The Mountain Campus

Burr and Burton Academy's Mountain Campus program brings motivated, engaged students "up the mountain" for a semester of place-based, environmental education. Students will challenge themselves to know their community, to be leaders, to push their physical limitations, to think deeply, and to understand their important role as change agents.

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Center for an Agricultural Economy

Nate Lalor

Sustainability Trip

Mountain Campus

November 2, 2017

This past week, the Mountain Campus traveled to Atkins Field in Hardwick, Vermont. While we were there, Bethany, a member of the Center for an Agricultural Economy (CAE), showed us all the field has to offer. From a pump track to an orchard, it was fun to hear how this non-profit was doing big things for the community. Atkins Field & the CAE revolves around bringing the community together through food, fun, and the history of Hardwick.

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Battenkill Watershed Alliance

Recently at the Mountain Campus a few of us went on a trip to The BattenKill Watershed Alliance. The Alliance is a group of people who are attempting and succeeding to rehabilitate the river for trout to sustain life in a natural habitat. Cynthia Browning one of the group's founders helped give us awareness on how to know if you're part of the river is healthy with thriving fish and if not what to do to help sustain a stretch of the river. The group has made lots of progress in the Arlington area. In a 700ft part of the river they studied and found only about 17 fish. After they “fixed” the area with woody debris and bank restoration they found almost 200 fish. What this alliance is doing is sustainable in a sense because without the fish in the water it's unhealthy and the fishermen have nothing to fish for, therefor restaurants in that area have no fish to feed. It’s important to be aware of the trout in the water if you don’t, who will?

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Studio Hill Farm

Studio Hill is a “carbon farm” located in Shaftsbury, Vermont. The property is a top of a hill that overlooks a nearby valley. Jesse McDougall, the owner and driving force of Studio Hill is extremely friendly and talkative. He is especially talkative on the subject of his mission to sequester carbon via rotational grazing with his sheep and turkey, plus a no tilling system. Using his current method, McDougall produces about 1 cm of soil a year! Studio Hill Farm is doing amazing work, not just for their business or Vermont, but for the world too.

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Oct 30

Casella visit

Doug

Grade 10

We visited Casella's zero sort recycling plant. There, we met Greg and Warren, both employees at the plant. They taught us how the machine was built to maximize the amount of people that recycle by making it just as easy as trash. There’s no need for any citizens to sort the recycling into different bins. I thought this was a very cool approach. The giant machine they showed us that for the most part automatically sorted all the recycling into different categories. This seems like a pretty sustainable business because they dramatically increase the amount of people that recycle, allowing for more of the waste to be reused, meaning less of a demand for more.

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Atrau Sterling Farm - Chicken processing

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Atrau Roberts

Sustainability Trip

Mountain Campus Staff

October 31, 2017

Processing Chickens at Sterling College

Eric and I went to the Sterling Farm. We worked with Leonard who runs the farm, and his crew to process chickens. We actually got to see, and help them process the chickens. For example you have to go and grab a chicken and put it in a tub. Then the chicken gets flipped upside down into a cone. Next the chickens’ necks get sliced, and the blood is drained into buckets. The chickens are placed into hot water to make it easier to pluck their feathers. After a few minutes the chickens are transferred into a portable plucker (only 3 in Northern Vermont - see below). Once all the feathers are removed the chicken is placed in another pot of water. From here the chicken has the innards removed before it is placed in bags for future use.

This was an awesome learning experience for me. Not only did I get to chase chickens around, but I also got to cut some of the chickens’ heads off.  This is easy for me to do because I hunt and fish. Processing chickens was very different. Even though we are killing an animal, we need to be gentle with animals. I also learned processing chickens can be very profitable. There are only 3 portable pluckers in Northern Vermont. Farmers do not want to spend all their time processing chickens. Most farmers will hire people to travel to their farms and process the chickens for them. It saves on time, and also helps supports the community in terms of jobs. The people who processed the chickens for Sterling Farm made $3.25 a chicken. They will start in July and continue until January. The day that we were there, 7,000 chickens were already processed. The chickens that were processed at Sterling are used for the college. 35% of the food at Sterling is produced by the college.

Again this was an amazing experience for me. Personally the best part was the portable poultry plucker. This thing was really cool. From a hunting point of view you save a lot of time, allowing you to be more productive and profitable.

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TAM visit

April 3, 2017

By Ellis Freilich ‘18

This past monday our Mountain Campus semester visited TAM’s compost facility.  Matt Proft, the Compost Coordinator, showed us around the muddy site and explained to us in detail the composting process.  We learned about the importance of carbon to nitrogen ratios in order to ensure a rich end product. Matt explained how important heat is in the composting process to kill pathogens. We also learned that humans do not have to create this heat, the decomposing material does it through the output of energy.  It was interesting to see how the recently passed Universal Recycling Law, Act 148, has encouraged compost on a more industrial level and that TAM is taking the lead in promoting this new idea of turning waste into product.  This visit has encouraged me to spread the message of the good of composting and to encourage others that it is a very beneficial practice.

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Casella Zero-Sort Recycling visit

April 4, 2017

By Noah French ‘17

Casella Zero-Sort recycling is a waste sorting facility located near Rutland. They take on the crazy challenge of sorting, organizing, and separating waste into their constituent parts to be recycled. The took us on a tour around the facility. Everywhere we looked we saw conveyor belts of flowing trash working hard to somehow separate everything. Glass from metal and metal from plastics and plastics from papers and papers from cardboard. There was a momentous mound of waste near the entrance pending to be pushed onto the conveyor belts. I can confidently say all of us felt humbled by the scale of how much waste we produce but also reassured that there are facilities like this one to recycle it all in an environmentally friendly way. It really is an experience everyone should have at least once. Just to get a concept of what even a small city like Rutland and the rural areas around it can produce. This was the first time the Mountain Campus has visited the Zero-Sort facility and we’re so happy we could. It was an amazing visit and are extremely grateful for all the time and patience everyone at Casella had for us.

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Hunger Mountain Co-op visit

March 29, 2017

By Tucker Kelly

The last visit of our Sustainability Trip was Hunger Mountain Co-op, where we met with Kevin and Krystal. We spent a lot of time in the meeting room asking questions and learning about the co-op. During that time, they gave us some gourmet popcorn and blueberry kombucha, both of which were very good. After the informational bit we had sandwiches made at Hunger Mountain which, I think we can all agree, were amazing. Some of us ate our lunches in the meeting room but soon we hurried back to the bus so we could finally go home after our whirlwind tour of northern and central Vermont. All in all, the visit was very interesting and I'm very grateful for both the great lunch and the opportunity to see an example of a successful co-op.

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Birds of Vermont visit

March 29, 2017

By Julie McNealus ‘17

Birds of Vermont is a small non-profit museum located in Huntington on a 100-acre nature preserve, where birds can roam freely. On our visit we explored the museum’s 500 carvings of birds native to Vermont, endangered species, and extinct species. Almost all of the carvings were crafted by Bob Spear, a gifted artist who created intricate, realistic representations of birds in their natural habitats. Each piece of art was life-sized and so detailed that you had to make sure they didn’t get up and fly away! Some of my favorite carvings included the snowy owl, the keel billed toucan, and the turkey vulture. On the visit we used our observation skills to see the differences between the birds’ heads or beaks. Then we used binoculars to see the interactions between real birds. This place welcomes anyone, and aims to establish a connection to place by providing art, science, and history about native bird species. Many community members go on Sunday walks through the preserve, while college students conduct research on the land, and kids partake in festivities. Overall, this place nurtures an appreciation of the environment by educating and connecting community members.

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Seventh Generation visit

March 28th, 2017

By Kristina Harmon ‘19

Last week we visited many different businesses, including Seventh Generation. When we arrived there, we were warmly welcomed by Patty McGrath. The rest of the staff giving us the tour welcomed us with some delicious Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and fun, yet informative, games. They began with a presentation about the beliefs and purpose of the company. Seventh Generation was founded about twenty five years ago, and since day one they have been making plant-based household, cleaning, baby and feminine products. They told us about their mission to start a consumer revolution that will effect the next seven generations. They gave us a tour of their LEED certified building, during which we learned about the four female chemists who develop all of their new or improved products right in the same building as everyone else. The workplace was a warm and open atmosphere that also clearly connected to their mission to make a difference in the world through plant-based products. Seventh Generation is an impactful and inspiring company that we hope to be able to continue building a relationship with in the future.

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Intervale Center visit

March 28th, 2017

By Meiling Guo ‘17

After we had PB & J for lunch, Carolyn, with a big smile on her face, took us to the community barn for a brief introduction about the Intervale Center. We were all amazed by the origin of this place, a dump site, and surprised at the changes in the last 30 years. Then we went to their Food Hub, Community Farm, and some greenhouses for food distribution, farm incubation, riparian program, and gleaning program. As an non-profit organization, they strengthen food system and bring the community together. We had a really nice walk on the trail within their property, and learned a lot about their contribution to the environment.

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ReSOURCE visit

March 28, 2017

By Corynn Wasyliko ‘19

During our sustainability trip, one of the places we visited was ReSOURCE Vermont. ReSOURCE is a non-profit organization in Burlington with the mission of reducing poverty rates by providing job training in the city, while creating a system for recycling goods that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Tom Longstreth, the Executive Director, showed us around the offices, building material warehouse, and the recycled and repaired household goods storefront. We learned about how they are making a change in their community by reselling used household items, and teaching local young people practical skills. I thought that the way they are providing solutions to the problems in their area is different than some of the other sites we visited on the sustainability trip, yet equally as beneficial.

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Vermont Youth Conservation Corp visit

March 27, 2017

By Julia Dapron ‘19

On March 27, we arrived at the VYCC in Richmond, Vermont. John Woodward meet with us out front and showed us where we would be sleeping for the next two nights. Then we met back downstairs, where everyone was introduced. John continued to talk about the VYCC mission and what exactly they do for the community. We learned that their mission is to teach young people, like us, personal responsibility through meaningful work that connects them to the land, community, and one another.  Their summer crews work on trails, improve wildlife habitats, help state parks, and reduce erosion to improve our waterways. On March 29, after a chilly night in the barn, Mason and Sean (two VYCC crew leaders who work in North Carolina) led us through some games in the hay barn that warmed and woke us up. Then John led us through a tour of the West Monitor Barn and VYCC operations. The tour really showed us how everyone there actually wants to be there. We then ventured over to the farm side of VYCC where there were baby chickens, people cleaning and sorting carrots, three cows (Susan, Luna, Blackberry), and a cat that jumped up on Julie’s back.  After we left and said goodbye to John, Mason, and Sean, I was left with a sense of curiosity wondering if I would actually like this as a summer job. We are looking forward to a visit from John Woodward at the  Mountain Campus.

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Efficiency Vermont visit

March 27, 2017

By Joshua Coppola ‘17

We visited Cochran’s ski area on the Monday of our sustainability trip, where we met with Karl from Efficiency Vermont, and Jimmy from Cochran’s. Karl talked about how Efficiency Vermont operates by encouraging individuals and businesses to increase the efficiency of their power consumption through education, rebates, and on-site audits. One interesting statement he made was that it costs half as much to save a kilowatt hour as to make a new one, for instance investing in LED light bulbs or improving household insulation. This really summed up Efficiency Vermont’s objective: to reduce power consumption, not generate more power. We also heard how Cochran’s ski area has been working with Efficiency Vermont to reduce their electricity costs and increase their sustainability. When Cochran’s added a more eco-friendly snowmaking system, it was around ten times more efficient than previous snowmaking guns. This allowed them to have a cost-effective snowmaking technique, while lessening their environmental footprint.

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Sunrise Orchards visit

March 27, 2017

By Casey Mara ‘19

The first stop on our sustainability trip was Sunrise Orchards in Cornwall, VT. First, we met Chris Hodges, co-owner of the orchard with her husband Barney. We learned about how they produce around 130,000 apples of different varieties yearly, on approximately 200 acres of land. Then we learned about how Sunrise Orchards is a part of Eco-Apples, a program educating apple orchards about harmful chemicals, like organophosphates, that “kill everything,” and restricting their use. As we walked around the orchard, we learned about how Sunrise Orchards practices Integrated Pest Management (IPM), rents local bees to help pollinate in the spring, and how they hire about 50 Jamaicans to help maintain and harvest the apples in the fall. Most importantly, we learned that while they are trying to make a profit, they really try to keep the earth and the community in mind while growing and providing their apples.

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Sustainability Trip: Making Connections

April 7, 2017

After a whirlwind tour of sustainable businesses and organizations throughout the state of Vermont last week, students were assigned the task of coming up with three takeaways from the site they were responsible for. The group then identified a handful of essential themes that make these businesses sustainable and resilient.

Here is a visualization of those themes, which illustrates the idea that there is a balance to be struck in order to achieve sustainability and resilience. If one of these elements is missing, it tips the scale.

Stay tuned for more blog posts from the rest of our sustainability trip in the coming days!