February 26, 2019
BOLTON, Vt. -- In 2011, Tropical Storm Irene devastated Vermont, with $153 million in damages as homes were washed away and bridges and roads were decimated. Looking to the future, climate change is predicted to bring more intense storms to the Northeast and in response, the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) is working to make Agency land more flood resilient. ANR is implementing several projects to restore rivers across the state, including a preliminary engineering design for a floodplain restoration project in Camel’s Hump State Park near the outlet of Preston Brook.
“Floodplains are some of the most dynamic and diverse areas on our planet. By restoring our floodplains, we will become more resilient to extreme weather events,” said Rebecca Pfeiffer, the Northwest Floodplain Manager for the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). “Floodplains are the pressure relief valve for our river systems. When a brook or stream is able to spill out onto its undeveloped floodplain, floodwaters slow down, many nutrients and debris are stored on the floodplain rather than traveling downstream and contributing to poor water quality, and we see less erosion or potential for damage to public roads and infrastructure, or to private homes and businesses.”
The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation (FPR) has hired Milone & MacBroom, Inc. to complete the initial engineering design for Preston Brook. The brook drains six square miles of forest known as “Honey Hollow,” including parts of Camel’s Hump State Park. Like many streams in the region, this one is dynamic and changes course often within the floodplain. Following the flood of 1927, portions of the brook were confined with man-made berms, a practice that was common in the past and intended to confine floodwaters to the stream channel and prevent erosion of the surrounding land. While this offered some protection to adjacent land, it limited the area of the floodplain, reducing wildlife habitat and impacting water quality. The preliminary engineering design currently under way would remove the berms and restore these portions of the brook back to their natural state.
FPR completed improvements to forest roads in the Preston Brook watershed in the fall of 2018 to improve the condition of Preston Brook in the upper portions of the watershed. The floodplain restoration design work could be used to improve the brook near its confluence with the Winooski River.
“We’ll be looking at the preliminary design, weighing the cost and benefits of implementation, and decide where to go from there,” said Jason Nerenberg, Stewardship Forester with FPR. “Floodplain restoration is an important aspect of meeting clean water goals and enhancing habitat.”
Funding for both projects was made possible through grants from the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation Ecosystem Restoration Program (ERP). ERP grants are awarded through a competitive process to support the design and construction of water pollution abatement and control projects that target non-point sources of pollution.