Green Stormwater Infrastructure Tours

Tour Green Infrastructure - by bike, on foot, or from the comfort of your home or office!

Lake Champlain Sea Grant (LCSG) and partner organizations have developed a series of green infrastructure tour maps that highlight green infrastructure practices in Lake Champlain basin communities that help slow the flow and treat stormwater on site, minimizing runoff to local waterbodies.

LCSG and our partner organizations have free printed tour maps available for Burlington, Rutland, and St. Albans, Vermont. You can print pdfs of these maps using the links below, or to obtain printed copies, contact Kris Stepenuck, or visit one of our partners as listed below.

We encourage you to respect all safety and traffic rules while enjoying these routes. All of the routes can be biked or, for those without bikes or with limited time, portions of the routes can easily be walked.

Let @LakeChamplainSG know about your #GSITour experience on Instagram or Twitter or email us at seagrant [at] uvm.edu.

Burlington

Paper copies of the map are available at Local Motion. For an interactive experience from the comfort of your home or office, you can take the tour through an online StoryMap of the Burlington GSI, which also includes an audio guide of the complete tour. The total distance is seven miles, taking you past storm-friendly pavement, stormwater trees and urban canopy, green roofs, rain gardens and bioretention, and gravel wetlands. 

Download the Burlington tour map (PDF).

Montpelier

Along this tour, in the city of Montpelier, you will visit and learn about a variety of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) practices and required maintenance. You will see bioretention basins/rain gardens, curb cuts, permeable pavement, and vegetated buffers. These GSI practices provide stormwater management and co-benefits such as wildlife habitat, urban heat island mitigation, and pollinator foraging sites. You will also see evidence of historic flooding in Montpelier and learn about the connection between land use here and water quality in Lake Champlain.

Paper copies of the map are available at all of the businesses and organizations listed in the map and from Lake Champlain Sea Grant, Montpelier Conservation Commission, Friends of the Winooski River, and the Winooski Natural Resources Conservation District. You can also enjoy the tour through an online StoryMap of the Montpelier GSI.

Download the Montpelier tour map (PDF).

Rutland

Paper copies of the map are available from the following locations: Col CyclingRutland Parks and Recreation, Rutland Natural Resources Conservation District, and Rutland Regional Planning Commission.

The route starts at Col Cycling and takes you past permeable parking lots, rain gardens, and bioretention cells, ending at The Bakery for an eight mile ride. The map explains how each stop provides a valuable stormwater management function. All sites are either publicly owned or visible from the public right of way. We encourage you to respect all safety and traffic rules while enjoying this route.

Download the Rutland tour map (PDF).

St. Albans

Paper copies of the St. Albans map are available from the St. Albans Area Watershed Association, Franklin County Conservation District, and the Northwest Regional Planning Commission. This map takes you through the neighborhoods of St. Albans for a 6.5 mile ride past gravel wetlands, stormwater ponds, permeable pavement, and riparian buffer restoration. 

Download the St. Albans tour map (PDF).