The Friends of the Winooski River: Blog
Working together for a clean, healthy, resilient Winooski watershed
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Wood for Cleaner Water
Friends of the Winooski River is working to create cleaner water with large wood. Strategic Wood Additions (SWAs)— the process of adding and securing large pieces of wood into our streams— has been occurring across Vermont for about a decade. These efforts were pioneered by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department to improve habitat for fish, who need trees for refuge. Although FWR’s newest project will provide the co-benefit of improving fish habitat, this work is funded using State Clean Water Funds with the primary intention of capturing phosphorus: a mineral nutrient that, in high concentrations, pollutes our rivers and can cause toxic algae blooms on Lake Champlain.
Tree-Mendous Benefits: Tree plantings improve water quality, flood resiliency, and bird habitat
Every year, FWR plants thousands of native trees and shrubs along the streams and rivers that flow into the Winooski. This spring, we planted 1,800 of them with the support of private landowners, volunteers, local nurseries, and a team of funders. There are many benefits to planting trees along our waterways.
A Letter to Our Friends: 2024
Dear Friend,
What makes us resilient and able to recover quickly from difficult conditions? The support of our community, strength of our relationships, and our ability to navigate uncertain situations, withstand turbulence, and continue to operate effectively.
Annually, we see the challenges of weather events and our changing climate and their impact on rivers and communities. Our resilience has been tested and we must continue to navigate the challenges. Friends of the Winooski River is playing a critical role in supporting flood resilience.
Becoming Stream Wise
October 20th, 2024
For the past three years, Friends of the Winooski River has partnered with the Lake Champlain Basin Program to conduct free property assessments for landowners across our watershed through Stream Wise. Stream Wise is a program that awards and recognizes private landowners that maintain wide buffers of native plants along the sections of the rivers and streams that they own to foster stream health and resiliency in the Lake Champlain Basin. Our team here at FWR has visited 29 streamfront properties and given Stream Wise awards to 19 landowners that are excellent stewards of their land and water.
The Wondrous Wood Turtle
September 9th, 2024
With a quick search of the Wood Turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) you’ll find headlines like: Species in Peril, Wood Turtles Move Towards Endangered Species Act, and Think Your Life is Hard? Try Being a Wood Turtle. Due to a range of threats from human activity, life and survival are, indeed, hard for a wood turtle. Roadkill, habitat fragmentation, agricultural equipment/mowing, degraded water quality, and collection for captivity are the biggest contributors to their rapid decline in the wild. Wood turtles are an ancient species suspected to have lived in Vermont for the last 10,000 years, but despite their long standing survival and resilience, they face a very real threat of extinction ahead. By better understanding their habitat and behavior, we can better understand how to protect them.
Understanding Dredging
April 16th 2024
Digging out rivers to make them deeper might sound like a logical way to protect property from flooding. But is it really a solution? Vermont has been dredging its rivers for generations, it’s true, and dredging can be a useful tactic sometimes. But as our experience builds, we’ve witnessed the downsides and unintended consequences of dredging—and we’ve found more holistic alternatives.
PFAS Primer for Winooski River Watershed Residents
September 25th, 2023
One of the questions people most often ask Friends of the Winooski is “What are you doing about PFAS?” Jenny Blair, MD, of Montpelier, volunteered to help us provide some answers, and her findings are presented in this post.
Slow the Rain
September 5th, 2018
When rain falls and snow melts, Vermont’s fields and forests soak the water in like sponges. But in Montpelier, and other developed areas, our rooftops, roads, sidewalks, driveways, and parking lots send this water racing toward storm drains and directly into our streams and rivers.
Planting to Protect the Long Trail
August 23rd, 2018
The Friends of the Winooski River recently teamed up with a pack of cub scouts to protect a critical stretch of river bank adjacent to the Long Trail through Camel’s Hump State Park. Riverside trees and shrubs are nature’s best way to keep our water clean, minimize flood damage, and provide the varied habitats our plants and wildlife need to thrive. This spring alone, over 200 volunteers helped Friends of the Winooski River plant almost 4,000 trees and shrubs to restore these natural buffers at nine sites around central Vermont.
Stormwater mitigation at Smilie School
Improving the water quality of Joiner Brook in Bolton
July 11th, 2017
Students at the Smilie School in Bolton will learn about stormwater runoff and work with the Friends of the Winooski River to help protect nearby Joiner Brook from polluted runoff. Stormwater runoff carries pollutants such as phosphorus, pathogens, motor oil, pesticides, and lead to streams, rivers, and lakes. These pollutants degrade water quality, negatively impacting animals and plants and can make human contact with the water unpleasant or a health risk. Like the Smilie students, everyone can help reduce polluted stormwater runoff and make our waterways cleaner and healthier. Homeowners can install rain barrels, reduce pesticide and herbicide use or replace lawn with trees and shrubs that will absorb water. Schools and businesses can manage runoff from their roofs and parking lots so it soaks into the ground or is filtered before it runs into the closest stormdrain. You can learn more about stormwater on our website.
Keep it clean: Volunteer stencil project sends clear message
Friends volunteers raise awareness about stormwater pollution
June 23rd, 2017
A spray paint can and stencil are proving to be powerful tools in the Friends campaign to keep pollutants out of our streams and rivers. Volunteers are helping us get a simple message printed near storm drains and curbside grates throughout the Winooski Basin. “DUMP NO WASTE. DRAINS TO RIVER” is a constant reminder that any trash, debris, and pollutants that go into these black holes flow directly into local waterways. That’s right. The rain and snowmelt that scrub pet waste, household chemicals, leaked engine oil, trash, and winter sand from our paved streets, driveways and parking lots does not get treated at a wastewater facility.