Richmond Conservation News
Gillett Pond's New Dam is Done!
In 2014 the end was fast approaching for Gillett Pond. At stake was a treasured spot for skating, kayaking, canoeing, wildlife habitat – even flood control.
Today, the Pond is back. The leaky dam that had long threatened to collapse has been replaced by a new, wider and stronger concrete structure. It took ten years and donations exceeding $1.1 million – big and small; public and private; local, state and federal.
It took a community
We couldn’t have saved the Pond without the strong, broad and often repeated support of our local community and beyond. That includes all the individual donors as well as very significant funding from the Towns of Richmond and Huntington. Senator Leahy and his team, through the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, secured Congressional dollars to put us within hitting distance of our target. Neighbors even jumped in by donating 15 more acres to the Preserve, bringing the total to 103 acres.
​
We thank everyone who supported the Richmond Land Trust and Friends of Gillett Pond in this monumental effort. Make it a point to visit the Pond sometime soon and take in all that has now been saved.
Warming Up Winter for Local Families
Clearing the dam construction site yielded a truckload of logs we donated to Wood4Good, an area non-profit that provides heating assistance to families in need.
So far they've given away over 140 loads of wood to Vermont families, including to some in Richmond and Huntington. If you know someone who might need heating assistance, encourage them to contact the organization at wood4goodvt.org. (And thanks to Bob Low for the photo!)
Middle-Schoolers Pitch in
to Protect a Preserve
For decades, the towering ferns and other plants and trees that make for such a striking -- and rare -- landscape at RLT's Beeken Rivershore Preserve have been under assault.
Highly aggressive, non-native plants are doing their best to elbow out the forest's ostrich ferns and silver maple trees -- along with the dozens of other native species that make the place so special.
Meanwhile, the Winooski River gnaws at its banks, as rivers will, threatening parts of the Rivershore Trail and even Cochran Road.
However, in recent years help has arrived when school buses unload scores of kids ready for hands-on lessons in ecology, land conservation and environmental stewardship.
Stopping the spread
Some 15 years ago, wildlife biologist Jon Kart volunteered his time to launch the Great Richmond Root-Out, aiming to control the spread of non-native plants throughout town. That's included bringing science students from Camel's Hump Middle School to the Preserve and other conserved lands in town not only to learn about their ecological importance but also to help protect them.
On a late May morning, for example, the CHMS Polaris team came to the Preserve. After a quick orientation from Jon the kids tore into stands of knotweed and clumps of garlic mustard. They also removed protective tubes around tree trunks in a grove Jon designed a few years ago to help anchor soils against the relentless efforts of the Winooski River to shift its course into the Preserve.
Other CHMS teams have tackled similar projects, such as cutting knotweed at the Town's Overocker Park, planting trees near the river at Volunteers Green and uprooting barberry bushes at the Preston Preserve.
Thanks to Jon and the Great Richmond Root-Out program he founded -- as well to the CHMS students and teachers who've been so willing to pour their own energy into the project!
​
Pop Quiz!
How many times did people visit the Triple Buckets area of our Huntington River Gorge Preserve between late May and late August of 2021?
a. 127 b. 830 c. 1,263 d. 11, 141
​
The answer blew us away. It's "d" -- 11,141!