Projects

Rock River Water Monitoring

The purpose of the project is to demonstrate water quality improvements from a focused agricultural BMP implementation effort in a small watershed where very high rates of phosphorus loading to Lake Champlain have been documented.

Swanton & Highgate
Shoreline Assessment

Impacts from stormwater and shoreline erosion are major contributors to water quality pollution in lakefront communities across the Lake Champlain shoreline of Vermont.

Wind Waves and Variables

Beginning in the 2021-22 school year, FNLC partnered with Exordium, a nature and outdoor education organization, to design and teach a place-based curriculum about the Lake Champlain Basin to students in Franklin and Grand Isle Counties.

School Green
Stormwater Infrastructure

Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) is a nature-based solution to stormwater runoff. These practices use plants and simple infrastructure to manage stormwater runoff by slowing it, spreading it, sinking it or storing it.

Two-Tier Ditch

FNLC was awarded funding in 2017 to install a two-tier ditch to prevent flooding in a field on a local farm in Franklin County. This practice has been used on Midwest farms for over a decade, but this project was the first of its kind in Vermont. The concept requires digging out the ditch banks two to three feet above the bottom of the existing ditch channel and then creating a flat bench on both sides of the ditch.

Stormwater Management Plans

Over the years, FNLC has received many grants to fund the creation of stormwater management plans for local areas. The plans include St. Albans Town, Highgate, Franklin, Fairfield, Georgia, Alburgh, Enosburg, Sheldon, and Swanton.

Georgia Shoreline
Erosion Assessment

In 2020, FNLC received funding from the Lake Champlain Basin Program to partner with Watersheds Consulting Associates to conduct a shoreline assessment along Georgia Shore.

Deer Brook Gully Restoration

Following the award of an Ecosystem Restoration Program grant in the fall of 2017, FNLC hired Stone Environmental to identify, design, and implement stormwater best management practices to address flows to the gully and stabilize the gully channel. The overall goal of the project is to reduce sediment transported from the gully to Deer Brook. 

Lake Lessons

Beginning in 2018, FNLC partnered with the St. Albans Museum to create a workshop for school-age children on Lake Champlain’s cultural heritage and water quality issues. Lake Lessons has become an annual shoreside STEM educational program for fourth grade students in Franklin and Grand Isle Counties.

Tyler Branch Buffer Planting

In 2017, FNLC received a grant to restore the Tyler Branch Watershed, which drains into the Missisquoi River. FNLC collaborated with AgriLab Tech and the Missisquoi River Basin Association to plant riparian buffers along the Tyler Branch.

Silage Leachate Project

FNLC received a grant in 2014 to design and install a leachate treatment system on a farm in Franklin County, Vermont. This project aimed to address leachate that was discharged into a roadside ditch that drains into the Missisquoi River. Leachate is a contaminated liquid that is generated from water percolating through a solid waste disposal site, accumulating contaminants, and moving into subsurface areas.