Vermont Visitor Centers are participating in a Lending Library program, which allows visitors to borrow books for free! The Guilford Welcome Center shown in this photo is one of 7 locations where you can borrow a book!

The Vermont Department of Marketing and Tourism has been
experimentally trying out progressive tactics to boost tourism and ensure that
visitors have a unique, memorable time in the Green
Mountain State.
This summer the Twitter handle @THISISVT was handed over to the public. Each
week a new Vermonter is selected to take over the account and share their Vermont
experiences.  @THISISVT acts as a peer
review / inside scoop on what to do and where to go while in Vermont.
It also gives visitors a glimpse into the everyday lives of Vermonters.

Additionally, The Vermont Department of Marketing and
Tourism, the Department of Buildings and General Services, the Vermont
Librarian’s Association and AMPress Publishing have developed a new program
that encourages visitors to experience the state’s literary resources. Seven
Visitor Centers are participating in The Vermont Authors Project’s Lending
Library. The Alburgh, Fair Haven, Guilford,
Montpelier, White River Junction
and Williston north and south Visitor Centers will have free books to lend to
the public. The books are written by Vermont
authors Archer Mayor and Castle Freeman, with the intention to expand genres
and authors in the future. Travelers can sign out a free paperback or audio
book to enjoy during their Vermont
trip. The program uses a classic Vermont
honor system in that borrowers are simply asked to return the book to any Welcome
Center in Vermont
or by mail (envelope provided) within one month.

To learn more about the program and Vermont
authors, please read the press release from Vermont Tourism & Marketing.

Heather Barrett is a Marketing Assistant at Vermont Woods Studios,
an online furniture gallery which showcases Vermont’s finest wood
furniture. Follow our blog to learn about Vermont fine furniture,
Vermont happenings, our mission, and our team.

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From Forest To Fine Furniture

The weather isn’t looking so great for leaf peeping in Vermont this weekend.  So if you’re traveling around the Green Mountain State and looking for indoor activities, try heading to Woodstock, VT for the Ninth Annual Vermont Fine Furniture and Woodworking Festival.

This year’s theme is “From Forest to Furniture:  Take Home a Piece of Vermont”.  It dovetails with our plans at Vermont Woods Studios for a showroom at Stonehurst in that the focus is to raise awareness about where your furniture comes from.

Much like the organic food movement, the organic furniture movement is catching on.  Customers are realizing both the economic and health benefits to buying locally crafted furniture, handmade from real, solid, sustainably harvested wood.

Come visit with some of the regions (and world’s) most respected fine furniture makers in Woodstock this weekend.  You’ll be able to see and feel their furniture creations and also learn about the well-managed forests where their wood is harvested.  Free tours are available of the nearby Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park.  Here customers can experience the forest and learn about each of the many links in the chain from forest to trees to furniture.

Shown above:  Brent Karner of ClearLake Furniture in Ludlow VT won first place for production furniture in the 2011 Vermont Fine Furniture Festival.  Who is going to win this year?

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This is the time of year when our Green
Mountain State
begins to transform into a world full of red, orange, and yellow hues. The
brilliant colors of autumn attract leaf peepers from across the world, and it’s
easy to see why. Vermont is the
best place to see fall foliage in New England, and
arguably the United States.
With nearly 80% of our state being forested, the opportunities to see the
dramatic hues are limitless.
Additionally, Vermont has
the highest number of maple trees in New England, which
produce the ultimate red leaves during the fall season.

This year the Vermont Department of Tourism & Marketing
will be producing a Foliage Report that will be issued weekly. Starting
September 18, the Foliage Report will provide a map of the finest driving
routes, an audio update and trail recommendations. In addition to visiting the website, leaf peepers can stay up-to-date on Vermont’s foliage progression by calling 1-800-VERMONT.

When is peak fall foliage in Vermont?
The trees outside our offices at Vermont Woods Studios have already begun to change, but looking at the foliage Forecaster, it appears that Columbus Day weekend will be the best time to see the
dramatic colors cover Vermont.
This is a perfect opportunity to spend a weekend in Vermont
to breathe in the cool, crisp air of autumn, enjoy the outdoors, and listen to
leaves crunch below your feet.

Heather Barrett is a Marketing Assistant at Vermont Woods Studios, an online furniture gallery which showcases Vermont’s finest wood furniture. Follow our blog to learn about Vermont fine furniture, Vermont happenings, our mission, and our team.

The post Take A Peak At Vermont Foliage This Fall appeared first on Vermont Woods Studios.

Forest conservation is a big part of our mission at Vermont Woods Studios.  All of our furniture is made from sustainably harvested wood and we donate a portion of the proceeds of each sale to non-profit groups working to preserve the forest.  

So when I read a recent article in Audubon Magazine (by T. Edward nickens) about the damage that’s happening to our forests as a result of junk mail production, I felt we should get on board and do something to help.  Would you believe that:

• Over 100 Billion pieces of junk mail are delivered to Americans each year (>800 pieces per household, almost half of which goes directly to the landfill without even being opened)

• It takes over 100 million trees to produce this junk mail (that’s equivalent to clear-cutting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every 4 months)

• The manufacture of this junk mail releases more greenhouse gas emissions per year than the emissions released by 9.4 million average passenger cars

 The Canadian Boreal forest (home to caribou, grizzly bears, wolves and 40% of North America’s waterfowl) and Indonesia’s tropical rainforests (home to numerous critically endangered species including orangutans and tigers) are particularly at risk from junk mail producers, harvesting wood in these areas.

Want to help solve the junk mail problem?  The non-profit group, Forest Ethics has an online petition you can sign, asking Congress for a Do Not Mail registry, similar to the Do Not Call registry.  That would be great, wouldn’t it?

In the meantime, here is a fantastic website where you can quickly and easily eliminate most of your junk mail, right now…it’s Catalog Choice. 

Just sign up and select the catalogs you don’t want to receive.  Voila!  Your name is off their lists.  Take action right NOW and help save the earth’s forests.  You’ll be protecting endangered species and indigenous peoples AND helping to stem global climate change.  You’re going to feel really good about yourself today!

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