The Riparian Lands Program began in 2020 as a collaboration between Vermont Fish and Wildlife (VFWD) and NorthWoods Stewardship Center. During that time, we worked alongside the VFWD, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Orleans County Natural Resources Conservation District (OCNRCD), and the VT Department of Environmental Conservation (VT DEC) to help develop priorities for riparian restoration projects through tree planting, bank stabilization, and identifying potential areas for river easements.

In 2021, our partners at the Memphremagog Watershed Association (MWA) expanded capacity and began to take over public outreach and project development, allowing NorthWoods to focus on project implementation through our Riparian Lands Crew. NorthWoods also began a concerted effort to assist the State with collecting native riparian tree and shrub seeds for experimental hydroseeding projects, collaborating with partners from the Intervale Conservation Nursery (ICN), VFWD, and USFWS. 

Today, NorthWoods’ seasonal crews complete seed scouting and collection; tree planting; invasive species removal; access area improvements and beaver dam analog construction from March through November. 

Our Work

Our Partners

Direct Seeding Projects

Seeds collected will be used in direct seeding project locations with Vermont Fish and Wildlife to revegetate abandoned agricultural fields infested with reed canary grass and other invasive species. Click here to learn more about this and other riparian restoration projects in action. Partnering with the Intervale Center, a small percentage of seeds will also be used to help propagate starts for ICN and be used in restoration projects all over the state.

Target Species
  • quaking aspen
  • balsam poplar
  • eastern cottonwood
  • shrub willow
  • black willow
  • American elm
  • silver maple
  • red maple
  • chokecherry
  • black cherry
  • speckled alder
  • northern white cedar
  • tamarack
  • red spruce
  • gray birch

Seed (Collection) Cleaning and Storage

After collecting from our targeted species, the Riparian Lands Crew spends time cleaning seeds for storage. It is important to clean and process these seeds so that they’re under optimal conditions so that seeds remain viable for an extended amount of time. We clean seeds to prevent them from molding while in cold storage, remove pests, and reduce the volume of stored materials. Currently a majority of our seeds are being housed at a Vermont Fish & Wildlife building in St. Johnsbury. There we have a commercial fridge and two chest freezers that are being used for storage. Additional storage space may be found at the Intervale Center in Burlington, VT.

Fisheries Enhancement

Tree Planting

Land use has dramatically changed the Vermont landscape over the past two hundred years. In the late 1800’s settlement, industry, and transportation not only changed the landscape of the forests and fields, but also changed our waterways. Deforestation, mills, dams, railroads, and the overall channelization of rivers and streams have had major impacts on state-wide hydrology and ecology. Streams and rivers that do not have forested buffers tend to have more erosion (both in the channel and on land – i.e., riverbanks), experience more thermal stress, and have lower water quality than those that do have forested buffers.
Today, riparian forest buffer projects are designed and managed to provide shade, restore stream habitat, and to trap and remove nutrients, sediments, pesticides, and other chemicals from surface runoff. Riparian Forest Buffers are important for water quality and wildlife habitat by providing stable banks that mitigate erosion, while providing both food and shelter. Since 2021, the Riparian Lands crew has been primarily focused on tree planting at Willoughby Falls WMA in Orleans, VT and at South Bay WMA in Coventry, VT. To date, we have pulled and planted just over 1,800 trees.
 

Invasive Control

Invasive species are plants, animals, and other organisms that are introduced to a non-native ecosystem and also cause harm to the environment, economy, or human health (VT Invasives).
Since 2021, the Riparian Land Crew has been working on removing invasive honeysuckle from along the banks of the Black River at South Bay WMA. In 2022 we began work on removing Japanese knotweed from along the Barton River at Willoughby Falls WMA. Both of these species reduce water quality and usable wildlife habitat by limiting bank stability and plant biodiversity.
Honeysuckle competes with native plants for sunlight, moisture, and pollinators. Birds eat the fruit, but it is poorer in fats and nutrients than fruits from native plants, so the birds do not get enough nutrients to help sustain long flights during migrations. Birds also nest in the shrub, but because it has low-lying fork branching, nesting birds are at higher risk of predation than in native shrubs.
Knotweed is capable of quickly forming dense stands where they can crowd out native vegetation. Thickets can clog small waterways and displace streamside vegetation, increasing bank erosion and lowering the quality of riparian habitat for fish and wildlife. Once established these stands are very difficult to eradicate. Knotweed root systems are not as strong as native plants, causing increased bank erosion, which in turn causes their rhizomes to spread downstream and continue the cycle.

Process-based Restoration

Low-tech, process-based restoration is the use of simple, low cost, structural additions (e.g., wood and beaver dams) to riverscapes to mimic functions and promote specific riverine processes such as nutrient retention to improve water quality and temperature buffering through habitat improvement. These projects work to repair wetland and riparian connectivity by reconnecting these water bodies to their floodplains. By working with MWA and VFWD to build beaver dam analogs (BDAs), the Conservation Science Department is working on allowing water to stay on the landscape to pool up and filter down through the existing floodplain instead of rushing straight into larger rivers and streams.

Access Area Improvement Projects

In September of 2022, the Riparian Lands Crew, members of the Conservation Corps, and a private excavator operator installed four separate access areas on the Moose River – three in Victory, Vermont, and one in Concord, Vermont. These access areas were constructed so the public has safe access to the river for boating and other recreation. The project took a total of four weeks to complete, with about a week dedicated to each individual site. In 2023, members of the Youth Conservation Corps went back and spent some time doing maintenance on these sites!

Riparian Lands Program Timeline

2020: The Riparian Lands Program at NorthWoods Stewardship Center (NWSC) began by hiring the Riparian Lands & Forestry Projects Outreach Coordinator. Originally, the program was formed as a collaboration between Vermont Fish and Wildlife (VFWD) and NWSC to conduct outreach to private landowners within the Memphremagog Basin Watershed that held land adjacent to State-owned Fish & Wildlife parcels. The Coordinator worked alongside VFWD, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Orleans County Natural Resources Conservation District (OCNRCD), Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (VT DEC) to help develop priorities for riparian restoration projects through tree planting, bank stabilization, and identifying potential areas for river easements.

2021: The Memphremagog Watershed Association (MWA) hired a Watershed Project Manager and began to take over doing public outreach and developing projects so that NWSC could focus on hiring their first short season Riparian Lands Crew and implementing projects. 2021 was the first year NWSC began a concerted effort in assisting the State with collection of native riparian tree and shrub seeds for its hydroseeding project. During this short spring season the crew also helped continue work (begun by the Forestry Department) on removing invasive honeysuckle at South Bay Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and planting trees at Willoughby Falls WMA. The RL Coordinator continued to collect seeds throughout the year, collaborating with partners from the Intervale Conservation Nursery (ICN), VFWD, and USFWS. The Conservation Science Department (Meg and Jess) joined the ICN folks to tour the New York State Tree Nursery in Saratoga.

2022: After touring NY’s facilities and a winter of seed research and extensive planning, NorthWoods expanded the length of the Riparian Lands Crew season to run from early March through mid-November in order to capture the full length of seed collecting here in Vermont. The two-person crew underwent intense training for their first month and spent much of their time scouting the Northeast Kingdom for good collection locations for our targeted species. To help process and store seeds collected throughout the season, NWSC ended up purchasing a Dybvig Seed Cleaner and an industrial fridge. At the end of their season, the Riparian Lands Crew helped the RL Coordinator compile an entire binder of information to be used in future years.

2023: Vermont’s State Seed Coordinator (housed by the Intervale Center) is hired at the start of the year. NWSC begins working closely with this state coordinator to develop protocols for the upcoming seed collection season and once again visits the New York State Tree Nursery to tour their facilities, this time with more knowledge and more targeted questions! The Intervale creates a state seed map, using points collected during the 2022 field season by NWSC, some points from Intervale employees, and The Nature Conservancy (TNC). NWSC hires another two-person crew for March through mid-November to continue collecting seed for state projects, tree planting, removing invasive species, and constructing beaver analogs.

Map of project sites in the state of Vermont. Clustered mostly in the Northeast Kingdom and the Champlain Valley.

Seed Collection Map

Map created in partnership with the Intervale Center

This work is made possible through funding by the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission (GLFC), secured thanks in part to retired Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy.