The roots of Farm & Wilderness Conservation reach back to the 1930s and the visionary founders of summer camps where children could learn the value of wilderness and the skills needed to live in the woods.

Ken and Susan Webb opened the first three Farm and Wilderness camps in Plymouth, Vermont in 1937. The camps thrived, and by 1960, the Webbs were eager to establish new camps. But finding open land wasn’t easy. Fields and forests were disappearing quickly as development spread through the Route 100 valley. When a 310-acre wooded tract, on the eastern side of Lake Ninevah in nearby Mount Holly, came up for sale, the Webbs and some Farm & Wilderness supporters seized the moment and bought it.

A few years later, this group formed the Wilderness Corporation to focus exclusively on conserving Lake Ninevah and the land around it, which was destined to be the site of two new Farm & Wilderness camps. Initially, the Corporation bought the camp’s holdings and an adjacent land parcel slated for development.

Over the next 30 years, the Wilderness Corporation acquired more land, eventually protecting almost 3,000 acres. In 1995, when the Corporation directors decided that a non-profit conservation organization could advance their purposes more effectively, they disbanded the Corporation and formed the Ninevah Foundation to carry on the work.

Thanks to public grants and private donations, the Ninevah Foundation maintained and expanded the Corporation’s focus on lake and land conservation, thus preserving wildlife habitat and nature-friendly recreation. For instance, the Ninevah Foundation obtained three large grants under the federal Forest Legacy program, which supports landowners keeping their property “forever wild” while allowing public access for specified recreational use.

As a result of these efforts, the Ninevah Foundation helped complete an environmentally-critical wildlife corridor — sometimes referred to as the “bear corridor” — linking the northern and southern sections of the Green Mountain National Forest. The Ninevah Foundation led water quality maintenance and restoration for Lake Ninevah. By hiring scuba divers and training monitors to carry out surveillance and public education, the Ninevah Foundation successfully contained infestations of Eurasian watermilfoil and continued to monitor for other aquatic invasive species.

In May 2018, the Ninevah Foundation affiliated with Farm & Wilderness to share professional services and staffing and ensure the long-term sustainability of its work. By April 2022, it was announced that all of the conserved lands and work completed by the affiliation would be known as Farm & Wilderness Conservation.