BAKERSFIELD — Rosalie Williams has conserved more than 240 acres of farmland, forestland and wetlands in Bakersfield.
The protected parcel on Joyal Road will continue to host working lands, healthy forests and wildlife into the future, thanks to funding support from Cold Hollow to Canada and the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board.
Williams produces beef, eggs and vegetables, and leases the property’s 1,200-tap sugarbush to a neighboring sugarmaker. She utilizes the fields to produce hay for her beef herd.
“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 Vermont Land Trust. “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.”
Honoring the farming legacy of the Joyal family and of Bakersfield
Williams grew up on a neighboring farm and turned to farming full-time as a young woman, helping her aunt manage the family dairy and working on other farms nearby to expand her understanding of farming techniques.
The conserved property had been in the Joyal family since the 1930s and was run as a dairy for decades. Williams has been farming there since 2009, when she began working at the Joyal dairy with her longtime friend Levi “Junior” Joyal. She became a co-owner of the parcel in 2010, when the Joyal family added her to the deed, and took sole ownership after Junior Joyal passed away in 2020.
“He made me promise that I would keep it as a farm,” Williams said. “It was an easy promise for me to make.”
While working together, Junior Joyal and Williams converted the farm to organic and expanded their dairy herd. After a lightning strike destroyed the barn’s electrical system and Junior Joyal’s house, Williams shifted away from dairy and diversified the farm. Today, she has a small herd of beef cattle, a flock of laying hens, and a high tunnel for growing vegetables.
“Mr. Joyal’s sister, Helen Joyal, was very pleased when she found out I was conserving the farm,” Williams said. “She said I honored her brother’s wishes, and he would have been very happy and proud of me.”
Williams is known in the region as the force behind the Lucas James Williams Memorial, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in memory of her son Lucas, a U.S. Marine who died in Kuwait in 1998. A large pavilion sits on a 10.5-acre field on Waterville Mountain Road in Bakersfield. The pavilion helps the organization host 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.
Addition to protected lands in Cold Hollow Mountains region
The farm offers a unique view of Cold Hollow Mountain, a landscape known for its wildlife habitat and forests. 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. The nonprofit Cold Hollow to Canada, which works on the protection and stewardship of forests in the region, was an important funding partner in this effort.
The newly conserved Bakersfield farm.
Courtesy Photo
“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.”
The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board also contributed significant funding for the land’s conservation.
“Rosalie is doing the hard work of keeping this land productive and healthy, and VHCB is honored to invest in that vision. It’s exactly the kind of partnership that strengthens Vermont’s rural communities and ensures our working lands remain available for the next generation of farmers,” said Gus Seelig, executive director of the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board. “This conservation project shows how strategic investments can multiply benefits across Vermont’s landscape: protecting a working farm, connecting wildlife habitat, and safeguarding water quality all at once.”
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.
Williams has been working to improve the ecological functioning of the property’s water resources. She partnered with the Franklin County Natural Resources Conservation District and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to implement a suite of practices that will improve water quality on and off her property. Conservation partners are planning a restoration project in the summer of 2026 to improve drainage on about four acres of fields.