We have increased local capacity for water quality protection by hiring a dedicated water quality education specialist, Emma Melvin, to provide education, technical assistance and leadership for local water quality protection, non-point source (NPS) pollution and watershed management in Vermont. Local officials and regional planners are the audience for LCSG technical support and information about design, operation and financing of stormwater infrastructure, and how their management choices affect water quality on a watershed and regional scale. The target communities are largely in rural Vermont, where growth is surging and land use change from agricultural to suburban is accelerating. The program also focuses on urban redevelopment, resort towns, including ski towns, and summer coastal “camp” communities. The NEMO program has several activities underway: statewide education programs for municipal and town officers on stormwater management, demonstration rain gardens in the City of Winooski, and a multi-state workshop on ”Reducing and preventing beach closures in northern New England rivers and lakes.”

Mid-Winooski Watershed Urban Restoration & Outreach Project

This project, funded by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and by a grant that the Friends of the Winooski is a collaborative effort to engage watershed citizens, volunteer groups, and city and town officials in focusing on the welfare of the Stevens Branch and the main stem of the Winooski River in the central Vermont urban centers of Barre City, Berlin, and Montpelier. Highly visible demonstration projects and watershed restoration projects will include riparian buffer plantings, rain garden construction, rain gutter disconnects, subsidized rain barrel purchases and distribution, and river trash clean-up efforts.

This project will be accomplished through a partnership between the WNRCD, UVM Extension Sea Grant program and NEMO program, Friends of the Winooski River, Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, and DEC.

To download the brochure or public service announcements, visit the file library.