Heather Koontz
Considering the catastrophic floods of the last 100 years, it’s easy to regard Vermont’s rivers as powerful forces of nature singularly capable of major destruction. But, is it entirely fair? After all, rivers also offer recreation, food, medicinal resources, hydropower, transportation, and more.
Not to mention, these winding sources of life were here first. In fact, this is their floodplain — we’re just living in it.
Our Friend, the Winooski
A tributary of Lake Champlain, the Winooski snakes 90 miles from Cabot to Colchester. This “wild onion land,” as the Abenaki dubbed the Winooski valley long before current civilizations encroached on it, accounts for nearly 10% of the entire state’s land area, and has provided generations of settlers with abundant resources.
For thousands of years, the river has also overflowed its banks and deposited rich sediment on flat floodplains, providing an agricultural wonderland for food production and lush botanical diversity.
“These wetland communities are very different and often have unique plant diversity,” Sean Beckett, program director at North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier, said. “Any time you go into a floodplain, you’re going to see things that grow together because they like the same conditions. And these conditions are very different than what you find in the forest.”
This diversity of plant life also attracts insects, which kickstart the food chain and provide for a healthy ecosystem. Plus, the thick wetland vegetation serves as travel corridors for large animals.
Impacts of Civilization
For most of history, the river was largely left to its own devices. In the 1930s, flood control projects were introduced to build retention dams, alter river channels, and clear riverbanks. The intention of these projects was to keep water flow where humans wanted it, but the effects proved detrimental.
“We didn’t think about rivers as being a life source, we thought about them as a nuisance,” Beckett said. “But when we create these forces, the river ends up becoming much more powerful. If you dredge, straighten, channelize, and armor the banks, you’ve basically taken a river that wants to flow and meander and force it through a narrow spot.”
As a result, anything downstream of that channel is at high risk of erosion. And that erosion is one of the major factors contributing to flooding events.
“We need to acknowledge that the river is going to erode away and it’s going to deposit,” Beckett said. “We must make sure it has plenty of space and the force that the river is naturally dispersing into the banks isn’t directed straight at the dam downstream or at some important piece of infrastructure.”
Organizational Efforts Across Vermont
History has shown that giving the river space to move, creating wetland buffers, and restoring the natural flow are all ways to help take care of our rivers. But, they aren’t necessarily actionable in a place like downtown Montpelier.
“We can’t just pick up Montpelier and move it,” Beckett said. “It’s not going to be an overnight fix, but maybe we can spend the next century slowly untangling ourselves out of this.”
To help with that untangling, numerous organizations around the state have dedicated their time, expertise, and resources to the mighty Winooski. One such organization is the Vermont River Conservancy (VRC). In addition to restoring and connecting the river with its residents, the conservancy also works to protect undeveloped land along riverbanks.
“Our rivers have been here long before any of us and they have always flooded,” conservancy executive director Kassia Randzio said. “We, effectively, built our community and our infrastructure in the river.”
To help lessen the impact to that infrastructure, the river conservancy has established areas for safe overflow before flood water even reaches city centers. Take, for example, the 20 acres of wetlands the organization established in Worcester. During the 2023 flooding, that wetland complex alone held enough water to keep six inches out of the near-spilling Wrightsville Reservoir.
Another way the river conservancy protects rivers and nearby residents is by working with landowners to create conservation easements. These agreements enable riparian forests to grow on land, holding soil in place and capturing downstream water during floods.
Friends of the Winooski River, a nonprofit organization in Montpelier, is also dedicated to restoring and protecting the river. Founded nearly 30 years ago, the organization plants trees, analyzes water quality, removes trash, and improves the habitats for wildlife along the watershed. They are also involved with dam removal throughout western and central Vermont.
Dam removal and culvert repairs provide considerable flood resiliency, enhance water quality, and reduce pollutants held within the sediment. Removing dams also helps provide habitat connectivity by eliminating physical barriers for fish, turtles, and other aquatic wildlife.
The Importance of Everyday Actions
Organizations such as the Vermont River Conservancy, Friends of the Winooski River, and North Branch Nature Center are working to protect the Winooski while providing natural tools for flood resiliency, but residents also have the power to make a difference.
“The reality is, when we treat our rivers well, our rivers will treat us better,” Randzio said. “That includes everything from finding opportunities to move back from the river, to give the rivers space to shift and bend as they have for millennia, and also looking at the way we’re treating water on our properties.”
One way communities can help care for the river is by planting trees along the banks. These trees provide shade, which helps keep the water colder — in turn, creating more oxygen to support life within the stream.
Additionally, residents can use their own yard for flood mitigation by allowing for riparian areas or rain gardens where shrubs, trees, and meadows can grow. Mowing less often, using a higher blade setting, and aerating soil can also result in better stormwater retention.
“Those types of environments help rebuild our soils and actually hold far more water than pavement or mowed lawns,” Randzio said. “There are spaces where a little corner of your yard can revert back to a wetland and hold more water before it even gets to the river.”
Even homeowners who don’t live in a floodplain or directly experience the impacts of overflow can make a difference. Actions include removing pollutants from soil, picking up after dogs, keeping storm drains clear, and creating forested reservoirs on land.
“If you are a landowner upland, you have tributaries and water moving along your property that end up in downtown Montpelier,” Beckett said. “People up high in the watershed can have a huge impact on what’s going on downstream because they are the reservoirs for this water.”
Room to Roam
The Winooski River provides bountiful opportunities for humans to connect with nature. From extreme sports to simply reading a book on the riverbank, the draw of the water brings communities to life. Given the river’s natural claim to the land, it’s important for Vermonters to create a symbiotic relationship with the natural resource.
But even with this connection, flooding can — and will — still occur.
“The river’s doing what it’s done all along, we’ve put ourselves in harm’s way and then blamed the river for it,” Beckett said. “We’re not going to be able to engineer ourselves out of that.”
Luckily, there are steps we can take to help prevent further degradation. Volunteering with restoration organizations, advocating against river alteration, and considering individual impacts on water quality are great ways to get involved.
And of course, a dip in the cool river this summer is an excellent opportunity to get to know our friend, the Winooski.
