions high, the prospect of establishing a quiet place where he could rehabilitate the forested landscape, which still bore the scars from deforestation and overgrazing in the late seventeen and early eighteen-hundreds, was a powerful draw. This experience in Rupert, however, was not his first foray into sustainable land management. George Merck’s passion for forestry and landscape conservation was ignited early in his life, inspired by his experience working under the tutelage of his cousin Carl Schenk (known affectionately as “Uncle Ollie”) in the Pink Beds of what is now North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest.

Schenck came to the United States from Germany at the request of George Vanderbilt to manage the forest surrounding his newly built Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. The innovative approach Schenck took to sustainably harvesting timber alongside his founding of America’s first school of forestry, cemented his legacy in the field of forest management. Spending summers in his early teens with “Schenk’s boys” learning about forest management ignited a lifelong passion in George Merck that ultimately inspired him to found, and transfer a substantial percentage of his land in Rupert to, Vermont’s first environmentally focused nonprofit educational center in 1950; then named the Vermont Forest & Farmland Center.

The original vision for the Foundation (later renamed Merck Forest & Farmland Center-MFFC) was for MFFC to be a place where friends and family could experience the natural world. The founding trustees envisioned a living classroom where people - from abject novices to seasoned practitioners - could come learn about sustainable and innovative land-use practices. Inspired by this founding vision, MFFC has evolved alongside the regional and national land management sector in the intervening 72 years.

Through the emergence of a host of organizations, such as extension services, and conservation districts, farmers and foresters now have better access to highly trained professionals whose role is to provide continuing education and technical assistance. Simultaneously, urbanization and the consolidation of the farming industry has led to a growing chasm between people and the land. In response, MFFC has focused a greater percentage of its efforts on introducing/ reintroducing people to the land. While the organization continues to partner with colleges and universities, engage emerging professionals in early career opportunities and provide technical support to regional landowners and working lands professionals, an ever-increasing percentage of MFFC’s time and energy is invested in providing opportunities for visitors of all ages to develop an understanding of how an ecosystem functions and how land managers can work in concert with an ecosystem and its processes to harvest food and timber products while ensuring, and at times enhancing, ecosystem services such as providing clean water, sequestering and storing carbon, and nutrient cycling.

Carl Schenk is not the only luminary that inspired MFFC’s founder. George Merck grew up in Llewelyn, NJ, home to Thomas Edison’s laboratory. Edison, a family friend and mentor to George Merck provided a great deal of inspiration. From Edison, Merck learned many things, including the importance of setting audacious goals, developing actionable plans, and putting in the work.

While staff and volunteers stay plenty busy here at MFFC, the hive-like level of activity is built on careful planning. Grounded in our mission to inspire curiosity, love, and responsibility for working and natural lands, MFFC’s staff and trustees have drafted a strategic plan focused on five core objectives intended to position the organization as a leading regional resource for nature exploration, outdoor learning, and environmentally sound forest & farmland management. These goals are invigorating the working landscape, bolstering the protection of the landscape’s natural systems, deepening connections with visitors and the community, championing individual and institutional climate smart action, and accelerating organizational development.

To accomplish these objectives, MFFC staff and trustees, with support from subject area experts, are developing a ten-year master plan. The master plan will lay out specific objectives for our land management, education, advancement and operations teams. While we are still in the early phases of drafting this master plan, core objectives are already emerging. We’ve begun to envision:

• Facilities improvements that will help make our work safer, more efficient and more accessible to our visitors.

• Expansion of renewable energy production and the electrification of vehicles and light equipment whenever feasible.

• New demonstration projects on the farm that will showcase the timber-products value chain, and sustainable, homestead scale food production.

• Network-wide refresh, with some redesign, reroute, and rebuild work for trails and cabins.

As we continue to develop and refine these plans, feedback from our community will be critical. To that end, please keep an eye on your inbox, and be on the lookout for opportunities at upcoming visits and events to share feedback and fill out surveys that will help us ensure that our plans will serve our community in meaningful ways.