McDougal Family Honored for Leadership

Ashley and Matt McAdam receive the Geiger Award.

McDougal Orchards of Springvale, represented by Matt McAdam and his wife Ashley, has received the Geiger Environmental Leadership Award from the nonprofit Institute for Family-Owned Business.

A panel of judges for the Maine-based organization picked McDougal and six other businesses from 500 potential candidates for the award, which honors companies that set the standard for sustainability. “We were blown away,” Matt McAdam said, “and our hearts are still racing days later that we were chosen for this award.

McDougal Orchards’ property on Hanson Ridge in Springvale has been cultivated by generations of the same family since 1776. As one judge pointed out, the business is as old as the nation. But McDougal Orchards is also working to improve its environmental footprint by using biodiesel, planting native plants, finding natural ways to ward off pests and working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). It was also recognized for demonstrating “exemplary land stewardship.”

McDougal sends used oil from its donut shack to a biodiesel company for reuse. It received a grant to install a solar panel system that offsets much of the business’s electricity costs. It has enlisted the NRCS to help with many projects, including logging trail improvements, woven-wire fencing around the orchards, cover crop rotation and a new pollinator planting that will be seeded this fall. The property has been protected by agricultural and conservation easements since 2005.

A short video the company submitted with its application can be seen here.