Farm & Wilderness and the Ninevah Foundation Join Forces - Farm & Wilderness

Last weekend, the Boards of the Farm & Wilderness Foundation and Ninevah Foundation agreed to join forces to conserve Lake Ninevah and its surrounding land, which have long been used and beloved by the F&W community. Through this letter, we want to share with you the key points of this new relationship, as well as the background that led to it.

As some of you may know, the Ninevah Foundation is a successor to the for-profit Wilderness Corporation, which was founded in 1961. The Wilderness Corporation was in many ways an organization ahead of its time, a for-profit engaged in the buying and selling of land around Lake Ninevah for the purposes of conservation, and in support of the programmatic aims of the Farm & Wilderness Camps (also at the time for-profit). Both organizations have evolved since then. Farm & Wilderness became a non-profit charitable organization in 1973. The Wilderness Corporation evolved into the non-profit charitable Ninevah Foundation in 2001. Both organizations have thrived over this period. Farm & Wilderness has grown to include multiple summer programs, three of which are located on Ninevah Foundation land, and now owns approximately 1,500 acres of land. Ninevah Foundation now owns and conserves more than 3,300 acres of land in the Lake Ninevah valley and on the spine of the Green Mountains.

Today we are in a sense going back to our roots, as Farm & Wilderness and the Ninevah Foundation join forces, to be run by a common board of trustees, in service of educating young people in six summer camps and stewarding the environment.

The Ninevah Foundation will maintain its name, mission, property ownership and finances; and will now benefit from full-time professional staff provided by Farm & Wilderness, who will continue to work with the Lake Ninevah community to steward the lake and the land around it. Farm & Wilderness will be able to expand our conservation goals and guarantee our use of the Flying Cloud, Red Spruce Grove, and Saltash Mountain Camp lands in perpetuity. Our agreement requires the adoption of a stewardship plan, a permanent place for Ninevah community members on our boards, and the hiring of a dedicated conservation director who will manage our combined natural resources and work with stakeholders whose collaboration is critical to the conservation missions of the Farm & Wilderness and Ninevah Foundations.

We are very pleased to bring professional land stewardship to the Ninevah Foundation, and to forge stronger relationships between and among the combined Farm & Wilderness and Ninevah communities. We tremendously appreciate the dedication of the Ninevah Foundation Board and supporters, and we are honored to carry on the mission of caring for Lake Ninevah and the surrounding land, as well as to continue caring for Woodward Reservoir and the Plymouth Valley. We are happy to answer any questions you might have, so please feel free to be in touch with any of us.

Respectfully,

Rebecca Geary
Executive Director
Farm & Wilderness Foundation and Ninevah Foundation
rebecca@farmandwilderness.org
802.422.2053

Jay Kullman
Sustainable Resources Director
Farm & Wilderness Foundation and Ninevah Foundation
jay@farmandwilderness.org
802.422.2041

Copy:

Dano Weisbord
Trustee, Farm & Wilderness Foundation and Ninevah Foundation
Former President, Ninevah Foundation
dweisbord@gmail.com

Andrew Schulz
Trustee, Farm & Wilderness Foundation and Ninevah Foundation
Former Vice-President, Ninevah Foundation
schulz.andrew@gmail.com
802.259.2235

Learn More About the Ninevah Foundation