This photo is of East Braintree, among a cluster of Vermont villages, in the article “Vermont’s Quiet Revolution” in the Summer 1972 issue of Vermont Life (Vol. 26 Issue 4). Environmentalism concepts are heavily portrayed in a master plan “to meld economic and ecological values into a design that will govern what happens to the physical face of Vermont in the next quarter century”. During September of last year, 91 individuals from Vermont’s seven environmental districts served as the architects of the state’s Land Use Plan, which will represent a three year effort to balance the allocation of state’s land and natural resources with economic growth. 

In this article, environmentalism is mentioned in conjunction with Act 250 as a means of regulation of development for Vermont’s economic, human, and physical resources, as well as regulation of future settlement patterns. Act 250 is the state’s Land Use and Development Law of 1970, which spurred a reaction to the “economic and environmental ills created by uncontrolled growth” and serves as “a series of plans for state-wide land use.” Moreover, the act would serve as “the dual test of environmental management and political acceptability.” With environmentalism used to justify political acceptability and land development, it can be difficult to tell whether environmentalism is introduced to address a shifting state landscape, for the sake of nature, or a mix of both.