More Vermont property owners planting trees for flood resiliency

EAST MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – This year, the Friends of Winooski River will have planted 5,000 trees on public and private land. And after July’s flooding, they’re encouraging more Vermonters to do the same.

Some landowners are taking action.

“The stream was just absolutely like, it was like white water down during the flooding. So we have already noticed a lot of erosion. Not just from the flooding, but even earlier,” said Marshall Cottrell of East Montpelier.

Cottrell and his family just moved to East Montpelier. They have been wanting to forest their fields for a while now in an effort to make the ecosystem in their backyard more sustainable. And with natural disasters in mind, Cottrell thought getting the project done sooner is better than later.

“It’s about looking at like, how we have intervened in the past. To maybe make things worse than they would have normally been. I think a good example of that has been, when you cut down the whole tree line next to the first order streams. You’re just asking the water to flow quickly through those areas,” Cottrell said.

The Cottrells have teamed up with the Friends of the Winooski River and Redstart Forestry to plant 3,000 trees on their land. The project was about $55,000, funded by state and community partners.

The Friends of the Winooski River has done about seven tree-planting projects this year and says planting trees in an area like this creates more stormwater collection into the ground, and more homeowners in Vermont should consider joining in the effort.

“When we do get a heavy rain, this particular property will do a great job of absorbing that water and keeping it from flooding downstream areas. It’s also really good for habitat. Wildlife likes a mix of open and forested areas. So we are reconnecting forest blocks that are in the area,” said Shawn White of the Friends of the Winooski River.

Companies like Redstart are seeing more Vermonters become more interested in forestry.

“Nowadays there is a lot of talk about you know, carbon sequestration and storage, being resilient to climate change. Of course, we have had some flooding this summer, and other pretty major storm events. People are thinking about their land and how do I take care of this,” said Bill Musson of Redstart.

The Friends of the Winooski River says the field should turn into a young forest within the next 10 years.

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