Check up on our latest projects Here Next Board Meeting May 13, 26 Learn More
The polystyrene foam that keeps many of our docks afloat is a significant source of water pollution statewide. When dock foam blocks break down or the tiny loose beads spill out, it is nearly impossible to collect all the pieces, leaving us to deal with the risks it poses to our environment, wildlife, and human health for decades.
https://www.clf.org/blog/dock-foam-ban-needed-in-vermont/
Vermont Agency of Natural Resources
Montpelier, Vt. – With drought conditions existing throughout Vermont, state officials are asking Vermonters to report drought impacts. This includes wells or water supplies running out or tasting different, damage to crops and other farm losses, low water levels in lakes, rivers, or recreational areas, and any health issues related to water quality or availability. Vermonters should also consider voluntary water conservation efforts at home.
Sunday, June 8th at 10 am
Since 2012, the Memphremagog Watershed Association has been awarding
scholarships to graduating secondary school students from schools within the
watershed: North Country High, Lake Region High, Craftsbury Academy, and United
Christian Academy.
The Shoreland Erosion Control and Restoration Training is a great opportunity for engineers, landscapers, designers, contractors, consultants, project managers, and other site workers. The all-day training will cover lake ecology, permitting and regulations, landscape design, project funding, best practices for using heavy machinery near lakeshores, and other shoreland best management practices.
Vermont Business Magazine – Nearly 50 acres along the Johns River in Derby—a tributary to Lake Memphremagog and nursery stream for wild trout—is now permanently protected and open to the public as part of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s Johns River Streambank Management Area (SMA).
“The Johns River is make-or-break spawning and nursery habitat for Lake Memphremagog’s wild trout,” said Pete Emerson, Fish Biologist with the department. “The lake’s different tributaries attract different spawning runs, landlocked Atlantic salmon in the Clyde for example. Although the Johns River doesn’t have the same name recognition as the Clyde or Willoughby, it’s just as important for wild trout.”
Strategic wood addition efforts have increased the number of brook trout in the northeast corner of the state by 83,000 over the past 13 years, according to the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s conservative estimates. Rodgers admits that, when strategic wood additions are first installed, “it is pretty ugly.” There are limbs and leaves everywhere, and you can barely see the stream under trees, she said. But the structure naturalizes quickly and makes the river ecologically healthier.
According to Kratzer, the department likes to say that “fish grow on trees,” — the living forest provides benefits that continue when trees die and fall into the water, whether the process be natural or human-assisted.
