Sudbury, VT 05733(Rutland County)

The property is located in the town of Sudbury (population 580), in a rural, primarily forested area of west-central Vermont, where scattered homes are situated along the town roads. This area offers abundant water resources, with many lakes and ponds nearby, including Beebe Pond, Echo Lake, Lake Hortonia, Hinkom Pond, Sunset Lake and, of course, Burr Pond. Just south and east of the property is a largely forested landscape; however, to the north and west, the area gives way to the more level, agricultural lands of the Lake Champlain valley where farms define the landscape.

Sudbury does not have a town center with concentrated commerce, instead there is the hamlet of Sudbury, located at the junctions of Routes 73 and 30, and situated 1.6 miles from the property.

The largest nearby village is Brandon which is a 12-minute drive to the east. Brandon has a vibrant Main Street with various Inns, banks, shops and restaurants, as well as a community of fine homes.

Burlington is a 70-minute drive to the north. Rutland, Vermont's second largest city is a 35-minute drive to the south with Killington Ski Resort a 45-minute drive. Boston is a 3.25-Hour drive to the southeast.

The property has two access points. The southern end of the property near the pond is accessed by a 50'-Wide legal right-of-way off Huff Pond Road that runs 880' to the property boundary. Once on the land, the road runs a short distance to the edge of the northern side of the pond where there is a large clearing. From this point, numerous well-defined woods trails run throughout the land with most well suited to hiking, skiing and ATV use.

The northern end of the property has 440' of frontage along Fiddle Hill Road, a town-maintained gravel road with electric power and cable service. The nearby homes along this road are well maintained and quite nice. From the road frontage, a well-constructed internal access road heads south into the property for 1,980', ending at a large clearing. From this point, well established woods trails run south into the property, and many eventually connect up with the Huff Pond side of the property.

One of the property's defining attributes is its 1,100' of frontage along the north side of Huff Pond. The pond covers roughly 38 acres and is undeveloped except for 3 homes on its southern shoreline. The pond is fed from a steam that originates on the property and its outlet is a stream on the south side of Huff Pond Road. The western side of the pond is shallow, while the northern end (where the stream enters the pond along the property's frontage) and the eastern shoreline provide a water depth suitable for a dock from which swimming is possible. The pond area is quiet and scenic; an ideal location to develop a home site that looks over the pond. The northern side of the property (at the end of the access road leading from Fiddle Hill Road) offers an additional building site option with local views and privacy.

The property's terrain is generally quite variable and undulating, with many short hillsides, valleys and hilltop peaks. Signal Hill is entirely on the property and is its highest elevation at 1,089' Asl. The slopes leading to this peak are rocky with exposed ledge, an interesting hiking destination. The low point of the property is along the Fiddle Hill Road frontage at an elevation of 600'. While the land does not have much variation from its low and high elevation, the terrain is quite variable with all aspects present and many small ravines and hill tops.

The entire property is forested with the exception of a few small clearings at the end of each access road and a wetland area with semi-open water created by beavers. Soils are largely well drained and productive as is evident from species indicators such as maiden hair fern, basswood and sugar maple.

The property's forest management plan delineates 4 forest stands with the majority of the forest resource consisting of northern hardwoods and red oak species. Softwoods are a minor species component with scattered white pine at the land's southern end, and hemlock and other miscellaneous softwoods species found in stand 4 and widely scattered at the land's northern end.

Stand 1 (117 acres) was last thinned in 2011-2012 and is currently fully stocked. The balance of the forest (stands 2-4) were all thinned in 2018-2019. The silvicultural activity focused on concentrating growth on the best stems, so these stands are well suited for future asset appreciation of high-quality stems.

While there is no current timber valuation, the standing timber value on the forest is likely close to $300,000 ($835/Acre) which is based on a rough ocular estimate from the author of this report, forester Michael Tragner.