Through a Clean Water Block grant provided by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation through The Natural Resources Conservation Council, the Lamoille County Conservation District (LCCD) completed a final design for work that could potentially restore floodplain function while preventing further erosive forces and establishing a wildlife corridor on a section Lamoille River commonly referred to as First Bend in 10 Bends in Morristown.

LCCD contracted Bear Creek Environmental and Ripple Natural Resources and partnered with landowners from the Lamoille Valley Property Owners Association (LVPOA) to complete this project. The final design will address severe erosion along the first bend of 10 Bends. The design proposes shaving the bank back to open the flood plain, while establishing a tiered system planted with willow and other conservation trees and installing large root wads at the toe of the bank to provide a soft buffer good for redirecting erosive forces and providing aquatic organism habitat. Please see full design in link below.

It is important to note that this project, as well as being a floodplain, stream and wetland restoration project, is also a stormwater project and is expected to mitigate a large amount of sediment and Phosphorus loading into the Lamoille Watershed and the overall Total Maximum Daily Loads of Phosphorus in the Lake Champlain Basin as spelled out in the State’s Clean Water Initiative and the new goals of the Clean Water Act 76.  

For more information and design specifics, please contact the LCCD director at lccddirector@gmail.com