Recent event updates
October 04, 2009
Here are a few updates about stewardship events that the WRP and our partners coordinated recently:
Hartford River Cleanup
43 community members helped clean up the public access areas along the White River and the Connecticut River in Hartford on Friday, October 2 and Saturday, October 3. Volunteers gathered over 750 pounds of trash, including styrofoam, tires, fishing line, food containers, household items like towels & a shower curtain rod, and even a couch! THANK YOU to everyone who volunteered and to the partners who made this event possible: Town of Hartford, Hartford Conservation Commission, Hartford Memorial Middle School, and the Community College of Vermont.
Water Quality Monitoring complete
Our 2009 summer monitoring program is complete! The WRP coordinates a volunteer-led water quality monitoring program to raise awareness about water quality in the White River and to prioritize our restoration efforts. This summer, we worked with 21 volunteers and the Environmental & Natural Resources Clinic students at Vermont Law School to monitor turbidity, conductivity, and E. coli bacteria at 23 sites along the main stem and its tributaries. Volunteers monitored water quality every two weeks, on Wednesday mornings; results were posted on our website by Thursday afternoon. Follow the links for more information about our monitoring program and our 2009 results.
2009 Annual Meeting
Over 30 people joined us to celebrate another year of hard work to improve the White River watershed on Saturday, September 26 at the Royalton Academy Building. Attendees enjoyed appetizers provided by the Lebanon Co-op Food Store, a presentation by Greg Russ, Monitoring Coordinator, about our Class IV Town Road Inventory Project, and a rousing game of Back Roads Bingo coordinated by Sandy Conrad! Congratulations to Art Stacy for winning the 12- x 16-foot timeberframe raffle and THANK YOU to everyone who bought raffle tickets to support this successful fundraiser!
Forest Stewardship 101
The White River Partnership, in partnership with American Forest Foundation, Vermont Woodlands Association, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, and Vermont Agency of Natural Resources hosted a walking woodland tour at the Forest Festival Weekend on September 26th and 27th. The Festival celebrates forest history, science and art in Vermont and includes a wide variety of exhibits and events. The Forest Stewardship 101 tour included a walking tour covering some of the most scenic areas of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller forest guided by experts in forest management. Discussion topics along the tour included managing for wildlife, water quality, environmental services, invasive species and cost-share opportunities.
Water Quality Forums
Over 80 community members attended two public forums about water quality in the White River watershed hosted by the White River Partnership this summer. Since 2001, WRP staff and volunteers have gathered water quality data at over 20 sites along the river and its tributaries. Dr. Fritz Gerhardt analyzed these data, and discussed his findings and recommendations for addressing specific water quality problems at the two public forums. The first forum was held on Thursday, August 13 at the Gifford Medical Center conference room in Randolph. The second forum was held on Tuesday, September 15 at Vermont Law School’s Oakes Hall; this forum was co-sponsored by the school’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic.
South Royalton River Cleanup
27 community members helped clean up the White River in South Royalton on Saturday, September 12. Volunteers gathered over 500 pounds of trash, including beverage containers, car parts, tires, tennis shoes, and a shovel! THANK YOU to everyone who volunteered and to the partners who made this event possible: Town of Royalton, Vermont Law School, and the WRP Down Stream Team.
Didymo Education Program
The WRP is partnering with Trout Unlimited, the Green Mountain National Forest, and the VT Water Quality Division to raise awareness about didymo, invasive algae found in the White River in 2007. Volunteers are needed to help distribute informational brochures and signs to raise awareness about stopping the spread of didymo and other invasive species around the watershed. Do you know of a good location for a stack of brochures? Does your favorite swimming hole need a sign? Contact mary@whiteriverpartnership.org to let us know how you want to help spread the word about didymo!
News
Posted: October 23, 2009 by wrp_admin
Northern Forest Watershed Services Project
Northern Forest Watershed Services Project
October 23, 2009
“The largest portion of forests in the US is owned by families, not the Forest Service or the big companies. In a time of climate change, development pressure, pests, and fire concerns, these woodlands need sustainable management and that means private landowners need healthy markets. Beyond timber, developing new markets can help provide income to private landowners for the ecosystem services—clean water, carbon storage, wildlife habitat, etc.—that their forests or natural areas provide for the public.” American Forest Foundation, Conservation Incentives website
Northern Forest Watershed Services Project
The WRP was one of five partners to receive a USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service Conservation Innovation Grant to support a $1 million effort to conserve ecosystem services provided by forests in two critical watersheds in the Northern Forest region: the Upper Connecticut River watershed in Vermont and New Hampshire, and the Crooked River watershed in Maine. The WRP will partner with the American Forest Foundation (Washington, DC) and the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation (Hanover, NH) to coordinate work in the Upper Connecticut River watershed project area.
The problem
Clean reliable water is becoming increasingly scarce in many parts of the country as climate change and development pressures affect water quantity, quality, timing, and distribution. The watershed values of forests have historically been undervalued with limited appreciation, monetarily or otherwise, especially from downstream users. There is, however, a growing awareness of the need to protect working forests as the costs of degraded ecosystems becomes more apparent. Municipalities and water suppliers increasingly recognize source protection as a potential component of a multi-tier approach to providing safe drinking water.
A solution
Innovative watershed services markets can provide effective incentives for sustainable forest management and have emerged as alternative financing mechanisms to ensure water quality and the protection of other important watershed services. When added to traditional forest revenues, these incentives can offer private forest landowners the means to stay on the land, managing their forests sustainably.
The Project
During the next three years, the project partners will engage communities with education and outreach activities to demonstrate a new market-based framework in which they will “broker” the sale of ecosystem services by private landowners to buyers such as private citizens, nonprofit organizations, corporations, and others. By combining ecosystem science with innovative payment techniques to private landowners, project partners hope to create a replicable model for preserving essential ecosystem services provided by our forested watersheds.
For more information
Contact us for more information about the Northern Forest Watershed Services Project.
Posted: October 4, 2009 by wrp_admin
Recent event updates
Recent event updates
October 04, 2009
Here are a few updates about stewardship events that the WRP and our partners coordinated recently:
Hartford River Cleanup
43 community members helped clean up the public access areas along the White River and the Connecticut River in Hartford on Friday, October 2 and Saturday, October 3. Volunteers gathered over 750 pounds of trash, including styrofoam, tires, fishing line, food containers, household items like towels & a shower curtain rod, and even a couch! THANK YOU to everyone who volunteered and to the partners who made this event possible: Town of Hartford, Hartford Conservation Commission, Hartford Memorial Middle School, and the Community College of Vermont.
Water Quality Monitoring complete
Our 2009 summer monitoring program is complete! The WRP coordinates a volunteer-led water quality monitoring program to raise awareness about water quality in the White River and to prioritize our restoration efforts. This summer, we worked with 21 volunteers and the Environmental & Natural Resources Clinic students at Vermont Law School to monitor turbidity, conductivity, and E. coli bacteria at 23 sites along the main stem and its tributaries. Volunteers monitored water quality every two weeks, on Wednesday mornings; results were posted on our website by Thursday afternoon. Follow the links for more information about our monitoring program and our 2009 results.
2009 Annual Meeting
Over 30 people joined us to celebrate another year of hard work to improve the White River watershed on Saturday, September 26 at the Royalton Academy Building. Attendees enjoyed appetizers provided by the Lebanon Co-op Food Store, a presentation by Greg Russ, Monitoring Coordinator, about our Class IV Town Road Inventory Project, and a rousing game of Back Roads Bingo coordinated by Sandy Conrad! Congratulations to Art Stacy for winning the 12- x 16-foot timeberframe raffle and THANK YOU to everyone who bought raffle tickets to support this successful fundraiser!
Forest Stewardship 101
The White River Partnership, in partnership with American Forest Foundation, Vermont Woodlands Association, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, and Vermont Agency of Natural Resources hosted a walking woodland tour at the Forest Festival Weekend on September 26th and 27th. The Festival celebrates forest history, science and art in Vermont and includes a wide variety of exhibits and events. The Forest Stewardship 101 tour included a walking tour covering some of the most scenic areas of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller forest guided by experts in forest management. Discussion topics along the tour included managing for wildlife, water quality, environmental services, invasive species and cost-share opportunities.
Water Quality Forums
Over 80 community members attended two public forums about water quality in the White River watershed hosted by the White River Partnership this summer. Since 2001, WRP staff and volunteers have gathered water quality data at over 20 sites along the river and its tributaries. Dr. Fritz Gerhardt analyzed these data, and discussed his findings and recommendations for addressing specific water quality problems at the two public forums. The first forum was held on Thursday, August 13 at the Gifford Medical Center conference room in Randolph. The second forum was held on Tuesday, September 15 at Vermont Law School’s Oakes Hall; this forum was co-sponsored by the school’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic.
South Royalton River Cleanup
27 community members helped clean up the White River in South Royalton on Saturday, September 12. Volunteers gathered over 500 pounds of trash, including beverage containers, car parts, tires, tennis shoes, and a shovel! THANK YOU to everyone who volunteered and to the partners who made this event possible: Town of Royalton, Vermont Law School, and the WRP Down Stream Team.
Didymo Education Program
The WRP is partnering with Trout Unlimited, the Green Mountain National Forest, and the VT Water Quality Division to raise awareness about didymo, invasive algae found in the White River in 2007. Volunteers are needed to help distribute informational brochures and signs to raise awareness about stopping the spread of didymo and other invasive species around the watershed. Do you know of a good location for a stack of brochures? Does your favorite swimming hole need a sign? Contact mary@whiteriverpartnership.org to let us know how you want to help spread the word about didymo!
Posted: August 27, 2009 by wrp_admin
2009 E. coli results
2009 E. coli results
August 27, 2009
Every other week from May through September, WRP volunteers test for E. coli bacteria at sites along the White River and its major tributaries. E. coli is a type of bacteria that lives in the intestines of all warm-blooded animals. E. coli is easy to test for, and is therefore used as an indicator for other disease-causing bacteria in the water. In other words, a high E. coli count reveals that a variety of disease-causing bacteria from numerous sources (leaking septic systems, animal waste, etc) are in the water and could make people sick.
E. coli counts can fluctuate dramatically depending on how much rain we’ve had or from the presence of dead carcasses or animal waste in the river. Because of this, the EPA recommends that a geometric mean (an average that evens out large variations in the data) be used instead of a simple average when considering multiple samples taken from the same site over time. At the end of each sampling season, we calculate the geometric mean of E. coli at each site for the year. This allows us to identify trends at sites over time.
The EPA standard for the geometric mean is 126 colonies/100 mL sample. Sites exceeding the EPA geometric mean standard are marked with an asterisk (*).
2009 E. coli geometric mean data
Main stem sites
Watson Park – 105
West Hartford bridge – 101
Mouth of Mill Brook – 45
White Brook – 150*
VLS parking lot – 108
Bethel below tx – 110
Bethel above tx – 58
Peavine Park – 53
Mouth of Locust Creek – 13
Silver Lake – 4
Gaysville Bridge – 47
Tweed at South Hill Road – 43
Lion’s Club Park – 33
Hancock Branch – 29
First Branch sites
Cilley Bridge – 82
Chelsea Rec Park – 79
Second Branch sites
Dugout Road – 144*
East Hill Road – 72
Third Branch sites
Mouth of Third Branch – 123
Stock Farm Road – 115
Golf Course Bridge – 112
Ayers Brook – 134*
Adams Brook – 15
Thresher Road – 66