The Conservation Corps fall crew is wrapping up a busy field season filled with projects across the
Northeast Kingdom. The crew worked in partnership with private landowners and the Essex County Natural Resources Conservation District (ECNRCD) to tackle water quality and erosion issues at Maidstone Lake by building rain gardens, infiltration steps, driveway waterbars, dripline trenches, planting trees and shrubs, and improving drainages. This work was made possible with funding provided by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation Ecosystem Restoration Program (ERP) grant.
Farther south, the crew built a river access portage on the Passumpsic River made of 21 stone steps with the Vermont River Conservancy. The Corps planted 2,415 native trees and shrubs in New Hampshire along the Israel River in Jefferson, the Connecticut River in Bath, and a small tributary in Haverhill to stabilize bank erosion and provide a transitional buffer zone between agricultural fields and water. These plantings were in partnership with Beck Pond LLC and the Connecticut River Conservancy.
Closer to the center at Willoughby State Forest, the crew cleared the Connector Trail, a one mile cross-country ski path connecting the Mt. Hor CCC Road and Bartlett Mountain Road, and the Bartlett Loop Trail. In hopes of a future restoration project, the crew conducted a preliminary survey of a cabin on Gore Mountain and temporarily stabilized it.
