Bluffside Farm at 10

Celebrating 10 years of Bluffside Farm

On a bright February day, an intrepid group of snowshoers gathered on a bluff above Lake Memphremagog. Their journey skirted a snow-covered meadow alongside a pocket of forest. They wound their way through the snowy landscape, making new friends, reconnecting with neighbors, and learning about the land around them.

This beautiful stretch of green space, which skirts the City of Newport, is Bluffside Farm. It has become a fixture of the Newport community over the past ten years since VLT bought the property.

But this shared space wasn’t a given.

The open land of a multi-generational Vermont farm could have been lost forever. Instead, it was preserved as a public place where land and community are nurtured. The result is a landscape shaped not just by its history, but by the way it is used, shared, and valued today.

Photo: The 10th Anniversary Celebration snowshoe in February 2026.

A community-led vision

The Scott family lovingly stewarded the property for six generations, tending apple orchards, dairy cows, and a maple sugarbush. When they had to sell it, the farm was the largest undeveloped property within Newport. The community saw the threat of subdivision and development of this beloved landscape and asked VLT to get involved.

We bought the property in late 2015 and immediately opened it to the public. At that time, the idea of VLT owning land permanently wasn’t on the table. The plan was to conserve the property and resell it as a conserved farm.

Photo: Bluffside Farm in 2022, showing the farm buildings from above and Newport in the distance. Photo by Caleb Kenna.

VLT President and CEO, Tracy Zschau, was Conservation Director at the time. She quickly recognized how important the land was to the local community.

“We saw something unique about the way this land paired nature and community. Here was this beautiful expanse of field and forests, overlooking the lake and yet nestled up to the City of Newport,” said Tracy. “So before we sold it on, we decided to have a series of public meetings to get input.”

The community ideas generated at those public meetings were so compelling that Tracy realized VLT had to reimagine what was possible. We hosted our annual Board of Trustees retreat at Bluffside in 2017, inviting community members to share their visions for what Bluffside Farm could become.

The Board was convinced. They approved long-term ownership of the property. VLT would steward Bluffside Farm, safeguarding its natural resources and welcoming the public to enjoy its beauty.

Photo: VLT hosts a guided walk through Bluffside Farm discussing managing invasives along the shoreline and in the forest. Credit: Nolwen Mahé.

“A part of our daily lives”

Irene lives in Derby, ten minutes from Bluffside Farm. She often has meetings while walking the recreation path.

“It’s convenient, well-maintained, and just a beautiful area,” says Irene.

The property also draws out-of-town guests, some of whom have been coming to the area for decades.

Nolwen Mahé lives in Montreal but spends many weekends at the family cottage near Bluffside Farm. She can walk or ski out of their backyard and onto the property.

“We’re so lucky,” says Nolwen. “We are one property away from it, so it feels like an extension of our yard.”

She has traversed the property on foot and on skis, alone, or with family and friends, in all seasons and weather. She even joined a friend who’d won a bow hunting permit in the annual lottery to hunt at Bluffside — her first and only hunting experience. She joined the snowshoe group in February, learning aspects of its history that she hadn’t heard before. Whether she’s foraging wild berries on her own or bringing new friends to experience the property, she cherishes that it’s open to all every day.

Photo: Nolwen Mahé sits on the Leopold Bench on the Bluffside Farm property. Credit: Michel Sanschagrin.

Erin Kelly has been coming to Newport since she was a kid. Her family’s property sits in the neighborhood next to Bluffside Farm. As an adult, she cherishes the weeks she spends there with her family.

She and her mom walk the Bluffside trails every day of their vacation. “Living across the country, I cherish that uninterrupted time with her,” she says.

Bluffside Farm’s one-mile recreation path and boardwalk connected previously unlinked paths, creating a seven-mile network stretching to the Canadian border. Erin loves that connection to the community.

“After dinner, we ride our bikes across the boardwalk to Tim & Doug’s for ice cream, or to enjoy the sunset,” she says. “Bluffside Farm has given us access to that. It’s become a part of our daily lives.”

Photo: Erin Kelly and her mom at Bluffside Farm. Credit: Erin Kelly.

A shared future

Bluffside Farm and VLT have grown together over the past decade. Beyond the boardwalk and recreation paths, the property hosts a community garden with around 20 plots that fill to bursting with fresh food by the end of the season. A local farmer hays the fields, and there are plans to improve the health of the sugarbush and consider whether it could be brought back into production.

What else is next? Tracy’s thoughts turn back to the community.

“Bluffside Farm has helped us understand all the ways land can make peoples’ lives richer,” says Tracy. “The future is still available to be co-created as we continue to listen to the community and grow a shared vision together.”

Photo: The Community Garden at the height of the growing season in 2024.