Richford, VT – In Richford, Vermont, a town located at the headwaters of the Missisquoi River and just south of the Canadian border, Annette G. serves as Chair of the town’s Conservation Commission.
She contacted Mel Auffredou from Franklin County NRCD last summer after reading about Stream Wise in an email announcement sent to the Conservation Commission.
Annette and her husband, Jeff, own a previously pastured 54-acre property where Parker and Fletcher Brooks join and become Alder Brook, which eventually flows into the Trout River. An avid birder and naturalist, Annette is already a member of Cold Hollow to Canada’s Richford Woodlots Group, which hosts informal neighborhood gatherings each season to allow for discussions about forest management activities.
Interested in a program focused on streams and motivated to share her experience with others, Annette and Jeff invited Mel onto their property. Together, they toured the brooks and forests, including a particularly beautiful grove of gray birch trees that have grown in a section of the property that previously lacked woody vegetation. They discussed what it means to be Stream Wise, looking at various metrics within the first fifty feet from the brook’s edge.
While Annette’s property met most Stream Wise criteria, an old town road now used as a VAST snowmobile trail that runs along a section of the brook disqualified the property—for now—from earning the Stream Wise Award. The compacted trail winds too close to the brook, causing erosion.
“Mel was super pleasant and lovely to walk the land with. It was an enjoyable experience and it’s nice to know the things that are working well and one area of concern,” Annette said.
Once alerted to the snowmobile trail erosion, the VAST Trail folks reached out to Annette and were very sincere about efforts to rectify any issues. They plan to meet on the property in 2024 to look at it together.
Stream Wise assessor organizations, like the Franklin County NRCD, are offering free and voluntary property assessments across the Lake Champlain watershed with a goal to bring neighbors together to protect and restore healthy waterways in our region.
If you own property with a brook, stream or river, are curious about Stream Wise, or want to volunteer, contact Stream Wise via our website (https://streamwisechamplain.org/contact/)