By Ali Vollmar

The Intervale Center: A Gem in the City

The Impacts of the Intervale Center on the Burlington Community By Ali Vollmar

Before arriving in Burlington in the fall of 2020, I had never heard of the Intervale Center. After living in the city for a few months, I took a friend’s advice to take a walk in the Intervale’s woods where I slowly started to unearth a hidden gem in the heart of Chittenden County. It was not until my first environmental studies class at UVM, Environmental Studies 001, that I fully realized the broad impacts of the Intervale on its surrounding land and community. In my lab, we dove into the dozens of unique elements that make up the Intervale, which prompted reflection on how my previously narrow viewpoint of the organization had widened. I realized there must be other people that view the Intervale as only a green area, rather than a hub for food production, community building, and volunteering.

A Brief History

The Intervale project was initially formulated by Will Raap, founder of Gardener’s Supply Company, as an effort to restore the 700-acre area of low-lying, underutilized land sitting within Burlington’s city limits. Raap and his dedicated crew cleaned and restored the land, transforming it from a dilapidated dumping ground to its present state as a vibrant community space. Today, the Intervale is recognized for its sustainable agriculture models, specialization in community-supported agriculture, and expansive food hub. Since 1988, innovation in farming styles and land care has been of the utmost priority to the Intervale Center.

Exploration of Nature

The Intervale’s natural areas offer a peaceful escape from the nearby hustle of the city. All can inhale fresh air as they walk, bike or run along trails extending along the Winooski River to the Ethan Allen Homestead. Snowfall in the winter months expands the Intervale’s outdoor offerings, opening three miles of groomed cross country ski trails, snowshoeing, and more. By engaging in these activities on the land, visitors at the Intervale can experience an intimate sense of place— the connection individuals feel with their natural surroundings. A sense of place can provide people with feelings of groundedness, and is integral to achieving inner peace and balance in our current day and age. The upkeep of natural areas by the Intervale is crucial not only to physical health, but also to the community’s mental health by providing visitors with the opportunity to connect and decompress outdoors.

Positively Impacting the Local Ecosystem

A unique feature of the Intervale is that it provides a space for the ‘Tommy Thompson Community Garden,’ the largest of 14 community gardens managed by the Burlington Area Community Garden program. The Tommy Thompson garden site is home to over 150 plots and is an exceptional tool for connecting people in urban or suburban areas to the natural landscape. This opportunity expands access to farming, giving members the ability to grow and harvest fresh food close to their home and utilize the incredibly fertile soil of the Winooski floodplain. It also encourages participants to engage in restorative growing techniques that improve overall growing conditions and soil fertility, such as fertilizing the soil with compost and irrigating plants with water collected in rain barrels. Lastly, the proximity of the gar-

den plots to one another brings people together to foster community and bond over the joy of connecting with the Earth through food production. Supporting the Community

The Intervale Center, however, is more than just land plots for food production and trails for recreation. As a non-profit organization, it offers a variety of programs to support the local community all year round, including providing infrastructure for new farms, leasing land to local farms, offering volunteer opportunities, hosting events throughout the year, and operating the Intervale Food Hub. The Intervale Food Hub is a program that began in 2008 to connect people to locally sourced food that is healthier for their bodies and the planet. The operational structure of The Food Hub benefits both people and the environment by increasing transparency and food chain resilience. Customers of the Food Hub are able to understand where their food is produced due to diligent record-keeping and relationship maintenance with 70 Vermont-based farming families. By offering seasonal local goods to customers, transportation distances decrease and consumers can be ensured their food is grown in conditions requiring less external inputs, such as fertilizers and pesticides. This system allows the consumer to feel more confident that their products are supporting a healthy, sustainable ecosystem and local economy.

Responding to a Pandemic

Although the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 disrupted almost all areas of our community, the Intervale quickly rose to the challenge of adapting their services to meeting the community’s needs. The Food Hub expanded its home delivery program to safely support local families with fresh food and 225,000 meals were donated through the Everyone Eats program, which provides food directly to people impacted by COVID-19 in the Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle counties. The Intervale also continued their efforts towards mitigating climate change, setting a personal record by propagating and planting 57,000 trees across Vermont that year.

Art by Ella Weatherington

Life in Burlington Without the Intervale

How would Burlington look if the Intervale did not exist? Simply put, land and water quality would worsen and jobs held by Intervale team members would decrease. The Burlington community would have 900 fewer acres of natural area in which to work, volunteer, and play. Local food production yield from Pitchfork, Hallow Herbs, and other farms leasing land from the Intervale would decrease significantly. In addition, the Winooski River could be subjected to high rates of soil erosion and chemical runoff pollution, from which it is currently spared by the thoughtful stewardship of the Intervale. Burlington might not be classified as the sustainable city it is today, as the land on which the Intervale sits could be occupied instead by businesses and homes. Students

and the greater community would not be able to learn from the Intervale’s sustainable land practices, eliminating a beautiful relationship between people currently upheld by the Intervale. It is places like the Intervale that we must appreciate for their frequently unnoticed, yet diligent, efforts to conserve nature and provide for our community’s health in the environmental, social, and economic sectors. H