Winnie Jones
Winnie's Observations
Winnie and her wife, Susan, bought their land in Irasburg, Vermont nearly 26 years ago. Over the course of that time, one can see a tremendous amount of change, and I am struck by the amount of optimism and humility that Winnie brings to her observations. Winnie notes that some of the main changes that she’s seen on her property relate to the dip in observed wildlife, but also some new tree species that hadn’t existed on the property before.
We never had a red oak on this property but we do now. I planted a red oak from an acorn and that’s thriving
Looking to the Future with Optimism
Within her barn she also has many black walnuts which she harvested from a black walnut tree that she planted when they arrived on the property. She’s now at a place where she’s looking forward to what changes can be made in the future, she recently opened up an area to release some apple trees to encourage more wildlife and she’s considering a thinning of saplings to encourage more sunlight.
With a changing climate underway it is perhaps easy to feel a sense of impending doom; how do we move forward with a sense of hope in the face of that? Winnie, describing herself as “a ridiculous optimist” notes that
“[climate change] doesn’t depress me, I feel like it’s an opportunity for us to learn how to adapt to changes.”
Winnie notes that she also gets hope from interacting with other like minded people and learning from the things that they are doing.
Every time I have been to an event, I have met amazing people who are hopeful…I always come away learning something. I see that passion and hope in everyone that I have met at VWA.
Audio story produced by Lucia McCallum with support from Kelsey Kupferer. Music in the story is "Kickstep" by Blue Dot Sessions.
Winnie Jones
Town: Irasburg, VT
Acreage: 14
