Planning Documents Contacts Role of the Public - pdf Principles Implementation Statutory Authority History Districts Public Input Opportunities

West Street Complex

Village of Essex Junction, VT

The Agency of Natural Resources is currently developing a long-range management plan (LRMP) for the West Street Complex in the Village of Essex Junction, Vermont. It is approximately 29 acres in size and was acquired in the 1920s to be used for the State Tree Nursery until 1995. The property is now the site for offices of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and is used for a variety of outdoor recreational activities year round. In addition, 60 community garden plots are located there.

A public meeting about the parcel was held on Wednesday, October 8, 2008 at the Hiawatha School.  Comments are being solicited through November 24th per the information that follows.

Public Involvement - Public Scoping Questions

History of State Ownership of the West Street Parcel

The 29-acre parcel now held by the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation between West Street and Pearl Street in the Village of Essex Junction, Vermont has served a number of functions since coming into state ownership in the 1920s. The buildings currently serve as offices for employees of the Agency of Natural Resources. The grounds contain 60 community garden plots and allow area residents to enjoy a variety of year-round recreational activities.

The primary use of these lands for decades was the State Tree Nursery which was closed in 1995. During the years leading up the establishment of the nursery, there had been exploitation of natural resources throughout the country. Gifford Pinchot, then head of the Forest Service, and Chief Forester of the United States during President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration, was raising awareness for the need for conservation of natural resources throughout the country.

Many acres of forest land in the State of Vermont had been burned by wild fires in 1828, 1857, 1869, and 1876, with the worst in 1903. In 1906, the Vermont legislature appropriated $500 annually for five years to the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station to establish and maintain a nursery where forest trees were grown. These trees were used to help replace the loss of trees to fire and other uses. In 1907, 35,000 trees were distributed. Austin Hawes became the first Vermont State Forester in 1909 and administered the funds. The State Tree Nursery was transferred later to the University of Vermont (UVM) in Burlington.

By 1922, the UVM land was needed to enlarge the athletic field, so the State Tree Nursery was moved at that time to the 29 acres in the Village of Essex Junction, known as the Pearl Street site. The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation legally acquired those acres later that decade. Even later, the Federal Soil Bank Act made funds available for the purchase of another 100 acres off Old Colchester Road in Essex to be used for growing trees. At that time it was called the Grove Tree site. Between 1907 and 1970 a total of 82,973,768 trees were planted as a result of the nursery operation. The inventory of trees of all ages at the nursery in 1959 was 20 million. The highest number planted in a single year was 1960 with 6,637,000.

An overhead irrigation system was built to water the trees. Besides growing trees, the Grove Street site took in white pine, red pine, and spruce cones and extracted their seeds. Then the seeds were trucked to the Pearl Street site for cold storage in an office building with a refrigeration plant in the cellar. A metal building with concrete floor (30x120 feet) was built for grading, sorting, and shipping trees and for winter storage of trucks and other equipment. Trees were packed in sphagnum moss and burlap and marked with the owner’s name. Then they were sorted and arranged in a “whirl”—a four or five-foot high circle, like a big wreath. They were shipped by truck to locations like Bennington and Brattleboro.

The house on the 29-acre property became the nursery superintendent’s office and now provides office s for district staff of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. The barn that was used for storage is now used for the district office of the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation.

Sources:  Bill Hall, Forests, Parks and Recreation retired forester, personal communication; Perry H. Merrill, The Making of a Forester, 1984; History of Forestry in Vermont: 50th Anniversary 1909-1959, pamphlet.

For more information, please contact:

Linda Henzel

Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation

103 South Main Street, Building 10 South

Waterbury, Vermont 05671-0601

802.241.3688

linda.henzel@state.vt.us