Riparian Lands

27 02, 2024

Our Seeds go to Svalbard!

2024-02-28T12:55:34-05:00February 27th, 2024|Conservation science, Highlights, News, Riparian Lands|

Some of these adorable baby trees are now chilling, perhaps for 100 years or more, in a drawer in Norway! Last fall the Riparian Lands crew teamed up with the Statewide Seed Coordinator at Intervale Center to collect gray birch in the Champlain Valley and with our ECO AmeriCorps member Sarah Redman, here in Brighton, VT. Some of the seeds from both collections were later sent to the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station in Ames, Iowa to be tested and stored long-term. These samples currently have a 96%-98% [Read More...]

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30 08, 2023

Chokecherry Collection (Becoming Bog-people with VT’s Seed Coordinator)

2023-08-30T12:24:16-04:00August 30th, 2023|Conservation science, Riparian Lands|

(Photo collage - Our Riparian Lands crew teamed up with Brooke, fell into a bog, and collected from the Victory Basin Wildlife Management Area during the first week of August.) Between invasive species removal and building beaver dam analogs, the Riparian Lands Crew has been hard at work staying on top of seed collection efforts by collecting chokecherry (Prunus virginiana). With the help of State Seed Coordinator Brooke Fleischman, and ECO AmeriCorps Member Dana Welch, the crew has collected more than 28 lbs of seeds from seven different sites across [Read More...]

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30 08, 2023

How to Build Beaver Dam Analogs w/ MWA

2023-08-30T12:19:10-04:00August 30th, 2023|Conservation science, Highlights, News, Riparian Lands, Watersheds|

Controlling the flow of water is a large part of ensuring the health of riparian areas. One way that we can achieve this is by mimicking and encouraging beaver activity through the use of  Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs). This form of Low-Tech Process Based Restoration (PBR) uses human-made “leaky beaver dams” to slow down the flow of water and spread it out to increase the saturation of the water table. Our goal is that these control structures work well enough to encourage nature’s environmental engineers (actual beavers!) to move in [Read More...]

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31 05, 2023

Seed Spotlight: Salicaceae Family

2023-08-23T10:09:22-04:00May 31st, 2023|Conservation science, Highlights, News, Riparian Lands|

You may have noticed that there is a bunch of fluff floating around in the air right now. This is because quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is currently sending out seeds, and many other species in the Salicaceae family - such as shrub willow (Salix spp.), balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera), bigtooth aspen (Populus grandidentata), and eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides) - are about to follow suit. All of these species release millions of seeds surrounded by tufts of long, soft, white hairs annually that are carried along in the wind to be dispersed [Read More...]

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28 04, 2023

Heard about Hydroseeding?

2024-01-02T10:56:53-05:00April 28th, 2023|Conservation science, Forest Stewardship Institute, Highlights, News, Riparian Lands|

Hydroseeding is a direct seed application method that sprays large concentrations of seed on the land by using a trailer-mounted tank and sprayer system.The machine sprays out a slurry of seeds and water and sometimes (but not always) mulch and fertilizer. The sprayer is used to apply seed in a manner that minimizes the potential for movement of seeds from the site. This method is commonly used to quickly revegetate roadside excavation sites using conservation mix and grass seed.  Although it is a more common use, this method isn’t limited to [Read More...]

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21 02, 2023

Staff Visit the NY State Tree Nursery in Saratoga

2023-08-23T10:10:02-04:00February 21st, 2023|Conservation science, Highlights, News, Riparian Lands, Science|

This month, Jess Colby (Riparian Lands Project Coordinator) and Brooke Fleischman (State Seed Coordinator for the Intervale Conservation Nursery) visited the New York State Tree Nursery in Saratoga to learn more about their seed collection, processing, and storage techniques. The Colonel William F. Fox Memorial Saratoga Tree Nursery is the oldest state forest tree nursery in the country. The nursery currently produces more than 1.5 million seedlings annually and maintains more than 200 acres of seed production areas and orchards across the state. More than 6 million seedlings, representing over [Read More...]

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31 01, 2023

Riparian Lands Crew Members Featured on Restoration Podcast

2023-08-23T10:10:18-04:00January 31st, 2023|Conservation science, Highlights, News, Riparian Lands|

If you've been curious to hear a little more about our staff's seed collection efforts you are in luck! In December, Riparian Projects and Forestry Outreach Coordinator Jess Colby and Riparian Lands Crew members Rob Fitch and Rhona Thomson were interviewed about their recent work on wild seed collection with the Restoration Roundup podcast. This watersheds and restoration-focused podcast is hosted by Cate Krieder and Alison Adams and is funded by the EPA and operated by the UVM Extension and the Lake Champlain Sea Grant. In this series, the hosts interview [Read More...]

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15 12, 2022

Invasive Plant Control in the Clyde River Watershed

2023-08-23T10:10:56-04:00December 15th, 2022|Conservation science, Forest Stewardship Institute, Highlights, News, Riparian Lands, Watersheds|

Project Overview The NorthWoods Stewardship Center, located in the Clyde River Watershed in East Charleston, Vermont is an organization with a strong sense of place. As a conservation and educational organization in the North East Kingdom of Vermont, many of our programs and projects emphasize the importance of local stewardship to promote healthy ecosystems. The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department Habitat Stamp funded invasive plant control completed in the Clyde River Watershed was a collection of projects that addressed the spread of non-native plants in the area. These projects were completed [Read More...]

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13 09, 2022

Seeding Conservation – Staff Highlight: Jessica Colby

2023-08-23T10:11:14-04:00September 13th, 2022|Conservation science, Forest Stewardship Institute, Highlights, News, Riparian Lands, Science, Staff|

Jess Colby knew since she was a kid that she wanted to work in conservation. Currently working as our Riparian Projects & Forestry Outreach Coordinator, Jess brings expertise from her degree at UVM, plus years working and volunteering with various conservation agencies and organizations to her work at NorthWoods in riparian restoration work and wildlife conservation.  One of her early introductions to the world of conservation was working with NorthWoods' YCC crew at the Pondicherry division of the Silvio O Conte NFWR as a teenager. "I've always been pretty set on [Read More...]

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1 08, 2022

Honeysuckle Removal Along the Black River

2023-08-23T10:11:26-04:00August 1st, 2022|Conservation science, Forest Stewardship Institute, News, Riparian Lands, Watersheds|

Over the past month, the Riparian Lands crew has been out conducting cut-stump treatments of invasive honeysuckle along the Black River at the South Bay Wildlife Management Area in Coventry, VT. Vermont has four invasive species of honeysuckles, all of which are deciduous shrubs with opposite, egg-shaped leaves and have hollow piths - easily shown by cutting a twig off the shrub with a knife. By leafing out earlier and retaining leaves later, honeysuckle (like other invasive species) has a competitive advantage over native vegetation and easily forms dense thickets that [Read More...]

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Mailing Address

PO Box 220, East Charleston, VT 05833

Get in Touch

Email: info@northwoodscenter.org

Main Phone: 802.723.6551

Office & Administration ext: 301
Conservation Science & Forestry ext: 302
Education & Outreach ext: 303
Conservation Corps ext: 304

Or visit our Contact page for more ways to get in touch with our staff.


Website Development

Funding for the development of this website was made possible in part by the Rural Business Enterprise Grant through the Vermont Community Loan Fund from USDA Rural Development.
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