Each year, the Leadership Upper Valley program takes a new cohort through 10 monthly sessions exploring aspects of our region and the challenges and opportunities for people who want to make a difference. Program Co-Manager Ellen Hender sent this report on the November session, “Environment Day,” at the Vermont Institute for Natural Sciences in Quechee, VT.
Sense of Place
The day began with a session with Chuck Wooster, co-owner of Sunset Farm and a writer who’s studied our region’s history and geography. Chuck got us thinking about sense of place – what activities draw us to this region and the landscape that makes those possible. He shared a lot of interesting history, from patterns of owning small lots, to how we make land accessible to the public, to what the landscape has looked like over the years, including key sites of the Abenaki such as the Wilder Dam area and how the wildlife is mostly the same except for wolves, catamounts, and salmon.
Flood Readiness
Next was a discussion of flood resilience led by two regional planners: Kevin Gieger of Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission and Anna White from Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission.
Kevin and Anna shared how planning is important to creating flood-resilient communities. They highlighted how, if we were to start from scratch, our communities would look very different, but the cost to retroactively make those changes is massive. Fully addressing culvert size/capacity alone costs upwards of $1 billion.
They discussed the seemingly small but important things we can do as community members to handle floods, such as having food and water handy, listening to alerts and warnings, checking on our neighbors, tapping into mutual aid groups, and more. As planners, they work with municipalities and the state—although, with reductions in support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, they have less federal support. Many states would handle these types of efforts at a county level, but both VT and NH do little at the county level. Instead, regional planning commissions play a big role. You can learn more about the RPCs and their work at their websites: UVLSRPC and TRORC.
Hands-On Learning and a Tour
We split into two groups for two hands-on sessions with VINS staff. Sarah Strew offered a session grounding us in sense of place, inviting reflection on how we connect to place and engaging us in an exercise comparing what logos we recognize versus what nature we recognize. Most of us recognized all the logos and not nearly as much of the nature, although I was impressed by some of the IDs participants made! Folks then got to go outside and practice identifying trees.
In the other session, Hannah Gelroth led some hands-on learning using a water table. Each group was invited to explore how a river moves and erodes and to build a small community with a road crossing the water using culverts. We got to see up close how root systems of trees offer stabilization and how riprap (large rocks) can help stabilize the riverbank but also lead to challenges downstream.
VINS staffer Chris Collier gave our group a tour of the Canopy Walk and Bird Exhibit, sharing VINS history along way. You can explore the VINS website to learn more, and if you’ve never been, I certainly recommend a visit.
Upper Valley Super Compost Project
Cat Buxton joined us to share about her Upper Valley Super Compost Project. The Upper Valley Super Compost Project (UVSCP) is a nonprofit initiative to bring tailored compost infrastructure to public schools and support the development of cooperative, fully integrated school composting programs. Participating schools receive site and program assessments, construction support, essential supplies, and two years of technical service to monitor and improve operations. Super Compost staff work with schools for at least a year to prepare for composting, and for two years after their system is installed to provide technical and classroom integration support.
I know a big takeaway for me was hearing that there is only one landfill in Vermont, but in the Upper Valley most of our waste goes to the Lebanon landfill which has only about four years of capacity left. Composting is a great way to reduce the amount of waste going into our landfills and recycle nutrients.
Climate Farmer Stories Project
Erica Hiller, an LUV participant and Vital Communities staff member, brought the Climate Farmer Stories exhibit for all of us to enjoy. The Climate Farmer Stories Project promotes Upper Valley farmers who are digging in on the climate crisis, using their farms to draw down carbon, and build food security and community resilience. We’re changing the story of farming and climate change by highlighting these farms through this wide-ranging project. Vermont and New Hampshire artists worked with these farmers to create unique portraits exhibited across the region. Listen to interviews, find where you can buy their products, learn how agriculture can be part of the climate solution, and what you can do to increase community resilience! And make sure to check out the page for Chuck Wooster’s Sunrise Farm!