Sweetland Farm of Vermont Receives New England Leopold Conservation Award

Sweetland Farm of Norwich, Vermont has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 New England Leopold Conservation Award^®.

The award honors farmers and forestland owners who go above and beyond in the management of soil health, water quality, and wildlife habitat on working land.

Norah Lake, who owns and operates Sweetland Farm, was presented with the award during an on-farm presentation. She receives $10,000 for being selected.

Sand County Foundation and national sponsor American Farmland Trust will present Leopold Conservation Awards to landowners in 28 states this year. In New England the award is presented with New England Forestry Foundation and American Farmland Trust-New England.

Given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, the award recognizes farmers and forestland owners who inspire others with their dedication to environmental improvement. In his influential 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac, Leopold advocated for “a land ethic,” an ethical relationship between people and the land they own and manage.

Earlier this year, owners of forestland and farmland in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont were encouraged to apply, or be nominated, for the award. Applications were reviewed by an independent panel of agricultural and forestry conservation leaders from New England.

ABOUT SWEETLAND FARM

Every decision Norah Lake makes at Sweetland Farm is done with careful consideration of how it impacts the productivity of her business and the landscape. That’s why she calls it a “thinking farm.”

Norah is on a mission to sustainably feed her community by choosing the conservation practices that make the most sense across 210 acres of orchards, forests, pastures, vegetable and hay fields.

Norah’s strong land ethic was instilled in her by working alongside her nature-loving parents. As an environmental studies and sustainability student at Dartmouth College she helped start a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program for the school farm. She gained five years of experience in farm management before purchasing the core acreage of Sweetland Farm from the Vermont Land Trust with husband Chris in 2012.

Norah spent the next decade converting portions of the farm and conserving additional field and forest: transitioning steep hills to fruit orchards, expanding riparian buffers, restoring wetlands, strategically establishing wildlife corridors, restoring soil organic matter to a reclaimed gravel pit, and cleaning up an old farm dump.

It’s Norah’s mix of big-picture thinking and attention to detail that has nearly allowed her to cross what once seemed like an impossible item off the farm’s to-do list; more than 99 percent of the perennial invasive species have been eradicated from the forest. What was once an overgrown thicket of invasive species was replaced with more than 10,000 Elm, Chestnut, Ash, and Hemlock trees.

Her soil health plan involves extensive use of cover cropping, and rotating livestock across pastures and vegetable fields. To protect water quality and prevent erosion, she eliminated livestock crossings of streams. Extensive wildlife corridors were considered in the thoughtful layout of all pasture fencing and vegetable fields, the largest of which is just three acres.

Despite the presence of streams, ponds were built to supply water for Sweetland Farm’s drip and micro-sprinkler irrigation systems. This protects native fish by eliminating the need to draw water from natural streams during times of low flow.

In addition to nesting boxes for bats, songbirds, raptors, and ducks, more than eight acres of mast producing trees and shrubs have been planted for wildlife along the farm’s river banks and throughout the forest. Sweetland Farm also protects areas where threatened wood turtles and orchids have been identified.

Norah pledged to reduce the farm’s fossil carbon emissions by 90 percent over a decade. Now in the seventh year of this mission, she has realized a 73 percent drop in emissions. In addition to multiple roof-top solar arrays, five greenhouses now run on biomass-based heat, old refrigeration equipment was replaced with super-efficient models, and irrigation pumps and delivery vehicles run on electricity rather than gas.

To grow healthy vegetables without the use of conventional pesticides, Norah takes a “beyond organic” approach. This allows her to carefully analyze each of her growing practices and design a system of sustainable production that factors in environmental and human health as well as the sustainability of the full supply chain. She draws on a background in environmental and physical science, botany, and over 20 years of farming experience to assess the implications of every practice used on her farm.

Sweetland Farm is known for its bountiful farm store and 350-member vegetable and fruit CSA. The diversity of the farm enables Norah to work with the patchworked New England landscape to utilize fields, forests, streams, and hillsides to their best potential. She has worked with local land trusts to place and uphold conservation easements on her land that will permanently protect its resources and ensure affordability to farmers in perpetuity.

Sweetland Farm is a conservation ethic at work. Its owner’s thoughtful approach to farming is a refreshing look at how to work with a landscape rather than against it.

ACCOLADES

“Sweetland Farm embodies the very spirit not only of the Leopold Conservation Award, but also of Aldo Leopold himself,” said Ryan Owens, Executive Director of the New England Forestry Foundation. “Much like Leopold, owner Norah Lake demonstrates a commitment to critical and evolving thought in her management of her “thinking farm,” challenging the conventional wisdom of even organic agriculture to arrive at data-driven practices that push the boundaries of exemplary land stewardship. In providing livable wages and on-farm worker housing, she likewise shares Leopold’s view that the welfare of human communities and natural communities are inextricably linked.”

“These award recipients are examples of how Aldo Leopold’s land ethic is alive and well today,” said Kevin McAleese, Sand County Foundation President and CEO. “Their dedication to conservation is both an inspiration to their peers as well as a reminder to all how important thoughtful agriculture is to clean water, healthy soil, and wildlife habitat.”

“As the national sponsor for Sand County Foundation’s Leopold Conservation Award, American Farmland Trust celebrates the hard work and dedication of the award recipients,” said John Piotti, AFT President and CEO. “At AFT we believe that exemplary conservation involves the land itself, the practices employed on the land, and the people who steward it. This award recognizes the integral role of all three.”

Among the many outstanding landowners nominated for the award were finalists: Appalachian Mountain Club’s Maine Woods Initiative of Piscataquis County, Maine; Dawn Land Farm of Barre, Vermont; and The Corse Farm Dairy of Whitingham, Vermont.

The New England Leopold Conservation Award is made possible through the generous support of American Farmland Trust, New England Forestry Foundation, Sand County Foundation, Farm Credit East, David and Ann Ingram, LandVest, University of Vermont’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board.

For more information on the award, visit www.leopoldconservationaward.org.