Since 1999 the Lamoille County Natural Resources Conservation District has coordinated Trees for Streams (TFS), a locally driven program working to establish forested riparian buffers, stabilize eroding stream banks and deliver watershed education & outreach.    TFS offers programmatic flexibility to meet specific landowner/site needs and concerns that are often not offered with state and federal cost share programs.  TFS has planted over eight miles of streambank in Lamoille County with buffer widths ranging from fifteen to fifty feet. The expansion of the program to shoreline owners continues to make progress and we’ve recently completed a demonstration project at Lake Eden in conjunction with the Lake Eden Association.  TFS is made possible by a Watershed Grant awarded by the Department of Environmental Conservation, the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Wildlife program, and the Lamoille River Anglers Association.

Since 2005, the District has been working collaboratively with the Winooski and Caledonia County Natural Resources Conservation Districts to expand TFS from Lamoille County to the entire Lamoille Watershed, from the headwaters in the Northeast Kingdom to Lake Champlain .

Participating landowners sign a ten year contract and make a 20% financial contribution to materials; labor is voluntary and includes an educational component.  The remaining 80% is covered by grant dollars and community contributions.  Planted species are based on Vermont ’s natural communities and sourced locally from conservation nurseries collecting seed within corresponding or adjacent watersheds.

Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP)

CREP is a cost share program of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides annual rental payments to farmers who convert highly erodible cropland or other environmentally sensitive acreage to vegetative cover such as native grasses or trees.  The overall goal of CREP is to reduce soil erosion, protect the ability to produce food and fiber, reduce sedimentation in streams and lakes, improve water quality, establish wildlife habitat and enhance forest and wetland resources. 

Since 2005 the Lamoille County Natural Resources Conservation District has worked in partnership with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Lamoille County producers to coordinate the ordering and planting of over 5,000 stems on over 20 acres of land in the Lamoille and Winooski Watersheds. 


United States Department of Agriculture

Learn more about CREP at www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/crp/

The Lamoille Valley Farm & Forest Initiative:  Supporting the Working Landscape

Many of us as consumers have heard the buzz of buying local and the associated economic, community and environmental benefits…but what bigger, non-consumer oriented efforts are being made to support the movement? 

The Lamoille County Natural Resources Conservation District has identified in its latest strategic plan that it is critical for the District to create opportunities for landowners, managers, foresters, loggers and agriculture producers that support the continuation of the working landscape.  This focus contributes to the overall sustainability of the natural resource based economy of the Lamoille Valley and subsequently the water quality of the Lamoille River and Lake Champlain . 

We often hear of how farming and forestry practices can degrade water quality but rarely hear how good management practices can protect water quality.  How does the working landscape protect water quality?  The correlation is actually quite direct.  More active farm and forest lands means more land that is allowed to filter, absorb, and hold water thus recharging aquifers and streams in a way that minimizes soil erosion and water quality degradation.  Keeping the small farm and woodlot as mainstays on the landscape means less land that is lost to impervious surfaces such as parking lots and pavement.

Increased development means greater disturbance to soils, greater impact on natural resources and greater stress on the capacity of existing land to produce more on less acreage.  How can we as consumers and producers keep fields and forests under sustainable cultivation?  How can we minimize or eliminate the negative environmental impacts of farming and forestry practices?  The Lamoille Valley Farm & Forest Initiative (LVFFI) is the District’s commitment to begin answering these questions from a local perspective.  The Portable Skidder Bridge Rental Program and the Farm & Forest Directory are two examples of LVFFI projects. 

Portable skidder bridges minimize the potential for soil erosion from logging equipment and logs crossing over water bodies.  To date, three rental bridges have been built and are currently available for rent from storage sites in the mid and upper Lamoille watershed.

This Clean and Clear project supports the Acceptable Management Practices for Maintaining Water Quality on Logging Jobs in Vermont and made possible by the Vermont Departments of Forest, Parks and Recreation and Environmental Conservation, the Green Mountain Career and Technology Center, and log yards operated by Ken Davis and Howard Manosh. 

Funding has already been secured for the construction of two additional bridges for the lower Lamoille watershed.  Call 888-9218x13 to learn more.

The initial motivation behind the conception of the Regional Hydroseeder Project in 2000 was water quality.  That being said, however, Lamoille County alone spends thousands to tens of thousands of dollars per year to remedy issues such as erosion, undermining, and washouts.  These costs can be mitigated or avoided completely by implementing techniques such as vegetative stabilization.  The hydroseeder is good for water quality and for town budgets.  Additional municipalities are welcome to join the program at any time; call 888-9218 x13.  

In the summer of 2004 the District installed a demonstration rain garden in Morrisville at Demars Properties on Brooklyn Street.  By design, a rain garden is a system of soil, plants and mulch that catches and retains the surface runoff of water for infiltration.  This project addresses a very important water quality issue that is also being prioritized by the town of Morrisville who in the fall of 2004 adopted stormwater zoning ordinances on all commercial properties. 

The rain garden was installed with funding from the Lake Champlain Basin Program, donated labor from the Upward Bound program in Johnson, with technical assistance from the Water Quality Division Stormwater Management Section under the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and the cooperation of Demars Properties.