Do you enjoy birding, paddling, or fishing on the Clyde River?  You are not alone if you do.  In a survey conducted this past fall/winter, more than three quarters of respondents chose nature viewing and boating, and almost half selected fishing as ways they experience the Clyde.  This survey was part of a scoping study for pursuing Wild & Scenic River designation for the Clyde River. Ben Applegate, who has been working part time for MWA over the past year, conducted this study as part of his UVM master’s degree in the Field Naturalist Program. The study had two focus areas: 1) identifying and documenting remarkable values of the river and 2) assessing community interest. The study highlights four remarkable values and found strong community support among river users as well as identifying a core group of river allies.

MWA was turned onto the Wild & Scenic Rivers (WSR) program by folks at the Missisquoi River Basin Association (MRBA) which through many years of outreach, advocacy, study, and planning received WSR designation in 2014 for 43 miles of the upper Missisquoi and its primary tributary, the Trout.  The local study committee that worked on the designation process evolved into the Upper Missisquoi and Trout Rivers Committee (UMATR) to help steward these rivers.  Given the success that UMATR has had over the past twelve years, and similar socio-economic conditions and cultural similarities in the communities that both the Missisquoi and Clyde pass through, MWA was curious about a Wild & Scenic designation campaign for the Clyde River.  

The national Wild & Scenic Rivers program is most often utilized on federal lands, but there is a partnership model that developed in the northeast where rivers flow primarily through private lands.  A locally led river council, typically composed of representatives from municipalities through which the river passes, as well as local conservation organizations, partner with the National Park Service to study and develop a river corridor management plan.  If local voter approval for this river management plan is secured then designation can proceed by congressional amendment to Wild & Scenic Act.  Once a river is designated, the local river council can guide stewardship of the river by implementing the river management plan via annual federal funding from the National Park Service budget. This partnership model is used on the Missisquoi (the only Vermont river with WSR designation) as well 16 other rivers from Delaware to Maine.  The program’s success is built around bringing people together to develop river stewardship planning and action, while respecting individual property rights by offering voluntary recommendations for river adjacent landowners and river users. 

The Clyde River study finds that there are regionally remarkable values that are essential for program eligibility.  Remarkable values identified in this report include: geomorphology (river form & behavior), significant wetland natural communities, diverse and productive fisheries, and high-quality recreation opportunities.  A low gradient river interrupted by a few steeper reaches with corresponding cascade lakes, and the presence of extensive wetlands present a river system with high water storage capacity and significant phosphorus retention.  Compared to the neighboring Barton and Black rivers with similar size basins, the Clyde delivers far less phosphorus to Lake Memphremagog and has a more delayed and muted water flow following storm events.  There are 19 significant wetland natural communities that have been identified and mapped by the VT Natural Heritage Program, primarily on the upper half of the Clyde above Pensioner Pond.  From Silver Maple Floodplain forests to Intermediate Fens to Black Spruce Bogs, there are exceptional wetlands that provide habitat to many organisms.  This includes a high diversity of fish given the variety of temperature regimes, deep to shallow pools, sand and gravelly to mucky substrates, and river-lake confluences.  Finally, the Clyde River offers multiple paddling opportunities from open flat water in lakes, to meandering river channels to some of the best Class II white water in the NEK. Likewise, this may be the best mixed bagged fishery in the state, with an array of fishing opportunities from cold water to cool/warm water fish in close proximity to one another.  These four remarkable values are not an exhaustive list, and the Clyde has more that we hope will be evaluated in an official Wild & Scenic study. 

To make that happen a member of the VT Congressional delegation will need to introduce legislation to amend the Wild & Scenic Act and rally support for the law to be amended (this is typical for the designation process).  In order to prove to our Congressional representatives that it is worth their time and effort for this legislative effort, showing proof of community interest is paramount.  That is where the second half of this scoping study comes in.  Through an open public survey with 81 respondents and additional interviews with 15 stakeholders that have strong connections to the Clyde, Ben ascertained that there is strong interest among people who highly value, use and enjoy the river. There was very strong to moderate support from almost all of the survey participants for pursuing a partnership Wild & Scenic River designation. Likewise, most interviewees are not only supportive but willing to be involved in the process in an advisory or more active capacity. Notably, to achieve success both survey participants and interviewees expressed the importance of a transparent local coalition that has broad inclusion and clear communication about what designation means for river users and adjoining landowners. These results suggest a baseline of support and the beginnings of a river champions group that can assist in a broader outreach campaign to educate the larger community about the Wild & Scenic Program.  In the meantime, we will be gathering letters of support from community members to be used in combination with this report to make the case for moving forward with an official study.

Ben will be hosting paddles on the Clyde this summer to both experience the wonders of the river and also to explain more about the Wild & Scenic program.  Check our website events page for details.  If you are already a fan of the Clyde River and want to help in this conservation effort, please contact Ben Applegate (bapplegate@mwavt.org).