Rosalie Williams fulfills a promise in Bakersfield, Conserving 240 acres of farm land

Farmer conserves 240 acres to honor legacy of Vermont farm family, ensures land can be farmed for generations to come

Before Rosalie Williams inherited about 240 acres of farm fields, woods, and wetlands in Bakersfield, she made a promise to her longtime friend Levi “Junior” Joyal whose family had farmed it for nearly a century — that the land would remain a farm.

This year, she fulfilled that promise by conserving the land with VLT and ensuring its legacy for future generations. Rosalie will continue to produce beef, eggs, and vegetables on the land, and rent the conserved property’s sugarbush to a neighboring sugarmaker.

Honoring a Vermont farm family’s legacy

Rosalie grew up on a nearby family farm in Bakersfield. She turned to farming full-time as a young woman, helping her aunt manage the family dairy farm and milking a small organic herd of cows for much of her farming life. She also spent time visiting and working on other nearby farms to expand her understanding of farming techniques. That was before beginning her partnership with Junior in 2009.

Their family ties go back generations. The farm on which Rosalie grew up is just two and a half miles down the road from the Joyal family farm. Her grandfather and Junior’s father, the elder Levi Joyal, were close friends. And Rosalie’s grandmother was the midwife at the births of both Junior and his brother, David.

Rosalie and Junior began farming the Joyal family farm together in 2009. In 2010, Junior and his sister, Helen, added her to the deed. “The farm has been in the Joyal family since the 1930s. Mr. Joyal saw that I tended to manage the farm in his ways, the old ways,” said Rosalie.

“When they came to the decision to pass the farm to me, he made me promise that I would keep it as a farm,” she added. “It was an easy promise for me to make.”

When Junior passed away in 2020, Rosalie became the sole owner and continued to farm.

Rosalie says that as a woman of color and a single mother managing a farm, she has faced discrimination throughout her life. She speaks emotionally about what it meant for Mr. Joyal to believe in her.

“I wouldn’t have anything that I have if it hadn’t been for somebody believing in me like he did,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to continue to farm.”

From longtime dairy to diversified farm

While they farmed together, Rosalie and Junior converted the dairy to organic, expanding to about 88 milking cows. Disaster struck in 2020 when a lightning strike destroyed the barn’s electrical system and Junior’s house. Rosalie decided to shift away from dairy and diversify the farm.

Today, she has a small herd of beef cattle, a flock of laying hens, and a high tunnel for growing vegetables. She leases the property’s 1,200-tap sugarbush to a neighboring sugarmaker. She utilizes the fields to produce hay for her beef herd. The herd started with a single angus calf named Fuse, gifted to Rosalie by her granddaughter; now her entire herd is named after board games.

“This small farm is a story of resilience, staying viable while transitioning away from dairy and charting a path forward for the farm,” said Tucker Malone, Project Director at VLT. “It is a special property in the heart of the Northern Green Mountains that will now forever remain available for farmers to continue the tradition.”

A promise fulfilled, a legacy continued

The land’s conservation will fulfill the promise Rosalie made to Junior many years ago. It will ensure that the land remains available to farmers for generations to come.

“His sister, Helen Joyal, was very pleased when she found out I was doing it,” said Rosalie. “She said I honored her brother’s wishes, and he would have been very happy and proud of me.”

In the future, she plans to pass the farm to her younger daughter, Celia. Celia’s daughter, Erionah, lived with Rosalie on the farm for several years, managing the maple syrup operation and helping run the farm while still in high school.

Rosalie’s only son, Lucas, was a U.S. Marine who died in Kuwait in 1998. She channeled her grief into the Lucas James Williams Memorial, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in memory of her son that has provided free outdoor activities for area youth and families since 1999.

A large pavilion with handicapped accessible bathrooms sits on a 10.5-acre field on Waterville Mountain Road in Bakersfield that hosts youth and family programs for the wider community, including fishing derbies, a haunted forest, and community service opportunities for high school youth. In recent years, the field has been used by the Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union for summer enrichment programs, and hosted students from Bakersfield, Enosburg, Berkshire, Richford, and Montgomery.

Broader benefits for Cold Hollow Mountains region

The farm offers a unique view of Cold Hollow Mountain, a landscape that attracts artists from around the world. It links up with large, conserved tracts of forestland in Bakersfield, Montgomery, and Belvidere that form an important block of wildlife habitat, including hundreds of acres that begin about a half mile away.

Beyond the scenic view and farmland, the protected property has 13 acres of wetlands, including a beaver wetland complex. Two streams flow through the parcel and into Cooks Brook, which is located in the Missisquoi River watershed.

The nonprofit organization Cold Hollow to Canada, which works to protect and steward forests in the region, and the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board contributed funding to the conservation effort.

“Cold Hollow to Canada is once again honored to partner with the Vermont Land Trust and contribute to Rosalie Williams’s vision to protect her farm and working forest for generations to come,” said Dave Erickson, Executive Director of Cold Hollow to Canada. “This is an important piece to conserve, to sustain an ecologically connected landscape, and we admire Rosalie for her deep commitment to her community and the land.”