(HOST) Vermont is widely admired for its natural beauty and vigorous cultural identity, but commentator Tom Slayton reflects that those same qualities are also vulnerable.
(SLAYTON) Once again, Vermont has won high honors as a great place from National Geographic Traveler Magazine. In its latest issue, the magazine names Vermont as its top-rated travel destination in the U.S., and near the top internationally.
A group of more than 400 judges rated 133 places around the world for their beauty, cultural authenticity, and environmental stewardship. And Vermont ranked number 5, the highest ranking in the U.S., topping such places in our country as the Maine Coast, Yellowstone National Park, and the Columbia River Gorge. Vermont also scored better than most international travel beauty spots – places like Kyoto, Japan, the Yorkshire Dales, and Tuscany.
It was a stunning coup for our little state, a real honor. The magazine’s panel said that Vermont is doing better than anyplace else in the country – and most of the rest of the world – in preserving its undeniable beauty – and its authenticity as a place.
We should feel good about that. It means that other people have noticed that our strong body of environmental and development control laws have kept Vermont a place of both beauty and integrity.
However, before we get to feeling too smug, we also need to remember that another organization, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has twice listed Vermont as one of this country’s most threatened places.
That’s right. We’re both terrific – and threatened.
We’re terrific because we’ve somehow managed to hold onto what nature and our forefathers bequeathed to us – a beautiful working landscape, attractive towns and villages on a human scale that work, and an ethic of care for our environment. The threat comes from what Vermont has largely avoided to date – destructive development and the economic monster that chews up working farmland and woodland and turns it into suburbia: shopping malls, gated housing developments, big-box stores, and the like.
This apparent contradiction makes perfect sense to me. Most of us are aware that we live in an unusual and wonderful place. And most of us also know that thoughtless development can wreck this wonderful place pretty quickly.
A big-box Wal-Mart store proposed for St. Albans could wreck that small city’s attractive downtown. ATV’s allowed to run wild on state land could turn pleasant forest pathways into mudholes. Vermont’s troubled dairy farms could be lost to development.
That’s why attempts to weaken Act 250 and other development-control laws are so misguided. That’s why we need to be on guard against anyone who would suggest that we trade our heritage – Vermont’s scenic and social integrity – for a short-sighted prosperity that would ultimately compromise all we have managed to save. That’s why we need to find a way to adequately compensate dairy farmers for their hard work and keep our working landscape working.
It’s nice that others recognize that Vermont is a rare treasure. But those of us fortunate enough to live here need to continue our work to make sure it remains one.