Pearl Conducts a Stream Wise Assessment

Jun 16
2 min read

The Missisquoi River Basin Association is happy to be back for a fourth year in a row participating in the Stream Wise program!

Stream Wise is a program offered through the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) and New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC) that engages streamside property owners in the Lake Champlain basin to enhance and protect vegetated stream buffers, increasing flood resiliency and benefiting water quality and natural habitat.

If you are a landowner in the Upper Missisquoi region and have a stream flowing through your property we want to provide you with a free Stream Wise property consultation!

During a Stream Wise assessment, an MRBA Staff member (and potentially Pearl) will walk your stream or river during a site visit and give an overview of the perceived health of the water, the surrounding landscape, and provide recommendations of land management practices that protect water quality.

After this visit, a report will be written and your property will be designated as Stream Wise or on the way to becoming Stream Wise. If your property is designated as Stream Wise, you will be given your Stream Wise award (plus some other great swag). If your property is on the way to becoming Stream Wise, your report will highlight what steps can be taken to receive the award. The MRBA can even help find projects such as tree planting that can help your property become Stream Wise eligible.

To kick the Stream Wise season off, Pearl headed out to the first assessment. Pearl found this property to assess by making a connection with a landowner at an event over the winter. Community connections are essential to the work we do!

Once at the site, Pearl got started walking the property with the land owner. On this beautiful sunny spring day the stream was flowing and glowing. Pearl saw several things she liked on this property such as deep pools in the streambeds, large amounts of wood in the streams and all five tiers of buffer vegetation present (canopy, understory, shrubs, groundcover, duff). Keeping up practices like these can ensure the river ecosystem stays healthy, providing ideal habitat for fish and allowing room for native plant species to grow and protect the stream from runoff.

At this assessment, Pearl did see a few she did not like such as invasive knotweed on river banks, an eroded river path, and a river buffer zone that was less than 50 feet. To help fix these issues, landowners can consider different invasive species treatment options, fill pathways with crushed stone, plant trees along the river bed, and stop mowing directly up to the stream edge. It is important to be a good steward of our environment and properly maintain your property.

Thank you to our landowner for reaching out to have us at their property!

For more information, visit our Stream Wise webpage

Together, we can all be Stream Wise!