Photo by Andrew Nemethy Times Argus
Why Partnerships?
As noted elsewhere on our website, the Winooski River watershed is a big place! It is the largest basin in the Lake Champlain watershed. It is about 88 miles long with a watershed area of 1,080 square miles. It comprises nearly all of Washington County, half of Chittenden County and parts of four other counties. The watershed is very diverse. It includes the most urbanized areas of Vermont, rich agricultural land, heavily wooded uplands, cold clear trout streams and ponds and wetlands. In addition to these natural treasures, the watershed also has many organizations that are focused on protecting its natural resources. The Friends is able to increase its capacity and impact by building collaborative partnerships with these organizations as well as watershed towns and government agencies. Many of these entities have overlapping or complementary goals and resources. Research by the National Policy Consensus Center cites many benefits to collaborative watershed efforts or partnerships including the integration of economic, environmental and community objectives; the leveraging of scarce resources and development of innovative approaches and solutions.
Currently, the Friends is active in three partnerships: the Winooski Headwaters Community Project, the Mid-Winooski Partnership and the Lower Winooski Partnership. Through these collaborative efforts, the Friends will support locally-initiated projects and provide communication and facilitation among groups active in the watershed.
Winooski Headwaters Coummunity Project
The Project is a collaborative effort to help the residents to restore and protect the ecological integrity and human enjoyment of the Winooski watershed. The Project focuses on the watershed in the towns of Cabot, Marshfield and Plainfield. The headwaters of a river system are particularly sensitive and important to the health of the entire river. The Winooski River is no different.
The Project includes a diverse group of partners-local and state government, local businesses, nonprofit organizations and interested citizens, who have combined their resources and efforts on their common interest in the Winooski headwaters area. Base funding has been provided by Cabot Creamery and the three local Conservation Commissions serve as a conduit to the local communities. The partners work on a variety of activities including landowner outreach, riparian restoration projects, educational programs, corridor planning and water quality monitoring.
Mid-Winooski Partnership
The Mid Winooski Partnership was formed in early 2007 with the help of a small start up grant from the Vermont Community Foundation. The geographic scope includes the mainstem of the Winooski River between its confluence with the Kingsbury Branch and the Dog River and includes much of the North and Stevens Branch. The first project undertaken by this group is water quality monitoring, mostly in local swimming holes in the North Branch and a few other sites. You can read more about it on the water quality page. The Mid Winooski partners have also been involved in the installation of several rain gardens (to cleanse stormwater before it reaches the river) and river clean ups. Members of the Mid Winooski Partnership will be an integral part of the implementation of river restoration projects identified in the corridor plans.
Lower Winooski Partnership
The goal of the Lower Winooski Partnership is to encompass the watershed below the Huntington River. One of the first projects of the Partnership will be to test wastewater treatment effluent for traces of personal care products. The Friends and the Winooski Natural Resource Conservation District will be conducting an educational prgoram focused on the impact of these products and how people can evaluate their choices as consumers.