Windmill Hill Permanently Protected for Farming and Education

Windmill Hill, a beautiful and agriculturally important area of Shelburne Farms, is now permanently protected. On August 14, 2025, the education nonprofit conserved these 66 acres with the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and Vermont Land Trust (VLT) to create the largest block of conserved farm and forest land on the property, expanding previously protected farmland and lakeshore. 

The effort safeguards some of the farm’s most beautiful views as well as some of its most productive soils and an extended trail network. “It’s a National Park-quality landscape supporting our mission to inspire and cultivate learning for a sustainable future,” says Shelburne Farms President Alec Webb. “Integrated with our farm activities and walking trails, it provides a wonderful area for education programs. It just exemplifies Frederick Law Olmsted’s idea of nurturing well-being by connecting people to the land.” 

Forty years ago, to financially stabilize a young nonprofit that had just been bequeathed 1,000 acres, its Board of Directors worked to conserve critical areas of the farm by collaborating with VLT, and sold several house sites on the property’s margins, including three on its southern border, Windmill Hill. “Those transactions gave us hope of achieving our vision–to become a vibrant campus for learning,” says Alec. But when the nonprofit reacquired land south of Windmill Hill in 1994, those sites became a developable private island in the heart of the farm. Over the past decade, Shelburne Farms successfully worked to repurchase these parcels. Now, thanks to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and VLT, 66 acres of fields and woodlands are permanently protected.

The land will be open for walking and education programs, and will enhance the farm’s biodiversity, wildlife habitat, water resources, forestland and fields now and into the future. 

“For nearly four decades, we have worked with Shelburne Farms to conserve and steward more than 800 acres of fields and woodlands that provide numerous benefits for the people who walk the trails, attend workshops, and enjoy their award-winning cheeses,” said VLT President Tracy Zschau. “Thank you, Shelburne Farms, for your ongoing commitment, including the conservation of new lands and additional water-quality protections.” 

"Windmill Hill has been part of Shelburne Farms’ story for decades, and it’s deeply gratifying to see it permanently protected for farming, education, and the community,” says Karen Freeman, Associate Director of Conservation, Vermont Housing & Conservation Board. “The property will enhance Shelburne Farms’ already critical role in demonstrating how farmland can be managed simultaneously for agricultural production, biodiversity, water quality, learning, and public access and will benefit Vermonters and visitors for generations. VHCB is proud to have partnered with Shelburne Farms and the Vermont Land Trust to make this vision a reality."

Funding for the project included a $950,000 grant from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, along with $50,000 from the Town of Shelburne Open Space fund. Gifts from the Lookout Foundation, Freeman Foundation, and several anonymous private donors, including a $1,000,000 gift from a fundholder at the Vermont Community Foundation, provided additional major support for the project, which was a key component of the Campaign for Shelburne Farms.

“It’s a true endowment and we are grateful to all of our donors for making it possible” Alec says. “This land will pay public, agricultural, and ecosystem dividends forever.”