Customized, unique, beautiful and handcrafted

A survey of your land’s change through time

Our expert naturalists will craft a one-of-a-kind book that explores the unique story of your place through 500 million years of change. Whether you’re a non-profit with a conserved piece of land, a 7-th generation farmer tending your family’s homestead, a homeowner with a back 40, or a ski slope that caters to visitors from out-of-state, we will communicate the fascinating history of this place to your audience.

For Homeowners

Discover the rich, complex, and fascinating story of your place, and share this with your friends and family

For Conservation Organizations

Tell the story of a piece of conserved land, share with your constituents why it is unique and why its conservation matters

For businesses

Get your customers invested by communicating the history of your property, whether it’s a ski slope, Air B&B, or corporate campus.

Connect deeply to place

Discover how evidence found on your land connects to the broader story of Vermont’s changes through time

Every place has its own story, but these stories are part of a larger fabric, a unifying story. We find pieces of this story written in old stone walls, a massive white pine towering over a stand of scraggly sugar maples and beeches, small patches of wild leeks, tracks along a brook from a mink. To know the story, to know how the story is told both deepens and strengthens our connection to place. It helps us better appreciate and understand how our footsteps will be read by future generations.

A one-of-a-kind book about your place

Read a sample book: My Neighbors’ Woods is a 85 page book written about an old farmstead that is now a residential home in Richmond, VT. The book includes a narrative history of the property, field guide to the trees on the property, detailed maps showing the bedrock, soils, and natural communities, and full color images from the property.

What you get

We will help you in this process to understand your property’s unique story. Our resident professional naturalist, Teage O’Connor, will conduct a full survey of your property, detailing the complex interactions between the geology, land-use history, plants, animals, and disturbances to produce a beautiful one of a kind book with photos and a narrative description of how events through deep time have collectively forged the landscape that is now your property. Each beautiful book contains photos, maps, a guide to the trees, and historical records specific to your property.

A Timeline Of Change

Each book covers 500+ million years of history, following your site’s transformation from a warm tropical sea to a frigid, glacial scoured tundra to what it is today.

Maps

Each book contains maps of the bedrock, soils, and natural communities found on site along easy to read and understand explanations written for a lay audience.

Historic Records

Research covers US Agricultural Census data, insurance maps, phone book records, census records, Ancestry.com records, and other land-use records to track changes to your site from the 18th century to today.

Photos + Videos

Beautiful photos of the different geologic and cultural features, wildlife, and plants found on your site accompany and breathe life into the narrative description. You’ll also get files of trail camera footage of wildlife on your property.

Delicate compound leaves of black locust bursting from buds (Centennial Woods, Burlington)

What each book covers

Geologic History

Fossils from warm tropical seas, massive earthquakes as the Green Mountains formed, and magma spewing up between rifting continents are just the , get the general bedrock story of Vermont applied to your site in particular.

Glacial History

Glacial till, eskers, kettle ponds, the signs of advancing and retreat glaciers are a constant in Vermont’s landscape. Discover how glaciers have transformed your landscape and created the foundation for forests to grow and thrive.

Human History

In the 18th and 19th century, more than 80% of Vermont’s landscape was cleared for agriculture. The 20th century saw much of this return. We’ll put names to these farmers and discover exactly what was being grown on the land and the evidence left behind

Trees + Wildflowers

After the glaciers retreated, plants quickly colonized the land. Follow the shifting plant communities over the last 25,000 years.

Wildlife

As the plants changed, so too did the animals follow. From the dawn chorus of breeding birds to the traces left in the snow by mammals, discover what animals inhabitat the land and how this has changed through time.

Get a quote

About us

Get a one-of-a-kind book that details the unique natural history of your property through 500 million years of change.

To set up a call to discuss pricing, schedule/timeline, scope of the project, or just for more information, send us a note and we’ll be in touch shortly.