My Background
I am a farmer, a landowner, and a steward of Vermont’s working landscape. I co-founded Slate Hill Farms LLC in Poultney in 2007, purchased the farm in 2008, and still operate it today. The farm was a member of the Northeast Organic Farmer’s Association from 2008 to 2014 and remains working land.
I am also a member of Vermont Coverts, Woodlands for Wildlife, and the Vermont Woodlands Association. These are not organizations I joined to put on a resume — they reflect decades of hands-on commitment to responsible land stewardship.
When I vote on forestry policy, current-use valuation, or conservation program funding, I bring direct experience with what those policies mean to the people who actually work the land.
Why It Matters
Forests, farms, and working lands define Vermont’s landscape, its economy, and its identity. Vermont is one of the most forested states in the nation, and our working landscape — timber, maple, agriculture, and wildlife habitat — supports rural communities that depend on it for their economic survival.
When the cost or complexity of regulation makes it harder for a family farm or a small woodlot to remain in production, we lose more than acreage. We lose stewardship. We lose jobs. We lose the open landscape that makes Vermont Vermont.
Keeping land in productive use — and keeping the people who manage it economically viable — is one of the most effective conservation strategies we have.
Issues I’ve Worked On
- Current Use — Vermont’s Use Value Appraisal program is one of the most important tools we have for keeping farms and forestland productive and in private ownership. I am a strong supporter of the program and have worked to protect its integrity and expand awareness of it among landowners who qualify.
- Working lands — advocating for policies that support farmers, foresters, and landowners as economic actors and environmental stewards, not just subjects of regulation.
- Conservation partnerships — supporting voluntary conservation tools that allow landowners to protect their land on their own terms, including conservation easements, forestry management plans, and cooperative agreements with state agencies.
- Responsible forest management — working to ensure that Vermont’s forest-management policies are grounded in science, protective of long-term forest health, and practical for the loggers, foresters, and landowners who implement them every day.
What Success Looks Like
Success means healthy forests, productive farms, strong stewardship incentives, and fair treatment of landowners.
It means a Vermont where the family that has farmed the same land for generations can afford to keep farming it. Where a small woodlot owner can manage timber responsibly without navigating a regulatory maze that discourages good stewardship. Where the working landscape remains intact — not because government mandated it, but because we gave landowners the support and the certainty they needed to stay in.
That is the Vermont I am working for.