WRP wins award

WRP wins award

January 13, 2009

In December 2008, the WRP received an honor award from the Eastern Region of the US Forest Service. Along with the Battenkill Watershed Alliance and the Green Mountain National Forest, the WRP was recognized at a ceremony in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a dozen years of work Protecting Ecosystems Across Boundaries.

According to Steve Roy, a fisheries biologist with the Green Mountain National Forest who nominated the WRP for the honor award, the WRP “is focusing tremendous energy and resources on exemplary stewardship of the watershed via an impressive array of public outreach and awareness, landscape assessments, biological monitoring, riparian forest and stream habitat restoration, water quality and aquatic organism passage improvements, and invasive species management, while retaining the traditions of a working landscape.”

This award was a spectacular end to a banner year for the WRP. 2008 highlights include: – opening over 5 miles of Broad Brook to aquatic life at all water levels, – permanently conserving 20 acres of river corridor along Ayers Brook, – collecting 450 water quality samples to identify potential threats to public health, – removing 1,400 pounds of trash to improve water quality and recreation, – planting 3,200 trees along the river to improve habitat and to reduce erosion, and – coordinating $26,500 in volunteer opportunities, or the equivalent of a 3/4 time employee.

We hope you will join us in 2009 as we work together to improve the long-term health of the White River and its watershed!