For more than 250 years, Vermont rivers have been subject to use and abuse – meandering waterways forced into straight-line channels, currents burdened with trash and effluent, and fish passage cut short by hundreds of (now aging) dams.
Today, the effects of these historic patterns linger as visible barriers to vibrant communities. Lowland forests and wetlands that once served as floodplains have been cleared or developed and no longer slow a rivers’ current, setting fast-moving water on a crash-course into homes and businesses. In town and village centers, channelized rivers rush alongside roads, hemmed in by rip-rap with no room to meander. Downtown rivers are lined with busy roads, parking lots, and railroad tracks instead of walking paths, outdoor cafes, and songbird-filled green spaces. And in the farthest headwaters, lands stripped of trees and topsoil a century ago still lack the swales and wetlands that could provide high quality wildlife habitat and essential filtration to keep communities’ water clean.
In the midst of a changing climate, Vermont is already experiencing increased drought and increased flooding. Every model predicts that these trends will continue – making rivers essential to mitigating the impacts of climate change.
We’re connecting with people across southeast Vermont, leading volunteer activities, field walks, art workshops, and community conversations to ask: How could our communities turn to Face the River?
Brooks Memorial Library, Brattleboro (M-F, 4:00 - 5:45 p.m.)
Rivers cover a lot of ground – and in this multigenerational workshop, so will we. We’ll share and compare our personal experiences of rivers and floods. We’ll take a field trip to a nearby brook and learn the fundamentals of river science. Putting it all together, we’ll propose river access and conservation strategies that build on the strengths, and meet the needs, of southern Vermonters of all ages.
This all-ages event is supported by AARP Vermont.
Brattleboro (Friday, 4:00 - 5:45 p.m.)
Join Vermont River Conservancy in the field with educator, artist, and climate activist Judy Dow. Drawing on Judy’s years of engagement with Whetstone Brook (Kitadowôganisibosis) and nearby communities, we’ll take a multidimensional look at the past, present, and future of this waterway. Ecology and river science, flood resilience and foraging, art, history, and culture — it all flows together here.
Judy Dow has over thirty years of teaching experience, including working with local children on Water Way(s), a multi-year creative arts and science engagement with the brook we are visiting on this trip. She is the executive director of Gedakina, a multigenerational organization that supports Indigenous youth, women and families across New England.
This all-ages event is supported by AARP Vermont.
250 Birge Street, Brattleboro (Sat, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.)
Take care of your own metaphorical floodplain at this special mindfulness practice. We’ll take inspiration from a tour of the floodplain restoration project that is making this portion of the Whetstone more flood resilient than it has been in many decades. Then, reflecting and meditating, we’ll deepen our connection to our waterways and our own resilience.
Peter Gould, a longtime Whetstone Brook resident, brings a background in Peace, Conflict, and Coexistence Studies and an Arts Education Award from the Vermont Arts Council. He is known for his true stories of life on a Vermont farm commune at the height of the back-to-the-land movement.
This all-ages event is supported by AARP Vermont.
Give today to make sure every Vermont town can access its local river.
Vermont’s capital is a river city, with four rivers meeting downtown. When we asked people what future they’d like to see for these rivers, responses were nearly unanimous: riverfront parks and cafes, access for splashing, tubing, and paddling, and fewer dams. Now, we’re working to make that dream a reality.
Bookending North Troy recreation fields, the wastewater treatment plant, and a hydro dam, we’re working to protect two parcels on the Missisquoi River. Farmed years ago, the land is reverting back to wetlands, and offering an opportunity to convert low-value farmland to high-value wetland.
We're partnering with Northeast Wilderness Trust to protect 6,000 acres at the headwaters of the North Branch of the Winooski River. It's a once in a lifetime chance to give our rivers (and generations to come) the gift of old forests and freshwater streams.
