Out There: Local fixes for flooding

This is the web version of our email newsletter, Out There! Sign up to get our bi-weekly dose of all things environment — from creatures you might encounter on your next stroll, to a critical look at the state’s energy transition, plus ways to take part in community science and a roundup of local outdoor events.

🌕 It’s Saturday, November 16. Here’s what’s on deck:

• Fire weather
• Promising signs for moose
• Hunter orange

But first,

A flood resiliency plan for Barre City

There isn’t exactly a roadmap for how towns and cities should help people recover from a flood or get ready for the next one. And as human-caused climate change brings more extreme rain to Vermont, there are few places where that problem is more apparent than Barre City.

At just four square miles — at the bottom of a big bowl — nearly a third of the city is in a floodplain.

After three floods in under two years, the central Vermont municipality isn’t waiting for federal assistance to take action to protect their community from the next big rain. Recently, volunteers and city council members went neighborhood by neighborhood and asked residents: What ideas do you have? Here’s what they heard:

🌊 Use pandemic-era federal funding to commission a hydrology study, so city officials can predict how high the water will rise in every neighborhood if it rains 8 inches overnight.

🌉 Remove or raise old bridges that act as dams during flooding, like the Berlin Street Bridge.

🏠 Look for places downtown to add density by building flood-resilient housing.

🗣️ Talk to long-time residents to record their experiences with past floods. Help neighbors meet each other and build community before the next big flood.

✔️ Be accountable! People wanted to see concrete actions and plans the city can cross off its list.

City councilors gathered their findings into a “Flood Resiliency Plan” with 21 specific initiatives, some of which are already underway. Barre’s City Council voted unanimously to adopt the plan this week. It could be the sort of community-driven climate solution that other towns and cities also try.

In other news:

🔥 Fire weather: Across the northeast, dry, windy conditions and an unseasonably warm fall have led to a series of brush fires, including in Vermont. On Monday, the state extended a burn ban in four southern Vermont counties through Nov. 18 and much of the region remains in a drought.

🐚 Lake Champlain records its 52nd invasive species: The golden clam is a small, tough-shelled bivalve that’s been in the region since 2008, but a sighting last month at a boat launch in Whitehall, New York was the first time the species was confirmed in the lake. Native to the eastern Mediterranean and Asia, scientists are worried it will crowd out native species and lead to more toxic cyanobacteria blooms.

🫎 Less sickly moose: This year, not many of the nearly 200 hunters who had a moose hunting permit ended up taking a moose, as the season coincided with a heat wave. Still, recent data from hunted moose show moose weights and birth rates appear to be trending in the right direction. A state biologist said he wouldn’t consider the moose population in Vermont “healthy,” but, “the sky is not falling, like we were concerned about five years ago.”

📋 New administration: President-elect Donald Trump has big plans to deregulate federal offices that protect the environment and work to address climate change, like the EPA. Trump has also called for increasing domestic fossil fuel production and scaling back the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden-era law that is pouring billions of dollars into local clean energy and climate programs. Last time he was in office Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord, and during his campaign he said he’d do so again.

In your backyard:

Get out there

🦌🟠 Opening weekend: Saturday marks the start of the regular deer hunting season in Vermont. That’s when you should wear hunter orange if you venture out in the woods – at least a vest and a hat, according to state officials. Deer are unaffected by the fluorescent hue.

🌱 Get a free plant (or three): The Vermont Center for Ecostudies wants to know how plants grown locally compare to plants seeded elsewhere in attracting pollinators. They’re seeking about 400 participants to join a community science study, and want your help. If selected, you’ll pick up three plants, put them in the ground, then record the number and type of pollinators that visit during the growing season. Learn more and sign up here.

🐦‍ Bird feeding workshop: Ever wondered what to feed your backyard bird visitors? The Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Quechee is hosting a how-to workshop Saturday, Nov. 16 at 10 a.m. Learn what bird feeders and food to use and what birds you might expect to see. Free, but a $10 donation is suggested.

🚶 Bird walk: On the third Saturday of each month, volunteers at the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge lead a bird walk and input the species they see into an online database called eBird. This month’s outing is Saturday, Nov. 16 at 8 a.m. at the Black/Maquam Creek Trail. All experience levels are welcome.

Credits: This week’s edition was put together by Brittany Patterson and Abagael Giles with lots of help from the Vermont Public team, including graphics by Laura Nakasaka and digital support from Zoe McDonald. Editing by Lexi Krupp.