WALDEN – In what he called a “game-changer,” Rob Niles, a retired Vermont Army National Guard veteran, received a New Kubota L02 Series compact tractor as part of Kubota’s Geared to Give program, which honors military veterans pursuing careers in agriculture.
Niles received the free tractor after retiring with 26 years of service in the guard, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He now owns and operates Wild Woods Maple, a maple sugaring operation in Walden.
The new tractor was delivered September 4 by Champlain Valley Equipment General Manager Brian Carpenter and Sales Manager Tom Wood, who taught Niles the ins-and-outs of operating the tractor.
He learned about the “Geared to Give” program last winter, in January, and filled out the application, expressing his need for a tractor. In May he was surprised to hear from them with news that he’d be receiving one.
Niles has had a small sugaring operation in Cambridge, where he built a sugarhouse on the lawn with a few trees and sold sap. He knew they’d want a bigger sugar woods when he retired from the service. To do that, he and his wife Katie, bought land on Coles Pond, where he’s been setting up a second operation.
In 2020, Rob began building Wild Woods Maple, expanding to operate a certified organic, Audubon-recognized, bird-friendly maple sugaring business on 108 acres.
The family made their first syrup last spring from 6,000 taps. Wild Woods Maple went on to win Best of Class and Best of Show ribbons in the 2025 Vermont Maple Festival “Maple Syrup & Products Contest,” for their amber rich syrup. (Long-time area producer Michelle Goodrich of Goodrich Maple in Cabot took home a Best in Class ribbon there for her maple sugar cakes.)
Niles gives most of the credit for the quality of their syrup to the Walden forest, with its trees and its soils, plus help from others, including the UVM Proctor Maple Center.
At the Vermont Maple Festival awards banquet, “We made our way towards the door at the end of the night and we were stopped by someone who had tasted our syrup during the judging process,” he said, “they really wanted us to know how much they loved the flavor of our syrup and that was special to hear. I took very little credit for the flavor and gave all the credit to the trees in our forest that give us the sap.”
“Our 2025 maple season was an absolute emotional roller-coaster. We were unable to tap all our trees in the beginning due to ridiculous snow depth. Adding to the drama, some sap lines were buried in the deep snow and needed to be dug out. I was keeping the roof of the sugar house raked off, which was a major chore, it is a large building.
“The warm days did come and the sap started to flow from the half of our forest we had tapped. I got the reverse osmosis machine cleaned and all the equipment was working as it should. I made the usual rounds in the forest and fixed sap tubing leaks; all the woods were tight.
“We did our first couple boils and made some really good syrup in record time. I was immediately aware that I was much more efficient in the sugar house before and after each boil. The year prior was my first season at our new operation and I was sugaring at a much larger scale than I ever had before. I was slow that season, but it seemed as if I was moving much faster this season and it felt good!”
Niles put the Walden operation together by himself, running taplines and building the sugarhouse, except for help with the roof. He’s had a four-wheeler, but never any real equipment like a tractor, he said. He’s been shoveling out the sugarhouse by hand, and borrowing a tractor when he could. His new tractor came with a plow and loader, which he expects will be “a total game-changer.”
The new tractor has created its own new project though, said Niles. He now plans to build a shed to cover and protect the new equipment. He said he’ll be happy to use his new tractor to help others, since so many people have helped him over many years.
Niles, who grew up in Lyndonville, enlisted in the Vermont Army National Guard in December 1997. He deployed to Ramadi, Iraq, in 2005 as a squad leader with Task Force Saber, later he worked as a mountaineering instructor at the Army Mountain Warfare School, and deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 as a mountain warfare operational advisor with the Asymmetric Warfare Group.
While Coles Pond is a remote, relatively high Vermont elevation, Rob said he’s been to many “off-the-radar places” that are more remote and even colder. On his own, with time off from the guard, he’s been mountaineering in Nepal, where he climbed Ama Dablam, a mountain in the Eastern Himalayas range of Koshi Province, Nepal. The main peak is 6,812 metres (22,349 ft), and considered a more technical climb than Everest.
Based in Waco, Texas, Farmer Veteran Coalition’s (FVC’s) mission is to assist service members and veterans transitioning out of military service into careers in the agriculture sector or assist them with starting their own farms or ranches.
Kubota Tractor Corporation and the FVC partner annually to provide five farmer veterans with new Kubota equipment through the Geared to Give program. Since its inception in 2015, more than $1 million has been donated in support and 51 pieces of equipment to farmer veterans nationwide, empowering veterans with the tools they need to serve their communities a second time, by helping to feed them. For more information, see kubotausa.com/kubota-cares/farmer-veteran-coalition and farmvetco.org.
Wildwoods Maple offers a wide range of maple products, including infused syrups and a bourbon-barrel-aged offering. For more information, see wildwoodsmaple.com.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
