This photo shows an aerial view of access roads that have been bulldozed into the mountainside in the article “The Great Leisure Home Bonanza” in the Spring 1972 issue of Vermont Life (Vol. 26 Issue 3). The dangers of uncontrolled land use and potential destruction of the environment has been a longstanding issue for conservationists. By the mid-Sixties, a state planning office and some regional planning and conservation groups looked to the future, but they had no power to implement recommendations. A nationwide household moving service found that “Vermont was bringing four times as many countries into the state as out.” During this time, bulldozers were also slashing roads on mountainland, thus making land not usable for other recreational activities. 

In the sphere of environmentalism, Act 250 played an important role and halted a number of projects that had little regard for potentially disastrous environmental consequences. Now, there were requirements that subdivision plans would pass inspection by local, regional, and state authority. Act 250 was a big turning point for environmentalism: Vermont became the first state to “take such a dramatic step to guide its destiny in terms of physical characteristics and limitations of its natural resources and environmental quality.” Environmentalism was portrayed in a purely conservational, for-the-nature attitude with Act 250 being a prominent step towards achieving future land preservation and conservation goals.