New River Science Informs Citizens and Local Planners in the Lewis Creek Watershed

  Rivers reside and move over time within a river corridor. River channels must sometimes adjust their shape and location to allow their resident water and sediment to travel through the river corridors. Like smart road and town networks, this treasured natural system requires a very certain space to function on our Vermont landscape. Now, with completed physical river corridor assessments, Lewis Creek community towns and conservation planning organizations are benefiting from the results of the much needed river assessment protocols to accurately inform local conservation planning and prioritization work.  

  Thanks to funding from the Lake Champlain Basin Program and Lewis Creek Association (LCA), LCA hired South Mountain Research and Consulting in Bristol VT to complete the final round of gathering, and interpreting field data of Lewis Creek. Geomorphic and habitat assessments augmented by invasive species identification on 21 reaches (26.0 river miles) now provide a baseline of the geomorphic conditions of Lewis Creek’s main stem and its two main tributaries. This information is held on a state database managed by Vermont Agency of Natural Resources’(VTANR)  that will be available to the public this summer or fall. 

  Students and volunteers joined the consultant to learn about VTANR’s new protocols and help with the data collection process. Many thanks go to VT Department of Environmental Conservation’s River Management Program, the hard working volunteers, as well as students and teachers at Vermont Commons School, Gailer School, South Royalton High School, Champlain Valley Union High School and UVM who took part in this demanding and exciting work. 

  To date, LCA shared this information with area developers, Natural Resource Conservation Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the watershed’s town conservation commissions, planning commissions, Addison County Riverwatch Collaborative, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, Vermont Land Trust, Hinesburg Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy. The new information provides a science based approach to determine conservation strategies for development plans, farm-fencing, river corridor plantings and other installations, land trust easements and stewardship plans, town open space agreements, and Flood-Erosion Hazard Mitigation Plans. LCA is presently using this knowledge to inform recreation public access and biodiversity prioritization strategies.