Stream Wise launches in the Lake Champlain Basin
Stream Wise is a new program that works to bring neighbors together to protect and restore healthy waterways across the Lake Champlain region. Part awareness campaign and part assistance resource, Stream Wise provides tools, connections, messaging and resources for watershed organizations, conservation districts, and other water quality groups who partner with the program to work directly with their local stream communities in a new way and with a consistent message and brand.
Using Stream Wise tools and resources, partner groups conduct outreach about best practices for stream health and resiliency, perform assessments of stream buffers, and recognize streamside landowners who maintain wide buffers of native plants along their section of river or stream. These stream buffer stewardship activities will help increase flood resiliency in the region and benefit water quality and natural habitat.
Learn more about Stream Wise, explore our resources for streamside property owners and Stream Wise partners. Follow Stream Wise on social media @streamwisechamplain.
Stream Wise will be piloted this Summer 2022 in partnership with the Ausable River Association, Friends of the Winooski River, Lake Champlain Sea Grant, Organisme de basin versant de la baie Missiquoi, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, and Watersheds United Vermont. FluidState Consulting, Greenleaf Design, and The Image Farm were awarded the grant contract by the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) to develop Stream Wise in consultation with the project’s advisory committee and local community partners via an agreement awarded by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to NEIWPCC in partnership with the LCBP.
Advisory Committee: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, New York State Adirondack Park Agency, The Vermont Nature Conservancy
2023 Community Partners: Ausable River Association, Franklin County Natural Resource Conservation District, Franklin Watershed Committee, Friends of the Winooski River Inc., Lake Champlain Committee, Lamoille County Conservation District, Missisquoi River Basin Association, Organisme de basin versant de la baie Missiquoi, Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute
Stream Wise is a project of Lake Champlain Basin Program and NEIWPCC