Friends of Hildene

Each year Hildene's staff and volunteers welcome thousands of guests to the lincoln home, grounds and walking trails. Hildene's open land and restored buildings best serve the public as an educational and cultural resource, and as a memorial to the lincoln family.

Public education is an integral part of the Hildene mission, including a lincoln lecture series, a library and research center, a lincoln essay competition, book publishing, the rowland agricultural center at which staff milks goats and makes cheese, plus a second agricultural operation at dene farm with alpacas, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens and rabbits, a collaboration with the local high school involving dozens of students taking classes at dene farm every day during the school year and the lowerre family youth education center which is home to children's education programs that teach history, natural science and agriculture.

Historical preservation of 412 acres and fourteen historic buildings, including a forest management plan that emphasizes sustainability over short-term profit, such as removal of invasive species and selective cutting to ensure the longer-term goal of higher quality, aesthetically pleasing Vermont forest. Trees are harvested and run through a portable saw mill to produce lumber to construct buildings. Cut wood is also used to feed wood-burning furnaces to efficiently heat many of the buildings.