Ancillary Revenue
Feronia adds to its revenue with several products made on the property: Mission Maple Syrup (missionmaple.com); Vertical Water—maple water from the same trees (verticalwater.com); and six wind turbines that provide power to 8,000 Berkshire County homes.
Eight thousand taps on the property are utilized to collect syrup in the spring. During the several-week maple run, a 7,000-gallon vat will be emptied several times on a good day. After that, a local farm boils it off and brings it back in 50-gallon kegs. It’s bottled and ready to sell by June.
Such collaborations with local vendors and companies feed the fourth component, location, which also dictates that Ramblewild only hires staff from Berkshire County and that, within reason, everything used on the property is sourced locally.
The Total Picture
The park offers different education curricula for students (and adults) that tie everything together. The Sugarbush curriculum focuses on the science of tapping trees; a Nature curriculum educates about flora, fauna, edibles and more; and a Sustainable Energy curriculum take visitors to the property’s wind turbines and educates them about the pros and cons of sustainable energy.
Each of these endeavors funds and fuels each other, says Bloom. For example, for every maple syrup bottle sold, two dollars go to the Feronia Forward Fund, which in turn provides scholarships to schools. “One can’t function without the other,” he says. “We utilize all of these separate entities to drive this place; it would be tough for us to scholarship schools if we didn’t make maple syrup.”
The suspension bridge that links the East and West campuses of Ramblewild.
Bloom says the aerial adventure park is a good tool for the transfer of all this knowledge, both through the scholarship program and to other visitors as well. To that end, the park recently purchased a military Pinzgauer transport vehicle that will be utilized for forest tours that will focus on the three curricula.
And other improvements are in store. A kiddie course for kids under age seven will be added, and Bloom says that ultimately park staff would like to utilize the aerial park in the same way that people use low ropes courses for team bonding. It also plans to target military veterans, through Wounded Warriors and other groups, and invite them to the park to recreate with kids.
All in all, “It’s a cool way to fund a forest without cutting down trees,” says Bloom.
