Meet Tom Rogers, Executive Director of Stowe Land Trust
Tom Rogers was named executive director of Stowe Land Trust in June 2024. A certified wildlife biologist with a master’s degree in Biology and Ecology, Tom comes to SLT from The Nature Conservancy, where he was associate director of philanthropy for the past five years.
How has your experience led you to Stowe Land Trust?
Gosh, how far back do I go? I intended to study pre-medicine as an undergrad at Colby College. My dad was a doctor and I thought I would follow his tracks. I was really into hiking, backpacking, and just being outdoors and found myself more interested in the ecology side of my biology classes. It occurred to me that while my dad was helping people one at a time, protecting a watershed could impact the health of lots of people. So, I made a transition into biology and environmental science.
After college and before graduate school, I worked as a ski instructor and mountain guide in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. That’s where I met my wife, Julia. It’s interesting to look at that experience in the context of fundraising work. In school, I was learning about science, but it was my time as a guide that taught me how to connect with people. Building authentic relationships with people one-on-one and, ultimately, translating those relationships into success for something you all really care about has been foundational to my career.
That’s a unique skill set--science and communications. How has that played out in your career?
Well, Julia and I moved to Vermont in 2010. I worked for a short while for a wildlife consulting firm radio-collaring bears for a wildlife study before I took a job with the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife in policy and communications. The other staff at the department were often nervous about talking to reporters or being on TV. After a while, I was like, I can do this … I actually enjoy this! I got to do a little of everything at that job – go out to rattlesnake dens, survey fish at night on Lake Champlain, go underground in bat caves. It was fascinating work.
When The Nature Conservancy approached me about a fundraising position, I thought, how could I ever do that … I’ve never fundraised before! But when they described the daily work - going for hikes and paddles with donors, taking them out into nature, getting to know really cool people - it sounded a lot like being a guide again. Ultimately, it’s about being interested in people and building authentic relationships.
What attracted you to Stowe Land Trust?
A big part of it is that this is my community. There is so much change happening right now. That’s fine – change is great. But are we being intentional about it as a community? Are we making decisions that ultimately shape our community in a positive way, where we don’t have overdevelopment or mass tourism that is harmful to local residents or the local ecology? Those things are so important to me. This is where my daughters go to school and where they’ll grow up. It’s really important to me that this is a livable community for many generations to come.
Do you want to expand on how raising a family here impacts your values?
The Stowe Elementary School just added a greenhouse to the outdoor garden area in partnership with Stowe Land Trust. That kind of hands-on, intimate connection with nature is increasingly becoming a luxury in our country. It should not be. It should be the standard. The idea that there are places within walking distance of Stowe’s schools where kids can go out and build connections with nature – go birding, get dirty, look for a frog in a puddle - those things are essential.
I love hiking in Kirchner and riding Cady Hill with my family. The trails are so well laid out for families. All those little things add so greatly to the quality of life in this town. It’s something I’m excited to expand on, continue the legacy of, and ensure the future success of.
Your previous positions had a statewide focus. What feels different for you working with a community organization?
A lot of people support The Nature Conservancy because they like biodiversity and want Vermont to be a place where wildlife thrives and we have protected forests and rivers. But there is a less direct tangible connection to the outcome because they may be supporting a conservation project on the other side of the state. In Stowe, people have all those same values around protecting nature, but the places Stowe Land Trust protects are right in their backyard. These are the places they go mountain biking with friends or take their kids for a nature walk, so they care about protecting these lands on multiple levels.
On the other hand, even though the geographic area of Stowe Land Trust is more focused, the scope of issues is much broader. Stowe Land Trust isn’t just focused on biodiversity – they also focus on outdoor recreation, agricultural land, the interface with housing, and the quality of life in our town.
One of the things I’m most excited about is working with the people of Stowe. I’ve volunteered on Stowe Mountain Rescue for 12 years and been to virtually every Town Meeting since we moved here. There are amazing people working in town government and running partner nonprofits, so the ability to work with them and all the people who support SLT on a daily basis is really exciting.
What opportunity do you see for Stowe Land Trust?
SLT is an incredibly well-respected, well-run organization. It has a lot of momentum and community support. What it doesn’t have is the capacity to meet needs right now. We’ve all seen the changes in the community – the demands and pressures – since the pandemic and even before that when Vail bought Stowe Mountain Resort. Stowe Land Trust needs to be responsive to those changes and to be able to operate at the scale necessary to be effective in 2024. Ten years ago, you could operate a much smaller organization and still be effective. Right now, we need to accelerate the pace and scale of our work. So, bringing on more staff, doing more projects, and really engaging the community.
How does recreation factor into land conservation for you?
Backcountry skiing is really expanding. Mountain biking is exploding. Those things are great, but it’s important that we develop our backcountry the same way we develop our landscape, which is intentionally - both for the user experience and to protect biodiversity. I think for a long time, people thought of outdoor recreation as only a benefit to nature just because an area was protected from development. But we are now all recognizing that there are tradeoffs in terms of how trails impact things like water quality or wildlife. I think outdoor recreation organizations have really jumped on board with that and are planning trail systems more mindfully than they may have done in the past.
You mentioned development in passing. How can Stowe Land Trust help to address the housing issue?
I’ve been following this issue closely – it’s central to the conversation in our community right now. There is an incredible amount of overlap with housing and conservation. I don’t see Stowe Land Trust becoming a housing trust, but do see us partnering with Lamoille Housing Partnership and others to ensure that there are affordable places for people to live in our community. It’s something we have to think about with every conservation project we do - is there the potential to partner with housing groups on this project? It has to inform every aspect of our thinking.
When conservation is done right, it can be a benefit to housing. And when development is done thoughtfully, it should not conflict with conservation. The two go hand-in-hand if they’re done well.
Can you touch on Stowe’s forestry and agricultural history?
I think one of the reasons people come to Vermont is its authenticity. We’re not a museum. Tourism is the center of Stowe’s economy, but it’s not the only part of our economy. People make a living in diverse ways here, which is one of the things that makes it a great place to live. I love the fact that among the loggers who are working our hillsides, one of them serves as our State Representative in Montpelier. Or that you might be briefly held up by a herd of dairy cows crossing the road on your way to work and no one seems to mind. That’s real – it isn’t for show. There are farmers in our community getting up at sunrise to milk the cows before most of us are even awake. It’s important that we hold onto that authenticity.
And that authenticity benefits all of us. My firewood is delivered each spring from a local guy who always gives me a little more than I pay for - I ask for two cords and he’ll deliver two and a quarter and charge me for two - and I know that while I’m heating my home in the winter, he’s making a living by maintaining healthy forests. Or my wife loves taking the kids to the Stowe farmers market and coming home with some fresh asparagus for dinner that was grown locally.
How do you enjoy the outdoors here in Stowe?
So many ways! My wife gets after me about my gear closet. My favorite thing in the world is spending time outdoors with my family. Later this week, we are going camping at Green River Reservoir. We’ll get the girls up at 6 a.m., paddle across the reservoir, and drop them at school just as the opening bell rings. In the summertime, I’m out on the mountain bike trails before work. In the winter, it’s backcountry skiing or skate skiing at Trapps.
Every summer, there is this week right before school starts when there are no camps. My wife and I used to trade off, or drop the girls with their grandparents. A few years ago, I decided I was done with that. Now I take the whole week off and spend time with them and their friends in the outdoors. I take them rock climbing and whitewater rafting. We go hiking and biking and camping. I’m fully committed to doing this until they leave the house. I want my daughters and their friends to go off to college feeling empowered to not just do these types of things in the outdoors, but to lead others as well.
This is a magical town, a place I hope many people can experience. And I hope we are able to keep all the things that make it so special.