Four Ways We Can Conserve Vermont's Waters

Did you know that removing a dam can create better fishing and boating opportunities, make Lake Champlain a safer swimming destination year-round and decrease household flood insurance premiums?

There are more than 1,000 of these man-made barriers disconnecting our waterways across Vermont. Many are relics of a bygone era, serving no purpose except creating undesirable impacts such as blocked fish passage, warming our waters and safety hazards. Additionally, the property owner who finds themselves inheriting even a small antiquated dam is also liable for any safety risks it may pose downstream.

Dam removal has become an increasingly popular practice in recent years as communities and environmental organizations recognize the many benefits of restoring natural river systems. Dam removal was once unusual; today it is considered one of the fastest and most effective ways to restore a river. Below, find our dam removal guide to better understand and begin the process of removing a dam. 

Floodplains, the low-lying areas adjacent to our rivers, are one of nature’s secret weapons, acting as sponges to slow, filter, and clean our waters. This “nature-based solution” is the key solution to some of our freshwater challenges.

Because our rivers have been straightened and divorced from their floodplains, Vermont’s rivers carry more nutrients and sediments and flow faster and more forcefully, contributing to more serious flooding and poor water quality—an accelerating issue due to climate change.

Investments in nature are cost-effective and have multiple benefits. Floodplain protection and restoration improves flood resiliency and water quality, increases carbon storage and conserves critical fish and wildlife habitats. Recent Vermont-based research highlights the suite of values that restored floodplains contribute:

• At Black Creek in Fairfield, VT, 21 acres of re-connected floodplain captured more phosphorous than was discharged in 2008 by 56 of the 60 wastewater treatment plants in the Vermont portion of the Lake Champlain Basin.
• Floodplain restoration is an estimated 2.8 times more cost-effective at reducing phosphorous than stormwater management.
• Protecting and restoring floodplains can increase the amount of phosphorous they store by 37 pounds per acre per year.

The cost benefits of conserving and restoring our floodplains, wetlands, and other natural communities are clear. It is only by working with nature that we can create durable solutions to some of our intractable environmental challenges which is why we are working across the state to support functioning floodplains as an important solution to Vermont’s freshwater issues.

We don’t often think of the land around a river as part of the river itself, but these corridors or “meander zones” are a critical piece of the river’s dynamic system. Historically, we have developed in these river routes and oftentimes the most vulnerable Vermonters reside in these high-risk river corridors.

Vermont is declaring an average of 1.4 major flooding disasters per year. In fact, 70-80% of all flood-related damage and costs are due to rapidly moving rivers that create powerful erosive forces, rather than slow-rising floodwaters. Protecting river corridors reduces flood damage by helping rivers reconnect to their floodplains, thereby storing more water during flood events, and decreasing damage to flood-vulnerable structures, our transportation networks and other investments.

As we adapt to the severity of weather events, we need to act to protect those most at risk to flooding while working with nature to increase flood and climate resilience. Protected river corridors would slow the corrosive energy of flood events and minimize impacts downstream, better safeguarding people and our communities as our climate changes.