How are the people and landscape of Vermont changing, and what do we want to preserve?
Listener Comments Welcomed!
We invite your comments, questions and observations about the challenges facing Vermont. You can post your
comments online.
The People
Much has been made of the
"youth flight" from Vermont – the trend of young people leaving the state, and
older people moving here in retirement. We examine the reality of youth flight,
whether it is a phenomenon that Vermont is experiencing and how our state’s experience
differs from other regions. Significant
imbalances in a state’s population can have significant repercussions for the
kind of services the state needs to provide, and the available workforce to
keep Vermont’s economy strong. (Listen)
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Guests:
• Bill Stenger, president of Jay Peak resort and chair of the Next Generation Commission.
• Tom Slayton, former publisher of Vermont Life magazine.
The Land
Vermonters have prided
themselves on forward-thinking attitudes toward rehabilitating and protecting
the natural environment of the state. But a quick tally of Vermont’s most significant environmental laws finds one
searching the history books: Act 250, the Bottle Bill, the Billboard law and
Green Up are all innovations of long ago. The Legislature this year did make
ground water a public trust, but has Vermont been resting on its environmental laurels? We examine the big environmental challenges
that the state could take on – curbing global warming, developing a local food
economy, and protecting farmland and forests from fragmentation. (Listen)
Guests:
• Pat Parenteau, professor at Vermont Law School, expert in environmental policy and former commissioner of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation
• Andrew Meyer, Vermont Soy Farm, former policy aid to Senator Jim Jeffords for agricultural issues
This program will be rebroadcast May 19 at 7:00pm