2021 Water Trail highlights

With help from landowners, funding partners, local contractors, and 150 volunteers, the WRP completed a variety of work to protect and improve access to the White River in 2021:

-25 stewards visited White River Water Trail sites around the watershed each month, from May-September, to monitor site use, report hazards, and remove trash;

-25 volunteers monitored water quality at 25 swimming holes around the watershed, from May-September, to help us determine whether the river is safe for swimming;

-100 volunteers removed 10,500 pounds of trash from the river during 2 river cleanup events, including 225 tires; and

-A local contractor constructed parking, walking trails, and a set of stone steps to improve river access in Gaysville.

Check out the 2021 White River Water Trail Highlights report to learn more!

Upcoming events

Support the WRP: Make a year-end donation!

As the WRP wraps-up its 25th year of good work, we invite you to make a tax-deductible donation in any amount to help us improve water quality, habitat, flood resilience, and recreational river access.

You can donate in two ways:

1. Follow this link to make a donation via credit card or PayPal
2. Mail a check made out to “White River Partnership” to PO Box 705, S. Royalton, VT 05068.

With your help we can continue to protect and improve the White River and its watershed into the future!

WRP response to Covid-19

In keeping with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the WRP office is closed until further notice. WRP staff are working remotely from home offices, so please contact us if/as needed.

Follow this link for more information about the WRP response to Covid-19.

Stay posted on WRP projects

The WRP posts information about on-the-ground watershed improvement projects, events, and volunteer opportunities on Facebook and Instagram. We invite you to “Like” or “Follow” us in order to stay posted on our work to improve the long-term health of the White River and its watershed.

The WRP also distributes a regular electronic newsletter to share information about upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, project updates, and more. We invite you to sign-up to receive our e-newsletter by completing the form on the right-hand side of this webpage.

Support the WRP

The WRP depends on contributions of time and money to support our on-the-ground work in the watershed. Please support our good work by making a donation today!

Select the “Donate” button on the right-hand side of this page to donate via credit card or PayPal.

Or print and return our WRP Membership Form with a check.

For more information

Please contact us for more information about our projects, upcoming events, or other ways to get involved!

Hyde Dam removal project tour

A WRP project to remove the derelict Hyde Dam on the Second Branch of the White River in East Bethel, Vermont started this week. The WRP and Greater Upper Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited (GUVTU) will host a tour of the project on Friday, September 17 at 6pm.

“The site tour is open to anyone interested in seeing the project in-progress,” said Robb Cramer, GUVTU chapter president. “Removing the Hyde Dam will restore and open 60 miles of the river to fish passage so that wild trout and other species can find cooler water temperatures in the hot summer months and spawning grounds in the fall.”

GUVTU is contributing $14,301 from Trout Unlimited’s Embrace A Stream grant and the TU/Orvis Challenge to the dam removal project, matching funds received from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s Upper Connecticut River Mitigation and Enhancement Fund and US Fish & Wildlife Service’s National Fish Passage Program. The WRP is managing the project, collaborating with local contractors Canonica Landworks and Ripple Natural Resources and landowner Vermont River Conservancy to complete in-stream work later this month.

As a complement to their financial investment, GUVTU is contributing time to the project, engaging interested community members in a series of education and stewardship events designed to raise awareness about the benefits of fish passage and coldwater habitat.  In addition to the site tour on September 17, GUVTU will host a tree planting event in late-September or early-October to restore the riparian buffer at the former dam site.

The Hyde Dam is located immediately downstream of the Store Hill Road bridge across the Second Branch in East Bethel. Parking for the tour is available at the Middle Branch Grange (78 Store Hill Road, Bethel).

Clean Up the White on 9/11

We invite you to help us Clean Up the White on Saturday, September 11, 2021!

To wrap-up the recreation season, the WRP is coordinating a river cleanup event in partnership with Vermont River Cleanup Month and Source to Sea. Our goal is to work with volunteers to remove as much trash from the White River and White River Water Trail access sites as possible.

How to Get Involved

Interested in helping us Clean Up the White? You have two options:

Option 1: Anytime on or before September 11: Pick-up trash by the river (visit our Water Trail sites map to find a site near you); then drop-off trash at the Royalton Academy Building on Saturday, September 11 between 10am and noon.

Option 2: Saturday, September 11 from 10am-noon: Swing by the Royalton Academy Building to sign a waiver and grab some trash bags; head to the river to collect trash; then return by noon to drop-off the trash.

NOTE: We’re asking all participants to practice social distancing at the event and to sign a waiver. Email christian[at]whiteriverpartnership.org to receive a copy of the event waiver to print/sign in advance and drop-off with your trash. 

Celebrate 25 years with us!

To say THANK YOU, we will provide 25th Anniversary “Volunteer” t-shirts to the first 100 volunteers!

And we invite you to help us celebrate by sharing your river cleanup photos: take a picture of the trash you collect or you/your group in action and share it using the hashtag #CelebrateWRP25.

Questions?

Please contact us with questions: christian[at]whiteriverpartnership.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

Got tires in the river? Report them here!

We need your help to remove tires from the White River.

In preparation for our September 2021 river cleanup, we invite you to report any tires (or large trash dumps) you find in the White River. We’ll use your reports to focus our cleanup efforts in September.

Our goal is to partner with the Bridgestone Tires4ward program to recycle the tires we collect. If we collect at least 100 tires, Bridgestone will remove the tires for free!

In order to maximize our collective cleanup efforts, we have created a reporting system that community volunteers can use to inform the WRP about the location of tires and large trash dumps along the river.

We cannot guarantee that we will have the capacity to address all the reported tire and trash dumps that we receive, however we will do our best to address and make a plan for all submissions.

How to Get Involved

Do you know the location of tires or a large trash dump in or along the White River? Please follow the steps below to submit the location of the dump:

• Identify a tire or trash dump along the river – we are looking for the following types of tires and trash dumps:

-A single tires or multiple tires that are in or around the White River – we are looking for tire dumps of any size

-Large items in the river that require an organized effort to remove – we want to know about things like gas tanks, home appliances, large pieces of wood and metal, etc that an individual could not remove on their own

-Large quantities of small trash items – we are looking for intentional trash dumps (multiple bags of household trash)

• Complete the Tire and Large Trash Collection Form
• We will follow up with additional details and clean up plans based on your submission

Questions?

Please contact Christian Pelletier with questions: christian[at]whiteriverpartnership.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

OCC13 benefits the WRP