Remembering Those Who Sacrificed Everything for Us
Memorial Day is a time of remembrance, honoring those heroes who gave their lives in service to our country. The simple act of planting a tree can honor their legacy for generations.
These mature maple trees are among hundreds that grace the property where our furniture showroom lives in Southeastern Vermont. Every year at this time, we have thousands of maple seedlings that spring up, hoping to out-compete other plants on the property. This year we decided to nurture some of those seedlings for our customers and our community. We think there are infinite reasons to plant a tree, but Memorial Day seems particularly relevant.
Salesperson Alex with a butterfly taking cover from the rain, last summer
Each spring, Monarch Butterflies return to North America from their winter habitat. You may know about our tree-planting partnership with Forest for Monarchs in Michoacan, Mexico, but Monarchs need our support here in Vermont, too.
Milkweed is the host plant of the Monarch Butterfly. Mature Monarchs lay their eggs on the underside of the leaves of the plant, and larval caterpillars rely on the plant for the entirety of their diet at this stage of life.
Founder and CEO Peggy Farabaugh harvesting milkweed seed pods in the fall for spring sowing
Every year, we start milkweed seeds indoors, and also direct-sow them outdoors, in order to support the Monarchs. This year, we are also starting milkweed plants in small cells we have made out of rolled newspaper for ease of distributing them to the community. If these plants are to make a comeback in southern Vermont, they will need to be planted more broadly than just our 109 acres.
Salesperson Sean Henry separating milkweed plant starts from a tray of seedlings
Many in our small town of Vernon, Vermont have said that the milkweed plants which return every year will be the lasting legacy of founder and CEO Peggy Farabaugh. We are so proud of her!
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This year, we received a truckload of compost from a local rancher (the father of our fantastic intern Whitney—if you received a package of wood samples last year, she may have sent them to you). Tractor load by tractor load we are moving the compost to sunny spots on the property. Placing compost directly onto the grass eliminates the need for labor-intensive tilling.
The percentages on this map represent decreases in wildlife populations since 1970. Globally, the average drop in numbers of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles was 68%. What does this have to do with sustainable furniture, you ask? Read on. Ref: WWF Living Planet Report 2020.
Wood Furniture’s Journey to Your Home Starts in a Forest
The triple bottom line (“TBL” or “3BL”) is a framework that suggests that businesses should not only evaluate their success based on how much profit they’ve generated, but also based on how much impact they have on social and environmental causes. The term was coined in the 90’s by John Elkington, a British business consultant and sustainability evangelist.
At Vermont Woods Studios, we have long been committed to sustainability. Much of the furniture sold in the U.S. today is imported from overseas and built with questionably sourced materials. The global timber trade driven by wood furniture and flooring is run by organized crime and has contributed to worldwide deforestation, especially in critical parts of the world like the Amazon and Borneo Rainforests. Since inception, we’ve been trying to raise awareness about the problems in this global supply chain and how it all contributes to climate change, human rights violations, species extinction, and more.
Our mission from the start was to decrease the demand for imported furniture by offering an alternative that was made in America with sustainable materials and built to last a lifetime. As we’ve grown our business, we’ve doubled down on our commitment to sustainability. We source all our materials responsibly, our products are made in the USA and built to last a lifetime, we work with non profit partners to combat climate change, and we steward a sustainably managed 109 acre working forest at our headquarters in Vermont.
So we thought we were doing pretty well. Then in 2020, our sustainability consultants Alex and Marina at Waste Free Earth introduced us to the concept of triple bottom line sustainability.
One of the most impactful things you can do to fight against climate change is reducing your waste. Waste comes in all forms from food to plastic packaging to fast furniture and everything in between. Waste is a problem not just because of the pollution it can cause to the environment, but also because of the energy and materials it takes to produce commonly discarded products. By decreasing your own waste, you are helping to reduce the demand for wasteful products and decrease the amount of pollution put into our oceans and our atmosphere.
Vermonters are serious about growing food! If you’ve ever visited our showroom in Vernon, VT, you may have walked through the wooded trails, gardens, and fruit and berry orchard–what’s been collectively called our “food forest” here at Stonehurst. This time of year, we are busy at work collecting the last of the harvest and processing seeds for next year’s crops.
Did you know that some crops, like garlic, benefit from overwintering in the ground? This week we turned over the garden beds and added an insulating layer of leaves for garlic and shallots. Individual cloves of seed garlic will turn into full heads of garlic by mid-summer, with no maintenance or watering.
Spacing out garlic and shallots to overwinter in-ground
When an environment is incapable of supporting native species due to factors like deforestation and illegal logging, animal populations lose their habitats. This habitat destruction leads to species’ homes being uprooted, their food supply diminished, population reproduction decreases, and ultimately the animals have nowhere to turn. Because of all these factors, more species are added to the endangered species list every year.
As part of our mission here at Vermont Woods Studios, a portion of our profits is used to conserve forests, plant trees, and save endangered species from going extinct due to habitat destruction.
Here are some of the most iconic animal species being threatened by global deforestation:
