\n\tOn March 27, Shawn White, Lake Champlain Sea Grant\u2019s new Watershed Forestry Coordinator, led the first in-person Watershed Forestry Partnership Annual Meeting since 2019! About a hundred watershed forestry professionals attended the meeting at the University of Vermont Davis Center.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re super happy with the turnout of this event, and even happier to meet again in person. There are so many good side conversations that happen when people are together that really can\u2019t happen virtually.\u00a0 It was also great to see so many new nurseries and partners in the basin participating,\u201d said White, who took over the coordinator position previously held by Alison Adams last December.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe meeting started with a fun ice-breaker twig quiz of popular riparian trees in the area, then went right into funding opportunities for tree nurseries and partners hoping to establish riparian buffers on their property. Then, Katie Kain from the US Fish and Wildlife Service presented an update on new site preparation techniques, highlighting experimental projects across the state.<\/p>\n
\n\tMandy Fisher and Ben Rogers from the Intervale Conservation Nursery provided an update on their tree sales and an overview of some of the flood impacts on nursery operations followed by a presentation by Jess Colby of the Northwoods Stewardship Center and Brooke Fleischman from the Intervale Conservation Nursery about a fledgling seed collection program aimed at providing more locally sourced trees for restoration projects.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI found all of the speakers and sessions to be incredibly helpful. Before that day I had\u00a0never met the folks from US Fish and Wildlife Service who sat at our table\u2014we had\u00a0great conversations about our work. It was also amazing to see how many people were in that room!\u201d said Taylor Litwin, Project Manager for the Friends of the Winooski River.<\/p>\n
\n\tAfternoon sessions took place on and off-site. One group of participants braved the light rain and headed down to the Intervale with Audubon Vermont to learn about the role of tree selection and project design in bird habitat. Another group stayed on-site to be part of a roundtable discussion of the challenges of growing native woody plants for conservation and opportunities for collaboration among established and emerging nurseries. This discussion was one of the high points of the meeting, according to one nursery owner, \u201cI loved the nursery roundtable. It’s so valuable for nurseries to connect with each other, and for practitioners and nurseries to have an opportunity to sit down and hash out how we can achieve our common goals, despite the many barriers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tLate afternoon concurrent sessions reviewed monitoring methods for riparian planting projects and successful landowner outreach. The day culminated with a full group discussion led by Lake Champlain Sea Grant\u2019s Shawn White determining what the role of the Watershed Forestry Partnership will be going forward and outlining the support this group can provide.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0\u201cI look forward to maintaining these new and old relationships. We learned today how critical these collaborations are for everyone involved,\u201d explained White. \u201cThe meeting brought up many issues with both nursery production and riparian restoration, so we\u2019ve got some work to do.\u00a0 It also revealed the energy the partnership has to tackle them, and I\u2019m so excited to see what will come out of the Watershed Forestry Partnership over the next year or two!\u201d<\/p>\n