Kearney River Corridor Easement

Westfield, Vermont

Missisquoi River

Wildlife & Watershed Protection
Wildlife & Watershed Protection
Wildlife & Watershed Protection
Wildlife & Watershed Protection
Conservation land, not open to the public. Please respect private landowners.
Recent proof of how rivers change over time, this project protects floodplain and wildlife habitat on an "island" of farmland turned conservation land.
Dogs not allowed
Dogs not allowed
No cell service
No cell service
  • Public access: No
Kearney River Corridor Easement Westfield, Vermont Missisquoi River

Kearney River Corridor Easement

Until August of 2011, the Kearney’s grew corn here on land surrounded on 3-sides by a sharp bend in the Missisquoi River. Over thousands of years, annual river floods left behind rich agricultural soils the fed their crops. But rivers move and change. During Tropical Storm Storm Irene, rushing water found the shortest path across the land and carved a new channel straight through the farmland. The river left the Kearney’s farmland littered with sand and debris, and cut off easy access to the field, now an “island.” The new shorter path carved during Irene is now the main channel of the Missisquoi, and the old Missisquoi bend is now a backwater channel filling with sediment, on its way to becoming a pond and wetland.

It would have been an expensive and losing battle to try and force the Missisquoi back into its old channel. Instead, Vermont River Conservancy worked with the landowners on a River Corridor Easement that compensates the Kearney Family for the loss of farmland. With the easement, this Missisquoi island will transition from agriculture to conservation land. We worked with the family to add native plants to the bank, helping to keep soil in place and slow erosion, and to provide habitat for songbirds and wildlife. The river corridor easement supports the river establishing a natural course, which in turn creates a more stable river system up and downstream of this land.

Conservation Details

  • River: Missisquoi River
  • Acreage: 17.00
  • River frontage (ft): 4,230

Funding Partners

This project made possible thanks to the support and partnership of:

  • Vermont Agency of Natural Resources