Our Vermont Woods

Trees provide us with a wide range of benefits, including acting as natural reservoirs by intercepting rainfall, which can reduce stormwater runoff volume and mitigate its negative effects. The benefits of trees and other green stromwater infrastructure (GSI) management practices, especially in urban and suburban settings, are being more widely recognized as a solution to protect our waterways. 

Join Becky Tharp, coordinator of Vermont's Green Infrastructure Collaborative, as she explores the role and importance of trees in stormwater management. The webinar will introduce GSI: what is it? how is it used to manage stormwater runoff? why? Becky will then discuss the important role of trees and vegetation in managing stormwater and give examples of Vermont-based projects that have used the power of green infrastructure to reduce their impact on natural water bodies. 

Our presenter for the January webinar is Becky Tharp, coordinator of the Green Infrastructure Collaborative, a joint program of Lake Champlain Sea Grant and the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation developed in the summer of 2015. The Collaborative promotes Low Impact Development (LID) and Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) practices as the preferred methodologies to manage stormwater runoff from developed lands in Vermont. This work includes the coordination of the Green Infrastructure Roundtable, an ad hoc group of individuals from the public and private sector who come together on a quarterly basis to discuss various aspects of GSI and LID. Further efforts include development of technical GSI trainings for design professionals, a new career conference for college students, and continued research and extension on the efficacy of GSI practices.