Family, friends, and colleagues of the late Virginia Farley will gather on Saturday, May 2, to dedicate Farley Riverside Park in Waitsfield. Community members are welcome to attend.
Farley was a long-time Mad River Valley resident who played a major role in local land conservation initiatives in the 1980s - 2000s. She was the second person employed by the Ottauquechee Regional Land Trust, which became the Vermont Land Trust, and later extended her conservation impact across the country and beyond through work with the US National Park Service.
According to Waitsfield Select Board chair Brian Shupe, “Farley was involved in most of the large land conservation projects in The Valley for over two decades, including the Knoll Farm and Phenn Basin in Fayston, the Maple Avenue project in Waitsfield that involved the permanent conservation of over 1,000 acres along the southern part of Common Road in the early 1990s, and the establishment of Wu Ledges Town Forest.”
Upon Farley’s death in 2022, family, friends, and colleagues approached the Waitsfield Conservation Commission and select board with a proposal to convert the 6.9-acre Tardy parcel – on Route 100 across the Mad River from the Lareau Farm Inn and pavilion – into a public park to commemorate her conservation legacy and environmental ethic. The group raised nearly $50,000 through private donations to support the development of the park and memorial elements.
Farley helped the town acquire the Tardy parcel in 2003. Since that time the property has been hayed by a local farmer and was used by the town for gravel storage after Tropical Storm Irene in 2011, but has never been a well-known community asset. In the last few years, it has been a focus of the conservation commission’s efforts to control Japanese knotweed and other invasive plant species.
In 2023, the commission completed a management plan for the property that envisioned the establishment of Farley Riverside Park, which the select board approved. Since that time, the organizers collaborated with the commission and the board in developing a site plan for the park with the help of a landscape architect. A stone bench has been installed with landscaping, a new entrance sign fabricated by Wood & Wood Signs, Waitsfield will be erected in the next week, and a small parking area, additional landscaping, and signage are in the works.
“It is deeply gratifying to see this effort coming to fruition,” said Phil Huffman, a longtime conservation commission member and colleague of Farley’s. “The park will be a fitting tribute to one of The Valley’s and Vermont’s great conservationists. And it provides an opportunity to turn an important but under-appreciated piece of town land into a more welcoming space for The Valley community to enjoy for the long haul.”
The dedication event will be held on-site on May 2 from 3 to 5 p.m., rain or shine. Parking will be across the street at Our Lady of the Snows Church. Attendees are encouraged to use caution crossing Route 100 to access the property, and to bring camp chairs or blankets for seating.
