Stream Wise Recognizes Riparian Buffer Stewards

The Duell & Cowen family poses with their Stream Wise Award, recognizing excellent management and condition of their streamside land!

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As you drive around the Valley over the next few weeks, you may notice some new signs popping up in the front yards of your friends and neighbors. With designations of “Stream Steward” and “Stream Wise”, these signs recognize local community members who have participated in a program designed to help landowners better manage their stream and riverfront properties. From Warren to Moretown, Friends of the Mad River has been busy conducting Stream Wise visits, providing assessment, planning, and implementation support
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The Stream Wise program is modeled after the successful Lake Wise initiative which aims to mitigate nutrient runoff into Lake Champlain. These programs engage landowners in stewardship efforts that improve water quality and provide a host of other benefits to local flora and fauna. While decreasing the runoff of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus is certainly a component of Stream Wise, the program primarily focuses on the establishment and maintenance of a vegetated stream buffer. 

So what exactly is a vegetated stream buffer? Simply put, a healthy stream buffer has a wide range of native trees, shrubs, bushes, and other vegetation. It provides food, shelter, and habitat for local animals, insects, birds, and a range of other species. Healthy buffers provide shade for our streams and rivers, keeping water temperatures cool, which makes fish and other aquatic wildlife much happier. Having a solid buffer is also vital to flood resilience, as floodplain forests help to slow and spread storm waters, while also preventing erosion.

Here’s the thing, though. In a perfect world, every stream and river would have at least 50 feet of buffer along the vast majority of its banks! That may sound like a lot, and compared to what we observe throughout much of the Valley, it is. Several hundred years of settlement and development have left much of our watershed without adequate buffers. By clearing land for houses, businesses, and farms, we have whittled down the natural barriers of our rivers and streams. Stream Wise is developed to help individual landowners better understand what they can do to help reverse this trend.

The Stream Wise program has two levels of recognition. A “Stream Steward” property reflects the continued efforts of a landowner to help develop a healthy stream buffer. This may include actions such as removing invasive species, planting trees, or leaving sections of their yard unmowed. Many of these strategies might not seem that mind blowing, and that is exactly the point. The program aims to equip community members with simple strategies that they can do at low cost in order to do their part to contribute to a healthier watershed.

A “Stream Wise” property is the highest recognition from the program. These sites have healthy buffers of at least 30-50 feet along most of the stream or riverfront. At these sites, you would observe a multi-layered forest with relatively few invasive species present, and a homeowner who has made a concerted effort to minimize impervious surfaces like paths and walkways. 
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Keep an eye out for these signs which will be popping up around the Valley in the next few weeks. If you are interested in learning more about Stream Wise, please reach out to [email protected] or fill out this interest form.

(Left) Luke Foley, Climate & Engagement Manager, and Marcy Bucheit, Watershed Engagement Coordinator, present the Robillards with a Stream Steward recognition for their committment to knotweed eradication and tree planting. (Right) A Stream Steward flag adorns the new MRV Recreation Hub site, recognizing the buffer planting of 400 trees there.