Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park - Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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Green Pastures and Green Mountains

Walk through one of Vermont's most beautiful landscapes, under the shade of sugar maples and 400-year-old hemlocks, across covered bridges and alongside rambling stone walls. This is a landscape of loss, recovery, and conservation. This is a story of stewardship, of people taking care of places - sharing an enduring connection to land and a sense of hope for the future.

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

Ken Burns’ new series, The National Parks: America's Best Idea (www.pbs.org/nationalparks/), premieres on Vermont Public Television (VPT) on Sunday, September 27. The story is as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone. Accompanying this series is a community engagement campaign intended to raise awareness and stewardship of Vermont’s public lands. This community campaign includes:
• Local events calendar
• User-generated video and story sharing tool
• Online photo contest
• Expanded programming on VPT to highlight Vermont’s public lands

Special Program
Join a park ranger for a one-hour multi-media journey through the heart of America’s national parks including an advance peek at Ken Burn’s new film The National Parks—America’s Best Idea which premieres fall 2009. Experience the untold stories and human drama associated with the birth of our national parks and the breathtaking magnificence of their splendor. Not to be missed!

October
Dates: 10/3, 10/17
Time: 3:00pm
Where: Forest Center

Two people, the man in a National Park Service uniform, plant a small tree in the ground.

Forest Events

Forest Activities
The forestry work in the Prosper Road area of the park is now complete, and all trails and the Prosper Trailhead parking lot are now open. For those of you who were affected by these activities, thank you for your patience!

Forest Center - Platinum LEED certified building

Platinum LEED for Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller Forest Center

The U.S. Green Building Council awarded its highest rating for Leadership in Environment and Energy Design (LEED) to the new Forest Center at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park. Both the Forest Center, a classroom and meeting space and the adjacent 1876 Wood Barn, home to a new exhibit on the Forest, share the Platinum LEED certification. This partnership project of the National Park Service and The Woodstock Foundation was also recognized with a Designing and Building with FSC award presented by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international non-profit organization devoted to encouraging the responsible forest management. Both buildings used FSC certified wood from the Park's historic forest, the oldest professionally managed woodland in North America. FSC certification encourages the highest standards of woodland management through credible, independent evaluation and verification of exemplary forestry practices.

Reflecting on the building’s beauty, efficiency and simplicity, Park Superintendent Rolf Diamant describes the Center as “an example of thoughtful building practices and innovation enriched by human-scale design and hand-built quality.” Looking to the future, Woodstock Foundation President David Donath said, “We are very pleased to join with the National Park in creating a place for reflection, dialogue, and lifelong learning around forward-thinking stewardship.”

The Forest Center was designed by Steve Smith of Smith, Alvarez, Sienkiewycz Architects, Burlington, Vermont and built by H.P. Cummings, Woodsville, New Hampshire. Forestry services were provided by Redstart Forestry and Consulting, Corinth, Vermont, with additional work undertaken by Long View Forest Contracting of Westminster, Vermont.
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		Susan Metzger Landscape Painter 2009 Artist in Residence Susan Metzger, the 2009 Artist in Residence, will share a presentation of her previous work from Maine and Massachusetts and describe the approach to landscape painting that she is now exploring as part of her residency at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP. Metzger's approach to painting distills the landscape to its core elements - creating something explicitly of a place, yet strikingly universal. "I am interested in land, beauty, and our reactions to aesthetic qualities within the landscape. I attempt to find what is essential in the image and to create a sense of connection through a painting process that uses layers of complexity while, at the same time, creates a landscape that is reduced and distilled to a state of stillness" - Susan Metzger Susan Metzger worked for the permanent collections at the Decordova Museum and is a former Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Fellow in Taos, New Mexico. Metzger will be in residency at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP until the end of October. Her studio is open from 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM every day, except Tuesdays, at the Belvedere. A full chronology of her Artist in Residence experience can also be explored on her blog at: http://susanmetzgermbr.blogspot.com/ Online Art Exhibit Explore America's story of conservation and land stewardship through an online exhibit of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller art collection. Included are paintings by America's most famous landscape artists including Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Cole, and Edward Moran.

Write to

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park
54 Elm Street
Woodstock, VT 05091

E-mail Us

Phone

Headquarters
(802) 457-3368

Visitor Information
(802) 457-3368 ext. 22

Fax

(802) 457-3405

Climate

The park lies within a temperate zone and experiences four full seasons. Arrive prepared for a wide variety of weather conditions. Summer temperatures are usually in the 70s or low 80s during the day and upper 60s in the evening. Spring and fall days can range from the 50s to lower 70s, with evenings in the upper 40s to low 60s. Winter temperatures average in the 20s. Winter snowfall is moderate to heavy - making for outstanding cross-country skiing.
Click on the "more" link for a current weather forecast.
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