The staff of the Lake Champlain Sea Grant are shocked, angered, and saddened by the recent killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, and others. We recognize that these lost lives are only the tip of the iceberg with respect to the institutionalized racism and systemic violence that Black people have endured since before the founding of this country. Racism has led Black people to have poorer health, fewer job opportunities, lower incomes, inequitable treatment in the courts and in housing, and greater rates of incarceration than white people. All of these injustices are compounded by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The trauma and anguish of the last few weeks must lead to systemic changes in American society and to an economy that offers fair and equitable treatment of Black people and of people from all of the diverse communities that make up the United States.

In the Strategic Plan for Lake Champlain Sea Grant, we have expressed our intention to help breakdown the systems that have led to these injustices.However, recent events have painfully illuminated that as a group of mostly white, privileged individuals, we have benefited in ways that have been unavailable to others. We realize that our words must be backed with actions, or they are meaningless. We therefore commit, individually and as a group, to explore our biases more fully and to work openly and actively within our personal and professional networks to seek a more equitable and just society.

Alison joined Lake Champlain Sea Grant and University of Vermont (UVM) Extension in March 2020. As the Watershed Forestry Coordinator, she is building the foundation for a new Watershed Forestry Partnership to coordinate riparian forest buffer restoration efforts across the Lake Champlain basin.

She will work with resource managers, federal and state staff, conservation districts, and researchers to share information, identify research questions to be answered, and determine the needs for outreach and support to communities and landowners who want to restore stream and river ecosystems on their properties and in their towns. Alison will also help to organize and oversee a graduate student project related to riparian buffer restoration.

“I hope to develop a strong community of practice statewide, where people have what they need to do riparian restoration and have a network of support among partnership members,” said Alison. “I am hopeful we can build on the great work already being done and move toward a long-term strategic approach throughout the basin by focusing our efforts in places that will see the greatest results.”

With a wide range of interests and expertise in ecosystem services, land cover change, spatial analysis, and ecological art, Alison is a PhD student in the UVM Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and a graduate fellow in the Gund Institute for Environment's Economics for the Anthropocene program. For her doctoral research, she explores how people connect with nature in non-material ways, with the goal of increasing the inclusion of these critical connections in environmental decision-making and management. She is particularly interested in how environmental change impacts people’s well-being, cultural practices, and behavior, and in the justice and equity implications of these impacts. She expects to finish her PhD in Natural Resources in 2021.

For her PhD research field work, Alison examined the implications of coral reef decline in Hawaiʻi for Native Hawaiian and non-Native Hawaiʻi Island residents, as well as visitors. She interns with and shares her cultural ecosystem services data with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. As co-leader of a team of graduate student researchers supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center in Annapolis, Maryland, Alison contributes her expertise to answer socio-environmental questions related to coral reef decline.

Originally from Palo Alto, California, Alison earned a BA from Yale in History of Art in 2009 and a MS in Natural Resources from the Rubenstein School in 2016. Her thesis research and subsequent work with the Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative in Vermont focused on mapping forest change in New England. Prior to graduate school, Alison worked in environmental advocacy and community outreach in Washington, DC. Outside of work, she can often be found hiking, rock climbing, or foraging for mushrooms.

Justin Geibel joined the Lake Champlain Sea Grant as the 2020-2021 Lake Champlain Sea Grant Water Quality and Careers Fellow with Vermont Youth Conservation Corps (VYCC). The fellowship provides support for Justin’s position at VYCC. It allows him to devote more energy towards building educational programs and professional development offerings that create a bridge to conservation careers for emerging professionals. He delivers environmental and watershed science education and training to a diverse workforce of youth and young adults, including people of color, non-English speakers, LGBTQ, and first-generation college students.

“While we at VYCC know how to get people to work to complete valuable and rewarding projects, we still have a lot to learn about how to connect those experiences with educational outcomes and careers in conservation,” said Justin. “This is what Lake Champlain Sea Grant is focused on, and they bring a tremendous amount of knowledge and resources to help VYCC achieve these goals.”

Past experience in youth development, community outreach, conservation, and environmental science led Justin to the VYCC, where he has been the Conservation Water Quality Project Manager since 2018. He plans and manages fieldwork, develops community partnerships, and communicates with federal, state, and local organizations with the goal of completing high priority water quality projects. His primary responsibility is to develop and enhance the role of VYCC in water quality and flood resiliency efforts, while also providing leadership in conservation program development, member education initiatives, and risk management.

He uses his technical expertise with surface water management strategies and his experience working with state and local partners such as the U.S. Forest Service, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Green Mountain Club, local conservation districts, and Watersheds United Vermont.

In 2019, Justin and his VYCC crews completed 28 weeks of projects that focused on water quality. Justin and the young people he mentors constructed a rain garden at the Vermont State Employees Credit Union (VSECU) building in Montpelier. A rain garden uses natural plant and soil processes to collect and clean stormwater runoff before it enters a storm drain or river.

“This project brought the best aspects of community, collaboration, and hard work together to create something that’s functional, beautiful, and educational,” said Justin, who showcased this project in Lake Champlain Sea Grant’s “Zoom a Scientist” series in May 2020.

Justin graduated with a B.S. in 2008 from the University of Vermont (UVM) Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. He majored in Environmental Sciences and chose to concentrate in Ecological Design after attending a guest lecture by former Professor John Todd, renowned pioneer in the field of ecological design and engineering.

“His work with ‘living machines,’ sustainable development, and creative design instantly inspired me,” said Justin. “I was captivated by the concept of incorporating natural systems and processes into design of our world to address all kinds of environmental and societal challenges.”

Justin went on to earn his M.S. in 2013 from the Plant and Soil Science Department in the UVM College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. For his graduate work, he conducted field and laboratory research on the effects of drainage water management on phosphorus transport in agricultural field tile drainage systems and their impacts on water quality.

His first true exposure to agriculture came during his research assistantship position with the W.H Miner Agricultural Research Institute in New York. Justin’s research focused on nutrient management on crop fields, but he was also exposed to front-line research in agronomy, equine science, and dairy sciences.

“Miner Institute gave me a unique look at the complex challenges being faced by our agricultural industry and the experience continues to drive my interest in sustainable food systems,” he said.

Through all of his academic and research experiences, Justin found a consistent thread of water quality.

“Whether its agriculture, forestry, wildlife biology, or soil science, the common link is the watershed,” he said. “Water connects all aspects of our lives and most directly connects us to our environment. The health of the watershed is the ultimate measure of success for all sectors of environmental protection.” 

One of his first jobs after returning home from two years overseas in Australia was as an outdoor guide in Michigan. This opportunity taught him how to facilitate learning and personal growth for young people by providing an experience outside of their normal lives and comfort zones.

“VYCC is also a place where I can teach about the environment and conservation while also helping our participants build confidence, compassion, ambition, and wellness,” he said.  While the majority of our youth participants are Vermonters, we hire young adults and crew leaders from all over the country. This offers leaders and members a chance to work alongside people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, which is part of what makes the VYCC experience unique and valuable.”

Since COVID-19 has impacted VYCC’s programming for 2020, Justin’s work this year has pivoted to building a workforce to support the growing Green Stormwater Infrastructure across Vermont.

“My hope is that this fellowship will be a catalyst towards building this critical workforce development infrastructure, which will provide career opportunities and support clean water efforts across the State,” said Justin.

Always striving to become a better mentor, teacher, and conservationist, Justin has been an outdoor adventure guide, youth program coordinator for Catamount Trail Association, and park ranger and resource technician for Boulder County Parks and Open Space in Colorado, among other outdoor jobs.

Originally from the North Shore of Massachusetts, Justin has lived in Australia, Michigan, New York, and Colorado, but during all of his travels, he always felt drawn to the Green Mountains of Vermont. He lives in Westford and loves to run, ski, and play and coach soccer.

Have you ever picked up a rock in a stream and witnessed a small insect crawl across the bottom of it? If so, it was likely a benthic macroinvertebrate or BMI. Benthic refers to the bottom of a body of water. Macro means large or that the organism can be seen without a microscope. Lastly, invertebrate indicates that it does not have a backbone. Therefore, when you put all of these concepts together you can define a BMI as any small organism that primarily lives on the bottom of a stream, without a backbone, and can be seen without a microscope. 

BMIs are regularly studied by scientists to determine if a stream is healthy or not, based on the presence or absence of certain species. BMIs are great for studying water quality because...

1. They spend all or most of their lives in water.
2. They are easy to collect (all you need is a bucket and net).
3. Each species differs in its tolerance to pollution.

A healthy body of water will likely have a high variety (many different species) of BMIs. This includes intolerant species that cannot survive in polluted waters. A stream such as this might have a canopy of trees that shade the stream and maintain healthy water temperatures. The rocks shown in this picture provide excellent habitat for BMIs. Also, tree roots help stabilize the stream banks to prevent erosion and runoff.

Whereas, a polluted body of water will likely have no BMIs or a low variety (only one or two species) including species tolerant to pollution. A stream with poor water quality may lack tree cover causing warmer water temperatures. It might have visible signs of pollution or eroded banks. All of these characteristics decrease the amount of dissolved oxygen present in the water which makes it difficult for BMIs and other aquatic species to survive.

Identify Some Benthic Macroinvertebrates

Here are three BMIs that can be found in streams within the Lake Champlain watershed. They each show differing levels of tolerance to water pollution.

Stonefly (Order: Plecoptera) - Intolerant to Pollution

Stoneflies can only survive in healthy water quality areas. There are more than 3,500 species of stonefly in the world. Additionally, their gills are on their legs and “armpits” so when they are in water with low levels of dissolved oxygen you can often see them doing “push ups” to increase the amount of water moving over their gills.

Dobsonfly (Order: Megaloptera) - Slightly Intolerant to Pollution

Dobsonflies can survive in slightly polluted water bodies. They are the aquatic version of a centipede and are the largest aquatic invertebrate in the United States. Dobsonflies have 3 pairs of legs and 8 pairs of lateral filaments. Can you distinguish the difference between the legs and lateral filaments in the photo to the left?

Midges (Order: Diptera) - Tolerant to Pollution

A midge is the larval stage of a fly. It lives in water. Midges and the adult flies are found (seasonally or otherwise) on practically every land type, excluding arid deserts and arctic zones.

After all of this, are you wondering if you can collect BMIs in a local stream to determine the quality of water? The answer is YES! Nate Trachte, Education Specialist at Lake Champlain Sea Grant, demonstrates in this video how to collect BMIs using a kicknet.

More than likely, you have seen or heard of stormwater ponds, and perhaps you have one near your home or place of work. Stormwater ponds are engineered, small bodies of water that collect and store water that runs off developed land during storm events. These ponds, also called detention basins, help to slow the flow of water off land into waterways. They aid in sediment and nutrient reduction by allowing water to collect and settle out particles before slowly flowing into waterbodies. Stormwater ponds can thus help to reduce pollution and flooding downstream.

However, while stormwater ponds are effective at holding water, they are not as efficient at removing fine sediments and dissolved pollutants, such as heavy metals, hydrocarbons, and dissolved nutrients. A body of recent research suggests that stormwater ponds may, in some cases, release pollutants from previously settled sediment. These pollutants can be detrimental to downstream aquatic habitats and ecosystem health. To combat stormwater pond inefficiency, floating treatment wetlands (FTW) are an experimental retrofit solution to improve the performance of stormwater ponds.

Floating treatment wetlands are vegetated mats that are installed to float on the surface of stormwater ponds and are a promising solution to improve the removal of pollutants. These engineered systems replicate naturally occurring freshwater floating islands, in which plant roots, peat, and organic matter form a buoyant layer that allows these islands to float on the water’s surface. Floating treatment wetlands are designed so that aquatic plants, or macrophytes, can be planted into a floating raft. As the plants grow, their roots extend into the water, and the plants also grow laterally on the raft, increasing surface area and supplying additional water filtration.

These systems can help improve water quality by increasing nutrient uptake, filtering, trapping, and clumping nutrients and other contaminants within the roots of the plants. Floating treatment wetlands therefore have the ability to mitigate the concentration of pollutants entering waterways from urban and suburban development.

However, there is little published research and few field studies on the application of FTW in cold climate regions that experience below-freezing winters and snowy conditions. This has led to their limited application to aid in nutrient and pollutant removal from developed areas in cold climates. A recent study by Rebecca Tharp, Kelly Westhelle, and Stephanie Hurley, in Vermont, addressed this lack of information on the application of cold-climate FTWs through their research on suitability and performance of four macrophyte species in FTWs in the northeastern United States.

With funding from the Lake Champlain Basin Program and Lake Champlain Sea Grant, the research team looked at characteristics, cold-climate suitability, and performance of four macrophyte species that are native to the Northeast and frequently used in FTW systems. The researchers evaluated cold-climate suitability of the species by their survival rate; development of biomass (volume of plant material); uptake and storage of phosphorus in stems, leaves, and flowers; and root structure. The four plant species included Common Rush, Softstem Bulrush, Longhair Sedge, and Pickerelweed.

Researchers conducted experiments at a stormwater pond that collects runoff from a nearby housing development in South Burlington. The team constructed floating treatment wetlands and installed plants on each raft prior to placing the FTWs in the stormwater pond, with four FTWs for each plant species for a total of 16 rafts and 448 plants. The FTWs were anchored to the bottom of the pond so they were able to float up and down with changes in the water level.

Researchers conducted the experiment from May 2016 to May 2017 and determined winter survival rate from the ratio of the number of living plants at the end of the winter compared to the number at the end of the previous summer. Unexpectedly, the plant Beggar’s Tick also grew on the FTWs, though it was not planted as part of the study, and likely grew from seed on the rafts. This plant was subsequently included in the experiment for biomass and phosphorus content.

Out of all four macrophyte species, Softstem Bulrush and Longhair Sedge best survived winter conditions and sprouted the following spring. However, Softstem Bulrush did not produce much biomass or develop substantial roots, making it is less suitable to trap and collect fine sediment and particles in the root zone. While Pickerelweed performs well in warmer climates, its sensitivity to temperature makes it less suitable for application in FTWs in cold climate regions, even though it had the highest concentration of phosphorus in its stems and leaves compared to all other planted species.

Though it was not intended to be part of the study, Beggar’s Tick performed well in phosphorus uptake and biomass production. But due to its long, thin root structure, it is more suitable for deeper ponds in conjunction with another plant with denser, shorter roots to aid in trapping fine particles. No one species outperformed the others in all categories of evaluation, but overall Longhair Sedge performed better in more categories than the other plants.

This research on the suitability of macrophytes to perform in cold climates has important implications for stormwater management in the state. While one plant species was not superior over the others, this research demonstrates the unique challenges for green infrastructure that Vermont’s cold climate presents and necessitates local research to confirm suitability over harsh winters. With more research on green stormwater infrastructure and a better understanding of the type of plants that will aid in pollutant mitigation in cold climate conditions, Vermont waters can flow toward a future of improved health.

Lake Champlain Sea Grant’s Watershed Alliance Program educates K-12 students and their teachers about aquatic science in the Lake Champlain basin. Educators include three year-round staff and 10-20 undergraduate and graduate Watershed Educator interns during the university academic year.

Watershed Educators gain valuable experience educating K-12 students about water resources and their local watershed. The interns receive training in stream ecology, watershed science, and teaching science as inquiry. They learn important group management skills that are applicable both in the field and classroom. During 50 hours throughout a semester, each Watershed Educator teaches K-12 students about our watershed on board our research vessel on Lake Champlain, at local stream sites, or in classrooms across the state.

With the end of this academic year upon us, we would like to take a moment to honor and recognize the amazing fleet of Watershed Educators that graduated this spring. Our 2020 graduates interned for more than one season and have been crucial to the success and development of our program by supporting new initiatives and elevating existing programs such as our partnership Sailors and Scientist camp and our Stream Monitoring programs.

To our graduating seniors—we are so grateful to have been a stepping stone in your academic and professional pathway, and we are so excited to see what adventures come next!

Congratulations to:

Jack Goldman, B.S. in Environmental Sciences, University of Vermont

Katherine Helmer, B.S. in Environmental Sciences, University of Vermont

Kierstyn Higgins, B.S. in Environmental Science, State University of New York at Plattsburgh

You can find Ashley Eaton, Watershed and Lake Education Coordinator for Lake Champlain Sea Grant, in a K-12 classroom, at a waterfront laboratory, along a local stream, or on board a research vessel on Lake Champlain. In each location, surrounded by engaged students and their teachers, she introduces them to watershed science in the Lake Champlain basin.

“In the work that I do here in the basin, citizen science is a fundamental component,” said Ashley. “Our goal is to increase awareness and knowledge of watershed issues in youth.”

Ashley oversees the Watershed Alliance program at both the University of Vermont (UVM) and the State University of New York (SUNY) Plattsburgh. Ashley provides curricula, equipment, and instructors to schools and youth groups participating in the program and supports teachers who wish to integrate watershed education into their own teaching curriculum. 

Watershed Alliance provides learning in watershed science to the basin’s youngest citizens. Each year, Ashley and her two full-time education staff, Caroline Blake at UVM and Nate Trachte at SUNY Plattsburgh, reach 3000 K-12 students throughout the Lake Champlain basin in Vermont and New York.

Ashley also coordinates watershed science professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers. Through K-12 programs and teacher-based courses, she and her staff engage more than 125 teachers throughout the Lake Champlain basin each year.  

“Citizen science is so valuable because it engages individuals from the community in evaluating their local ecosystems,” said Ashley. “It connects people to place and is a conduit to build awareness and knowledge.”

“By using place and citizen science, I am able to foster a deeper relationship between those participating in the program and their watershed,” she said. “What makes this so powerful is that it often leads to higher rates of behavior change—when you love and value something, you take care of it."

The Northeast Sea Grant program recently nominated Ashley as a finalist for the National Sea Grant Outstanding Outreach Achievement Award for her efforts through Watershed Alliance to bring science surrounding local water issues to the people who live and work and go to school in the basin. The award recipient will be announced during national Sea Grant Week in September 2020.

Ashley and her staff also oversee a watershed education internship program for undergraduate students who wish to gain career-building, real world experience and training in environmental education. Interns help to teach the K-12 programs as Watershed Educators. Each year, Ashley and her staff hire 10 to 20 undergraduate students to work with them in the classroom and field to involve K-12 students and their teachers in aquatic science.

Whether they meet students in the classroom, at the UVM Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory and SUNY’s Lake Champlain Research Institute, or aboard the UVM research vessel Melosira on Lake Champlain, Ashley and her staff and trained undergraduate Watershed Educators bring to life current research and freshwater stressors that impact the Lake Champlain basin. 

“As a bridge between research and the community,” said Ashley, “our program aims to connect K-12 teachers and their students with real world challenges and engage students in hands-on field science and stewardship to improve water quality in the basin.”

A native Vermonter, Ashley spent summers with her family on the Georgia shore of Lake Champlain. Her early forays into the natural world around water inspired her career path. She earned a BS in elementary education with a concentration in the environmental sciences and a MS in natural resources from the University of Vermont.

She now sees the Georgia shore of her childhood facing severe water quality challenges and the impacts of cyanobacteria blooms and climate change. She has dedicated her educational and professional pursuits to helping create a sustainable future for Vermont, the greater Lake Champlain basin, and beyond.

“It’s really important to me that the work I do aligns with my values of sustainability, inclusion, and place,” said Ashley. “One aspect that I appreciate about my job is that every day is different. Each day, I engage and work collaboratively with folks from a variety of organizations and communities from across the basin and Vermont.”

Beyond Watershed Alliance’s regular Stream Monitoring and Stewardship K-12 program, Ashley runs other outreach and education opportunities including Lake Champlain Live aboard the Melosira, Keeping the Balance at the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Lab, Zoom a Scientist, and several K-12 teacher professional development courses. Ashley collaborates with local partners to offer the 4-H programs Teens Reaching Youth and Science on Lake Champlain and summer camp programs with the Community Sailing Center on the Lake Champlain waterfront, among others.

Watershed Alliance has two hub locations, one at the University of Vermont, a partnership between UVM Extension and the UVM Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, and one, based out of SUNY Plattsburgh and the Lake Champlain Research Institute.

Senior Nisha Nadkarni ’20, is an Environmental Sciences major in the University of Vermont (UVM) Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. She combined her academic work with her interests in community development and water quality to engage with local residents to improve stormwater quality in the Lake Champlain watershed.  

Nisha began her journey at UVM intending to study exercise science, but she switched into the Rubenstein School a week before classes started.

“I’m so glad that I made that decision and followed my gut rather than realizing junior or senior year this was something I was interested in,” she said.

Originally from Westborough, Massachusetts, Nisha chose UVM because she wanted to stay in New England but explore beyond her hometown. She says that Vermont has been the perfect balance for her.

During the spring of her sophomore year, Nisha became interested in water quality, and she started looking for ways to learn more outside the classroom through research.

“It’s really awesome that we have these research opportunities directly within Rubenstein,” she said. “I applied to a few related to water quality and got the chance to work at the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory on the waterfront. That was my first foray into field work and working on a research vessel.”

Nisha spent the summer after her sophomore year working with Dr. Mindy Morales-Williams, a professor in the Rubenstein School. As an intern in Dr. Morales-Williams’ lab, Nisha investigated how excess nitrogen and phosphorus influence cyanobacteria populations in northeastern lakes.

“That experience exposed me to the inner workings of research and experimental design,” she said.

To complement her Environmental Sciences major, Nisha chose a concentration in Ecological Design. She collaborated with her peers on a constructed wetland project and bio retention cells.

“It was awesome to do these hands-on projects and see water get treated from a system that a group of us built together,” said Nisha. “That really reinforced my interest.”

Deciding to explore stormwater further, the summer after her junior year, Nisha took an internship with Blue BTV, a program that partnered the City of Burlington, Vermont with Lake Champlain International and Lake Champlain Sea Grant. Here, she consulted with local residents on how best to manage stormwater on their properties.

“I talked with a lot of different people—real face-to-face conversations with local residents—about how we can all collectively work together to improve the water quality of Lake Champlain because we’re all living in this watershed and it’s our livelihood,” said Nisha.

The transition from collecting data and conducting lab work to engaging with communities both challenged and motivated Nisha, who was used to the STEM fields and working with data, evidence, and statistics.

Visiting people’s homes and talking to them about stormwater infrastructure to put on their property was different,” said Nisha. “They’re not coming from that perspective of stats and numbers; they just want to know what they can do to contribute. It made me excited that there can be a collaboration between these communities and the scientific world.”

Nisha has accepted a position to work as a consultant with Blue BTV after graduating in May.

“I want to keep exploring,” she said. “Wherever I end up, I want to truly know the place and know the history before I came to be there. I want to have a connection to wherever I am.”

We greet spring as buds swell on the trees and days get warmer. These changes can reassure us in the midst of such uncertain times.

Lawn and garden care become an appealing activity for many of us—a way to get outdoors and welcome new life. Lake Champlain Sea Grant and our many partners promote easy ways to help minimize stormwater runoff, protect water quality, and keep soils healthy, all while we enjoy mowing, digging in the dirt, and planting.

Reports of polluted water, algal blooms, and beach closures fill the news in recent years. Maybe you have had to cancel plans to spend the day at the beach because of a bloom or boil water for a time. Stormwater runoff that starts as rain and snowmelt on our yards is the source of some of this pollution. 

Do you know that something as simple as how we mow our grass can help prevent this pollution from getting into our lakes and streams? That’s right: cutting the grass at three inches (instead of one or two inches) and leaving the clippings on the lawn can help the grass absorb and filter stormwater. It’s like a natural water treatment system!

Here’s how it works:  the longer the grass, the longer the roots. The longer the roots, the more air spaces in the soil to absorb water. Longer roots reach deeper during dry spells, so lawns are less vulnerable to drought. Watering our lawns uses a lot of water, and much of it evaporates instead of sinking into the ground. In fact, lawn irrigation in the United States accounts for almost 30% of total water use!*

Longer grass provides another benefit: the grass blades capture more energy from the sun. That helps make the grass stronger and creates more shade for the soil, which helps reduce evaporation.

When we leave grass clippings instead of bagging them, we actually create healthier soil. The clippings break down into organic matter and become fertilizer that feeds the grass with the same ingredients as the chemicals you buy in the store: nitrogen and phosphorus. Only, it’s natural!

The organic matter makes the soil act like a sponge, absorbing and filtering stormwater. Healthy soils increase the lawn’s resistance to disease and pests. Not only does your lawn need less chemical fertilizer; it also needs less chemical insecticide and fungicide.

There are more ways you can help reduce stormwater runoff, attract pollinators like bees, butterflies and moths, and feed the birds, all at the same time. Use native plants in your garden and replace some of your lawn with native bushes, trees, and groundcover.

Native plants have longer roots, absorbing more stormwater than grass and protecting the land from erosion. Native plants also support insects and seeds specifically evolved to feed our local birds.

Learn more about Lake Champlain Sea Grant, our partners, and campaigns to promote these lawn practices. You will find links to articles, local resources, and programs such as Lawn to Lake, Raise the Blade, and Don’t “P” On Your Lawn, all of which will help you manage your lawn and garden in ways that protect water quality and support our ecosystems. You can also visit our Facebook page. 

Lake Champlain Sea Grants' partners on these campaigns include: Composting Association of Vermont, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Lake Champlain Basin Program, Lake Champlain Committee, UVM Extension, Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, and Vermont Natural Resources Conservation Service.

*Outdoor Water Use in the United States. Water Sense. August 2008. EPA-832-F-06-005 (PDF)

Joshua Faulkner, Don Ross, and Kirsten Workman of the University of Vermont are conducting research to improve understanding of interactions among tile-drained fields, best management practices for agriculture, and phosphorus losses in the subsurface and through surface runoff.  In fall 2019 at the University of Vermont Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, Joshua Faulkner (JF) gave an informative talk on the status of his research. In follow up, Lake Champlain Sea Grant (LCSG) asked him to answer a few questions and share key messages.

LCSG: Let’s start at the beginning: What are tile drains and why do farmers use them?
JF: Tile drainage is the placement of perforated pipe about 36” below the soil surface in a farm field. Modern tile drainage systems consist of a network of pipes, spaced 25 to 50 feet apart throughout an entire field and all connected to a single outlet pipe or “main” that drains the field. Farmers use tile drain systems to lower the water table below the root zone of the crop, helping avoid negative impacts on the plants due to saturated soils and thus increasing yield. In addition, farmers can more easily manage their tile-drained fields without damaging or compacting wet soil. Importantly, farmers indicate that they can more easily employ conservation practices such as cover crops in tile-drained fields.

LCSG: Are there trade-offs to using tile drains for farmers?  For the environment?  Please describe.
JF: Tradeoffs to tile drainage systems are minimal for farmers, but they do occur in some situations. Current installation costs can be $1,500 per acre, so they represent a significant investment. If farmers do not simultaneously address other factors that limit yield, such as fertility and soil compaction, tile may not be cost-effective. For most farmers, the return on investment is quickly realized, and the payback period for the tile drainage system is fairly short. 

Tradeoffs to tile drainage systems for the environment are possible. Scientists are not yet sure how tile drainage impacts the total amount of phosphorus lost from a field and, therefore, how tile drainage affects water quality. We do know that tile drainage changes the hydrology of the field, decreasing surface phosphorus runoff and increasing subsurface loss of phosphorus. However, we still don’t know whether the net change in total phosphorus lost from the field is positive or negative. Whether there is or isn’t an increase in phosphorus loss, it is still very important to understand how to manage the tile-drained field to minimize the phosphorus loss, given the altered hydrology. That is the question that we are investigating with our Lake Champlain Sea Grant-funded research: How can farmers minimize any environmental tradeoffs (i.e., phosphorus loss) by how they manage soil and manure in tile-drained fields?     

LCSG: What is the area of tile-drained agricultural fields in the Lake Champlain basin?  Is use of tile drainage systems increasing or decreasing?
JF: We don’t know the extent of tile drainage within the Lake Champlain basin, but we do know that installation has increased over the past several years as farmers have begun to be affected more and more by a changing climate. Data indicate that annual precipitation is increasing in Vermont, and this is leading to more periods of saturated soils that can reduce yield in undrained fields.     

LCSG: You’re just getting started so you don’t have research findings yet, but do you have a hypothesis about how farmers can design tile drain systems and use soil best management practices to benefit economically and mitigate negative environmental impacts?
JF: We hypothesize that how manure is applied to fields may minimize phosphorus loss. Specifically, we suspect that manure injection may be a very important tool for two reasons: 1) manure injection avoids placing phosphorus on the soil surface and thus reduces surface runoff of phosphorus, and 2) manure injection forces manure into the soil matrix and breaks up preferential water flow paths (e.g., cracks and root channels) that can be responsible for rapid movement of water downward through the soil to tile drains and thus slows phosphorus runoff. 

LCSG: Going forward, do you have recommendations about how we should approach research on tile drains when considering their impact on Lake Champlain?  What are the next stages of research needed?
JF: We think that research on tile drains is critical to understanding phosphorus loading to Lake Champlain from agricultural lands. The next stages of research should build on the work we are doing to understand the most effective soil, manure, and crop management for minimizing phosphorus loss.  We need to investigate this question in different soil types and for different crops. We are studying corn fields currently, but tile drains are increasingly common in hay fields as well. I also think that research is needed on end-of-pipe treatment solutions for capturing phosphorus, particularly solutions that would reduce the cost and increase the effectiveness and longevity of these systems. 

LCSG: What are your research plans for this Sea Grant-funded project and for related research over the next few years?
JF: We plan to continue monitoring surface and subsurface runoff using a paired watershed approach for at least three more years, using funding from Lake Champlain Sea Grant and the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA NRCS). We are currently in the calibration year at the study site. Next year, we will enter our treatment period, when we will implement what we think are the most promising management practices on the treatment watershed and evaluate their effects. 

USDA-NRCS is also funding us to conduct larger watershed-scale monitoring in the Lake Champlain basin to improve understanding of the effects of conservation practices over the longer term. This project will also test innovative edge-of-field treatment practices in tile-drained fields and evaluate “stacked” conservation practices (i.e., source control, in-field practices, and multiple levels of edge-of-field practices). 

LCSG: Where should readers go to learn more about tile drain systems and their impact on agriculture and the environment?
JF: Learn more about the Lake Champlain Sea Grant project on the UVM Extension’s Drainage and Water Management webpage.