Central Vermont Trout Unlimited

Just below the Cady's Falls dam on the Lamoille River is a large piece of land on both sides of the river owned by Lamoille Valley Property Owners Assoc., or "Ten Bends" as many know. Ten Bends has approximately 3 miles of river frontage on the Lamoille, which is a significant piece of a river of about 85 miles in total length.

The board of the LVPOA voted 2 years ago to expand all vegetative buffers along the river to at least 40'. With that, I presented a plan to plant 8-10' hardwood trees within the buffers to help stabilize the river bank, filter harmful nutrients from adjacent ag land and eventually provide significant shade to the river. Not to mention numerous other advantages the riparian zones would offer fish and wildlife.

To date, we've planted 50 sugar maple, red maple, and ash trees on over 500 feet of river bank that was previously void of any hardwood vegetation. In just a short period of time, the positive results of these efforts have been amazing(image below.)

When I approached the president of the, now defunct, Lamoille River Anglers Association for assistance with funding, I was immediately turned down with no opportunity at all to formally present the project to the group.  

It wasn't long after that I was approached by Central Vermont TU about expanding their conservation efforts up the Lamoille Valley. They were aware that the grassroots conservation efforts of myself and Green Mountain Troutfitters had positive  impacts and needed proper support. I can't thank these guys enough! 

A couple weeks ago I presented the next phase of tree plantings to the board of Central Vermont TU and was awarded funding to get another 150 trees in the ground in Spring 2016!!

If you'd like to assist with these plantings in the Spring, drop me a line here and I'll keep you in the loop!

Spring 2015 planting (top) - Three months later (bottom)