An article written and read by Gus Seelig.

Gus Seelig is the founding Executive Director of Vermont Housing & Conservation Board. He worked with Senator Leahy to implement the Farms for the Future program as a pilot project, which led to the national Farm Protection Program. As a direct result of Gus’ leadership, Vermont now has some 460,000 acres of conserved land, including over 800 conserved farms; 16,000 permanently affordable homes; conserved town forests and new state parks, and multiple additions to state forest and Wildlife Management Areas. Much of this work has been implemented by supporting a nonprofit network to achieve Vermont’s land use/community development vision of compact settlement surrounded by a working landscape.

Read the full article and discover additional content in the Fall 2025 Issue of From the Ground Up.

An article written and read by Alex Redfield.

Alex Redfield is the Policy Director for Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities. On the farm, in state government, and in conservation policy circles, his work for the past 20 years has centered on supporting a just transition of New England’s landscape toward an equitable future. He lives in South Portland, Maine.

Read the full article and discover additional insights in the Autumn 2025 Issue of From the Ground Up, featuring Communities and Land: Working Together Toward a Shared Vision by David Foster and Conserving Land, Creating Homes: Lessons from Vermont Housing & Conservation Partnership by Gus Seeling.

An article written and read by Marissa Latshaw.

Marissa Latshaw works with mission-driven organizations to build empathetic and inclusive communication strategies that inspire action. She is the publisher of From the Ground Up and co-coordinator of the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities initiative, working with partners throughout New England to help bring a more holistic, integrated approach to land conservation. Marissa resides in Connecticut where she’s always up for a walk in the conservation area adjacent to her home.

Read the full article and discover additional content in the Fall 2025 Issue of From the Ground Up.

An opinion piece written and read by Nancy Zimny.

Nancy Zimny has been a resident of Richmond, Vermont, for 43 years and is a lifelong outdoor recreationist. She is a retired UVM Professor of Physical Therapy who based her teaching on the clinical science underlying therapeutic rehabilitation techniques for humans and eventually companion animals as a certified canine rehabilitation therapist. Today, she volunteers at a farm animal sanctuary and has been closely following the discussions of the Andrews Community Forest Committee in Richmond as they discuss ways to “balance” recreation and conservation there.

Editor’s Note: The author is the spouse of Ian Stokes, former co-chair and current member of Richmond’s Andrews Community Forest Committee (dealing with the recreation-conservation issues in the forest). He has had no input into or participation in this article.

Read the full opinion piece and discover additional content in the Fall 2025 Issue of From the Ground Up.

An essay written and read by Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder.

Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder is the author of Mother, Creature, Kin (2025). She grew up in the Great Plains of Nebraska and Oklahoma. After receiving her Master of Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School, her writing became focused on the confluence of relationship to place with experiences of the sacred. From 2017–2022, she worked as a staff writer and editor for Emergence Magazine, an online and print publication exploring the intersection of culture, ecology, and spirituality. Her writing can also be found in The Atlantic, The Common, The Slowdown, Decor Maine, Crannóg Magazine, EcoTheo Review, From the Ground Up, CooNoor&Co, the edited poetry collection Writing the Land, and in Katie Holten’s The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape. She lives with her family in Rochester, Vermont. Substack: The Entwinement. Instagram: @chelseasteinauerscudder

Read the full essay and discover additional content in the Fall 2025 Issue of From the Ground Up.

A poem written and read by Neil Shepard.

Neil Shepard is an award-winning poet who has published nine books of poetry, most recently, The Book of Failures. His previous books include How It Is: Selected Poems and Vermont Poets and Their Craft. He has published essays, book reviews, interviews, and poems in such magazines as the Harvard Review, New England Review, Paris Review, and Southern Review. He taught in the BFA writing program at Johnson State College in Vermont and in the MFA program at Wilkes University (Pennsylvania). He founded and directed for eight years the writing program at the Vermont Studio Center and edited for a quarter-century the literary magazine Green Mountains Review. Recently, he founded the online magazine Plant-Human Quarterly and serves as its editor-in-chief. These days, he splits his time between Vermont and New York City, where he teaches at Poets House.

Read the full poem and discover additional content in the Fall 2025 Issue of From the Ground Up.

A poem written and read by Catherine Menyhart.

Catherine Menyhart is an intercultural educator, coach, and poet. She believes curiosity, wonder, and joy are essential elements in the learning process, whether in the classroom, in the natural world, or on the page. Catherine lives in coastal Maine with her husband and young son, and enjoys writing in community through the Casual Union of Working Poets at Poetry Forge.

Read the full poem and discover additional content in the Fall 2025 Issue of From the Ground Up.

An article written and read by Bill McKibben.

Bill McKibben is a contributing writer to The New Yorker and a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 to work on climate and racial justice. He founded the first global grassroots climate campaign, 350.org, and serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College in Vermont. In 2014 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the “alternative Nobel,” in the Swedish Parliament. He’s also won the Gandhi Peace Award, and honorary degrees from 19 colleges and universities. He has written over a dozen books about the environment, from his first, The End of Nature (1989) to the just-released Here Comes The Sun (2025).

Read the full article and discover additional content in the Fall 2025 Issue of From the Ground Up.

An article read and written by Jens Hawkins-Hilke.

Jens Hawkins-Hilke is a Conservation Planner with the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, where he has served since 2006. He graduated from Connecticut College with a BS in Environmental Sociology and from the University of Vermont with an MS in the Field Naturalist program. Jens reviews projects with the Agency of Transportation as well as collaborating on wildlife crossing initiatives. He also provides technical assistance to municipalities and regional commissions related to land use planning for wildlife and wildlife habitat management. He enjoys hiking, kayaking on Lake Champlain, woodworking, and travel. He lives with his family in Burlington, Vermont.

Read the full article and discover additional content in the Fall 2025 Issue of From the Ground Up.

An opening piece for Issue 8, read and written by David Foster.

David Foster is an ecologist, Director Emeritus of the Harvard Forest, and President Emeritus of the Highstead Foundation. He co-founded the Wildlands and Woodlands Initiative in 2005 and was lead writer of Wildlands in New England: Past, Present, and Future in 2023. David has written and edited books including Thoreau’s Country: Journey Through a Transformed Landscape; Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1,000 Years of Change in New England; Hemlock: A Forest Giant on the Edge; and A Meeting of Land and Sea: The Nature and Future of Martha’s Vineyard.

Explore David Foster’s opening piece and discover additional content in the Autumn 2025 Issue of From the Ground Up.