Reflections: Fall 2024 Co-Director Update

Winooski, Nulhegan, Missisquoi, Wantostagok. Long before names like Bennington, Mansfield, and Washington were imprinted on Green Mountain maps, these waters born in mossy old forests gently cascaded over rounded cobblestones, flowed through beaver-rich wetlands, spread beneath silver maple canopies, and meandered through ostrich fern fens.

Today these water-slowing forests, wetlands, and floodplains are just a tiny remnant of what they once were. The generations before us harnessed rivers’ energy for power, put our towns and roads along the banks, and cleared forests and drained wetlands to build homes and pasture cows. We’ve inherited rivers sandwiched between roads and railroads, forests missing their spongy soils, and cattails without beavertails. We’re left with too-fast rivers that all too often leave neighbors’ homes, businesses, and dreams underwater.

Let’s choose a slower path forward for our rivers: Restore. 

These many months, we’ve been sitting down with communities – conservation commissions and select boards, farmers and neighbors – to help flood-weary Vermonters re-imagine their towns and rivers. As towns grapple with buyouts, we’re helping communities think about how to restore these open lands to keep people safer during the next big flood. We donned gloves to haul trash out of rivers in Barre and Brattleboro, and to plant trees on the Lamoille and Lewis Creek. We did heavy lifting – helping to get a defunct dam out of the Saxtons River, and converting an industrial log landing into a natural oasis in the heart of Brattleboro. These are just a few of the ways we’re bringing nature back to our rivers and restoring slow waters for safer homes, secure shops, and stronger communities.

There’s work ahead, and we can do it with you by our side. We hope you’ll join with us – as supporters and volunteers – to champion a slower future for Vermont’s rivers.

For our rivers,

Erin De Vries and Kassia Randzio