Does Planting a Tree Matter?

February 26, 2016August 14, 2018 Peggy Farabaugh Leave a comment

Last updated on August 14th, 2018 at 01:47 pm

We Plant a Tree for Every Order

Believe it or not that’s why our small business was born. We’re not a furniture company that “went green”. Vermont Woods Studios was actually a product of my mid-life crisis/desire to make a difference in this world. Weird, right? For some people it’s all about fast cars, loud motorcycles, sex, drugs or rock & roll. For me it was about forest conservation. It’s a long story (which I did tell to Laura Dunn of the Huffington Post, in the remote case you may be interested) but the point is:

The World Is Losing It’s Forests

Many people may not see it as a big deal but if you somehow found your way to this quirky green blog, there’s a good chance you’ll be concerned about these statistics:

More than half of the world’s 193 countries have already lost 90% or more of their forest cover
Rainforests that once covered 14% of the earth’s land surface now cover a mere 6%, yet they are home to over half the species of plants and animals in the world
We are losing the rainforest at the rate of 1.5 acres every second
Experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be gone from this earth before you are

Is your furniture made of wood that use to provide critical habitat for animals like this tiger? — We sell furniture made of sustainably harvested North American hardwoods in an effort to keep rainforest trees in the ground and out of the timber trade. The idea is to conserve habitat for endangered species like the tiger as well as indigenous peoples.

So We’re Trying to Help

Last year we celebrated our 10th year in business. Since 2005 we’ve planted about 7500 trees, many of them through The Nature Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees project. More importantly we’ve kept a similar number of rare rainforest trees out of the furniture market as we’ve used only sustainably harvested North American trees. Who is responsible for this progress? You… our customers, our readers and our partners. Your support enables us to throw our energy into environmental projects we think are important and for that we are immensely grateful.

Planting Trees in Mexico

Recently we’ve focused our support on a tree-planting project called the La Cruz Habitat Protection Program LCHPP in Michoacan Mexico. This is a reforestation initiative that I discovered during my efforts to help save the Monarch Butterfly, which is native to Vermont but it over-winters in sunny Mexico. I wrote about it recently and will be visiting LCHPP’s project in Mexico next week. Stay tuned for a full report. Anyway…

Conservation Matters To Our Customers, Partners & Staff

Does it matter to you? Post your thoughts on our Facebook. Thanks for reading!

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This blog is written by your friends at Vermont Woods Studios. Check out our Vermont made furniture and home decor online and visit our showroom and art gallery at Stonehurst, the newly restored 1800s farmhouse nestled in the foothills of the Green Mountains.

Top 4 Reasons Why a Vermont Furniture Store Wants to Save the Monarchs

February 23, 2016August 14, 2018 Peggy Farabaugh 1 Comment

Last updated on August 14th, 2018 at 01:47 pm

This is the El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve I’ll be visiting next week. It’s a World Heritage Site that provides over-wintering for almost the entire gene pool of the monarch butterfly. It is under assault by illegal loggers. Photo courtesy of El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Preserve.

At 7am on Sunday morning I’ll be boarding a flight to Morelia, Mexico. Woohoo! The trip evolved out of my obsession with forest conservation and the Monarch Butterfly. If you’re a frequent flyer on this blog, you’ve probably noticed we love environmental projects like this.

The other day, Megan (our ace Marketing Maven) suggested I try to boil down some of my previous blogs and summarize why a Vermont furniture store would want to help save the Monarch Butterfly. So here goes… the Top 4 reasons are:

The Environment Is Important To Us

It’s not just me. At Vermont Woods Studios we are a community of nature lovers, idealists, world travelers and outdoor enthusiasts. Most of us grew up in rural places and have had much interaction with butterflies, birds and other critters throughout our lives. Monarchs are such a big, beautiful butterfly! They were everywhere in Vermont. It used to be practically a right of passage for kids to collect them and watch their metamorphosis every August. Now they are extremely rare and we worry about that.

The Environment Is Important To Our Customers

Our customers have many options as to where they buy their furniture. Often times they tell us that when it comes to the final decision, with all else being equal, they are looking for an environmentally responsible company. We are trying to live up to that.

We Want to Change the World

A Vermont Furniture Store's Green Team — Margaret Mead said: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

Getting a paycheck is not enough for all the hard work that goes into making this Vermont furniture store a success. We want to feel like our efforts matter. Like there’s a purpose behind our work.

Planting milkweed in Vernon, Vermont | Restoring Monarch butterfly habitat — Milkweed. We’ve been restoring Monarch habitat in Vermont. But what difference will that make if the butterflies lose their over-wintering habitat in Mexico?

Changing the world is a little hard to get our arms around though. But we can change a little part of it: like restoring habitat for the Monarchs. And that’s totally possible because in Vermont, Monarch habitat is primarily one plant, milkweed. It’s easy… we collect milkweed seeds in the Fall and plant them in the Spring. This year we’re hoping to have a sizable plot of milkweed habitat in the backyard here at Stonehurst.

We Believe Business Has a Responsibility to Make the World a Better Place

With our business behind us (founded on the mission of forest conservation) we don’t have to stop at planting milkweed in Vermont. We can extend our conservation efforts. We know that Monarchs don’t spend their winters here– they migrate to Mexico and roost in evergreen (oyamel) trees in the mountains of Michoacan. Those oyamel trees are being illegally logged and the Monarch’s habitat is disappearing.

What difference does it make if we restore their habitat here in Vermont? The species will still go extinct if they lose their winter habitat. So that brings me back to my trip to Mexico. I’ll be working with Jose Luis Alvarez of the La Cruz Habitat Protection Program to help conserve existing forest habitat and replant what’s been destroyed. You can find details here in last week’s blog. By the way, there’s still time to join me on this adventure!

I’d love to hear what you think about butterflies, business and changing the world. Please comment on Facebook or in the section below. Thanks for reading.

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You, Me & 100 Million Monarch Butterflies

January 19, 2016May 4, 2018 Peggy Farabaugh

Last updated on May 4th, 2018 at 10:05 am

Monarch Butterflies in Michoacan, Mexico. 2016 tours are still available through Spirit of Butterflies Tours in coordination with Forests for Monarchs founder Jose Luis Alvarez. Photo courtesy of Homero Gomez Gonzalez.

One of Earth’s Greatest Natural Wonders

Right now at this very moment, one of earth’s most amazing natural wonders is taking place in Mexico. Nearly 100 million monarch butterflies from all over the USA and Canada have migrated south to the mountains of Central Mexico where they are over-wintering prior to their return flight this Spring. We’ve described the Monarch migration in previous blogs– it’s the most complex migration pattern of any known species on earth.

A Monarch butterfly we reared in Vermont — A Monarch butterfly we reared at Stonehurst, here in Vermont. She could well be one of those in the photo above after making a 3000 mile migration from VT to Mexico last Fall.

Monarch Butterflies Are on the Brink of Extinction

Over the past 20 years the monarch population has declined by 90 percent. During the winter of 1996-1997, scientists estimated there were a billion monarchs over-wintering in Mexico. An estimate from last year found only about 35 million, a number so low that several environmental organizations are petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to classify monarch butterflies as “threatened” under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Reforestation of Monarch Habitat by LCHPP — Reforestation of the Monarch Habitat in Michoacan, Mexico is being led by Jose Luis Alvarez of the La Cruz Habitat Protection program LCHPP (aka Forests for Monarchs). I’m heading to Mexico in late February to work with Jose Luis. You should join us!

You Can Help Save Them

Love nature? Here are a couple ways you can help save the amazing Monarch butterfly from extinction:

Help Restore Monarch Habitat in the USA and Canada

Monarchs need milkweed and nectar plants to survive and thrive during the summer months they spend in the US and Southern Canada. We’ve written many blogs about how to plant milkweed and we even have milkweed seeds we’ll be happy to send you if you’d like to get involved.

Help Restore Monarch Habitat in Mexico

At Vermont Woods Studios we’ve allied with the La Cruz Habitat Protection Program LCHPP in an effort to Plant a Million Trees every year in the Monarch’s overwintering area in Michoacan, Mexico. I’ll be writing more about LCHPP, a leading organization in the race to save the Monarch, but for a glimpse of their work check out this video.

Spirit of Butterflies Tour

For the adventurous nature lover, here’s another way to help save the Monarchs. Contact Maraleen Manos-Jones who works with LCHPP and sign up for the trip of a lifetime: a tour of the Monarch butterflies over-wintering forest habitat in Michoacan, Mexico. Leading the tour will be Jose Luis Alvarez, co-founder of LCHPP and renowned expert on Monarchs and reforestation of their habitat. I’m taking the tour at the end of February… why don’t you join me? I’ll provide details in my next blog but in the meantime, you can check out what other travelers have said about visiting monarch over-wintering sites on TripAdvisor.

I took this photo 15 years ago when we were rearing wild monarchs in Vermont. — I took the photo of Kendall 15 years ago when we were rearing wild monarchs in Vermont. Now there are none to be found. Check out the link to National Geographic’s film about the monarch story.

Why Does A Furniture Company Care?

Vermont Woods Studios was founded on a mission of forest conservation. From the beginning we set out not only to provide our customers with the best value & quality for Vermont made wood furniture but also to conserve the forests that provide wood for furniture. That mission of forest conservation coupled with my history of studying Monarchs with Kendall and Riley when they were little, made this project with LCHPP and Spirit of Butterflies a perfect fit. I hope you’ll join us as we work to help bring this iconic species back and conserve them for future generations.

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We’re On a Mission

December 30, 2015August 14, 2018 Peggy Farabaugh 2 Comments

Last updated on August 14th, 2018 at 02:37 pm

2015 Accomplishments

Ken and I started this Vermont furniture store 10 years ago with the belief that businesses have a responsibility to make the world a better place. In developing a company that sells handcrafted wooden furniture we wanted to raise awareness about forest conservation and persuade customers to purchase furniture made from sustainably harvested, North American wood. A decade later, we’re not naive enough to think we’ve changed the world but perhaps we’ve changed a tiny part of it and that feels good. Here are some highlights of what our team accomplished this year in support of our local community and our environmental mission:

Plant a Billion Trees Project

Vermont Furniture Store environmental mission: conservation — Vermont Woods Studios was founded on the mission of forest conservation and since the beginning, we’ve partnered with The Nature Conservancy to plant a tree for each order we take. This year it was well over 1000 trees.

Monarch Habitat Restoration Project

Vermont Furniture Store environmental mission: habitat restoration — Nina, Peggy and other team members planted native milkweed seeds for a project that’s restoring habitat for monarch butterflies in Southeastern Vermont.

Vernon’s Giving Tree

Vermont Furniture Store environmental mission: giving back — Megan and other team members worked with officials from the Town of Vernon to provide Christmas gifts to local families in need.

Connecticut River Clean-up

Vermont Furniture Store environmental mission: river clean up — Ken, Sean and a bunch more team members participated in the Connecticut River Watershed Council’s (CRWC) yearly “Source to Sea” trash cleanup of the Connecticut River. Afterwards we cooled off at Nesbitt’s Portside Tavern 🙂

Meals on Wheels

Vermont Food Bank Thanksgiving Project

Salamander Conservation

River Arts Gallery Auction

river-gallery-fundraiser — We donated a handmade wooden bed to the annual River Gallery Arts fundraiser in Brattleboro.

Wags to Riches Auction

wags-riches — Vermont Woods Studios donated a 3-Day weekend stay at Stratton Mountain Resort and a beautiful POLYWOOD Adirondack chair to the annual Wags to Riches fundraiser for the Windham County Humane Society.

Environmental Education at Vernon Elementary School

sponsored BEEC’s Aquatic Field Trip, where Vernon Elementary School students got the opportunity to explore a pond ecosystem and observe a variety of aquatic organisms — We sponsored an Aquatic Field Trip, where local students got the opportunity to explore a pond ecosystem.

Rainforest Conservation

Providing Toys & Food for Kids in the Amazon Rainforest

Vermont Furniture Store environmental mission: rainforest conservation — We donated over $200 to bring Christmas gifts and food to children in the Amazon through Marco’s Holiday Giving Project. Thanks to Riley for setting this up!

As we close out 2015, I extend my thanks to the customers, staff members, furniture makers, family, friends, neighbors and business partners whose support made the accomplishments of this small Vermont furniture store possible. Here’s to your health and happiness in 2016!

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The Giving Tree

December 22, 2015December 22, 2015 Megan Fulton 2 Comments

Here at Vermont Woods Studios we are committed to staying active within the community around us. That is why each year we volunteer and donate as much as possible to organizations local to the Vernon, VT area.

This year, the Vernon Town Clerk’s Office, along with the Vernon Free Library and Vernon Girl Scout Troop #40907 joined forces to organize a “Giving Tree”. The “Giving Tree” was a way for people in the Vernon community to donate gifts and items to those in need. Over 30 individuals in this small Vermont community were identified as in need of assistance this Holiday season.

For each person, an ornament was hung on a tree in the Town Clerk’s Office. On the back of each ornament, a person’s age, gender and items they were most in need of were listed. We mostly saw requests for outdoor winter clothes along with toys, crafts and books for the children. Ages ranged from infants to adults.

Our team selected five ornaments from the tree and pledged to get every item listed. We soon learned the project was so popular that the Town Clerk’s office quickly ran out of ornaments but learned of more families in need and created a second batch of ornaments. So we headed back and picked up two more.

Members of the Vermont Woods Studios team donated clothing, toys and books as well as went out shopping to purchase new items. Soon our lunch table was overflowing with gifts. Next came an afternoon spent wrapping and organizing the gifts.

On a bone-chilling Monday (one of few this year) we headed back to the Town Hall where the Town Clerk and local Sheriff’s department helped us unload the gifts. From here we’ll let Santa do the rest!

We were happy to help those in need this holiday season and supply them with New England winter essentials and toys to play with. We were even more happy to hear that the community really came together in a big way to help their fellow neighbors and friends in need.

It’s just another reason why we love the community we’re in and we’re happy to share these moments with all of you!

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Brattleboro Reformer: Monarch butterflies can be saved by everyone

September 25, 2015August 2, 2018 Peggy Farabaugh Leave a comment

Last updated on August 2nd, 2018 at 02:28 pm

Vernon is an entry point for monarch butterflies migrating north from their wintering grounds in Mexico.

In June, a group of nature lovers got together on the back deck of Vermont Woods Studios and shared milkweed seeds and plants — milkweed is the monarch’s only food source and the over-use of pesticides has nearly eliminated it from today’s landscape. We are planting milkweed in our gardens and backyards with the goal of providing habitat that will bring monarchs back to Vermont.

https://www.reformer.com/stories/monarch-butterflies-can-be-saved-by-everyone,302469

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Brattleboro Reformer: Vernon Woodworkers Launch Monarch Restoration Project

September 24, 2015August 2, 2018 Peggy Farabaugh Leave a comment

Last updated on August 2nd, 2018 at 02:31 pm

In the last few decades, Peggy Farabaugh noticed a distinct decline in the monarch butterfly population. After learning why, she decided to do something about it.

During the first week of September, the back deck of Vermont Woods Studios, the Vernon business she owns with her husband, Ken, became a sort of caterpillar hatchery.

“We have 15 cocoons in mesh hampers, and some on the milkweed plants in the field” behind the building, she said. The pupae should hatch into monarch butterflies by mid-month.

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The Plight of The Monarchs

September 15, 2015November 3, 2018 Peggy Farabaugh Leave a comment

Last updated on November 3rd, 2018 at 12:29 pm

A Final Glimpse of This Year’s Monarch Butterfly Migration

Cycle one of our monarch butterfly restoration project is coming to a close here at Vermont Woods Studios. Over the past week and a half, our monarchs have been hatching one by one. The first, taking us by surprise with its ability to speedily release itself from its chrysalis. In just a short moment, the monarch broke through the chrysalis and pulled its damp body from the small structure. The Stonehurst staff monitored the fledgling butterfly excitedly as it clung to the shell of the chrysalis, drying slowly.

Eventually the butterfly dried itself and went off in search of food to prepare itself for its migration journey. One by one, our other chrysalises turned shiny and black and we knew it would only be a matter of days before all of our monarchs would be beautiful, bouncing, baby butterflies ready to fly off into the world.

We are proud and happy to see the caterpillars we raised turn into the delicate winged creatures they are today. In this first cycle of the project, we have seen the release of twenty monarch butterflies. Being the business people we are, we appreciate this achievement that we have reached but we also strive to do better in the future.

The end of the first cycle of this project gives way to the second cycle that will start almost immediately. Our CEO Peggy has been watching the milkweed pods carefully for a week now and has determined that the time has come for us to once again harvest the seeds. As we head quickly into the second cycle of monarch restoration, we hold in our minds ways to maximize the habitat restoration and amount of monarchs we will be able to foster and release in the spring.

We hope to harvest and distribute more seeds than last year. We plan to raise seedlings ourselves to give out in the spring time to those dedicated people who promise to plant them on their land. We are already percolating new ideas for monarch caterpillar rearing environments with hopes of a terrarium in the near future.

This year we took on 50 monarch caterpillars but we know we can handle more than that. The success of cycle one has given us fuel and ambition to make cycle two of this very important restoration project bigger and better.

(This is part four of a four part blog series on our Monarch Butterfly Restoration Project)

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Vermont Woods Studios: We’re Not Just a Series of Clicks

September 9, 2015April 18, 2022 Admin Leave a comment

Last updated on April 18th, 2022 at 02:41 pm

factory-4-sanding — When we say handmade, we mean handmade.

Environmentally Friendly Furniture Made by Real Vermonters

In 1984, Apple computer launched the Macintosh. It was the first successful mouse-driven computer that changed the way the world functions today. We’ve all caught on to the awesome and encompassing power of this mouse-driven phenomenon too. Today, most of us, bleary-eyed and droopy tailed, crawl from our comfortable beds in the morning and turn our computers on en route to make coffee.

We search the web for news and browse our social media, snickering at embarrassing pictures of Aunt Sue from the last family gathering. We know that we can get anything we want when we want it simply by making a few gentle clicks of a mouse.

Being able to do this makes our crazy lives a bit easier. Now we don’t have to go into the store, talk to the sales people and carry our purchases home with us. We can search, click, put in some personal info and expect our prize on our doorstep in 3-5 business days.

Here’s the other thing our powerful computers have given us, options. You can have any bed, dresser or dining room table you want from wherever you want. It’s no longer a pool of five possibilities but hundreds of thousands, and we have to make decisions.

You decide who you want to buy from; what business you want to support. That support creates a ripple effect in the economy, the environment and in the lives of people like me and you.

Often with the good, we are forced to let in the bad. The computer has given us so much but it has also taken something very important away. It has become a barricade in the way of real connection.

You may not ever know who tediously screwed the limbs onto the dolls you bought your children or what hands so diligently assembled the furniture you trust to hold you up and keep you comfortable. You can only speculate as to the stories of the lives of the people who provide you with the real life objects you saw on-screen.

At Vermont Woods Studios, we know we’re not comfortable with that reality. So, this is a message from us to you about who we are: We are 12 fun-loving, hard-working people dedicated to selling only American-Vermont made furniture.

copeland-5 — Sean and friends visiting one of our workshops.

We are people who have taken the time to establish relationships with our craftspeople. We know their work, we know their hobbies and we remember when they had experimental pony-tails.

We laugh and joke and eat lunch together. We know Sean loves Thai food and Dennis needs to snack.

It’s not just us and our craftspeople you support when you buy our furniture, it’s also our mission. With each order we take, we plant trees through our partners at Forests for Monarchs or The Nature Conservancy. The success of the company has allowed us to dedicate more time to researching and raising awareness about deforestation in the rainforest.

We love when people all around the country buy our furniture and proudly display it in their homes or offices. We want you to know that no matter where you are and when you order from us, it is always this solid group of hard workers on the other end getting you what you need in an environmentally responsible and people oriented way.

Thank you for your continued support.

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Look Jeff, You’re Famous!

September 7, 2015October 12, 2022 Peggy Farabaugh Leave a comment

Last updated on October 12th, 2022 at 09:36 pm

jeff-reformer-1 (1) — Jeff and his claim to fame

The Power of Awareness

When we first started this monarch conservancy project, we knew a key pillar to success would be to spread the word. In order for a change to happen, people need to know that a change is necessary; intervention is necessary and knowledge is power.

You would think that raising awareness would be simple in our social media flooded climate. A post to Facebook would reach the eyes of hundreds and if they deemed it worthy of sharing, thousands. A quick and to-the-point blast to twitter would reach another thousand. Our website and blog would reach yet another; so, prospects were looking good.

Announcements were made, posts posted and blogs painstakingly pulled from the most creative corners of our minds until one day, Jeff was discovered. For those of you who somehow don’t know, Jeff is our monarch champion mascot and he’s pretty famous as of Wednesday when his picture first appeared in the Brattleboro Reformer.

A day later, an article appeared highlighting the need for monarch restoration and upping the ante on spreading awareness.

jeff-reformer-2 — Jeff! Jeff! Can we have your autograph?

We at Vermont Woods Studio are extremely grateful to the local people, media and Jeff for getting the word out. We are very excited to continue reporting on our cohort of monarchs until they take flight and go off on their own in the world.

Don’t Panic! That’s not the end. Once our little Jeff and his cronies fly the coop, we will shed an honorary tear and then get back to work hatching plans to harvest more milkweed seeds to plant this fall. There is no time to waste people, we have monarchs to rehabilitate!

(This is part three of a four part blog series on our Monarch Butterfly Restoration Project)

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Peggy Farabaugh	Kelsey Eaton
Riley Farabaugh	Megan Fulton
Marina McCoy	Alexandra Thompson
Dennis Shanoff	Katrina Moore
Loryn Dion	Michelle Rooks
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