If the organization I work for, the Bennington County Conservation District, is an outpost for good works (I hope we are!), it is mostly because we help other like-minded people and groups achieve their goals.
Let this column be a kind of business card left on your desk. Maybe someday you’ll need help doing a good turn, conservation-wise. You’ll know who to call.
A lake association needed help recently addressing water quality in their pond. Studies by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation found that phosphorus levels were rising and water clarity was falling in the lake. Erosion from their dirt roads could be implicated. (Soil erosion is a source of phosphorus pollution.) The lack of well-vegetated buffers along the lake’s edge could also be part of the problem. (Lawns don’t capture pollutants or control erosion as well as buffer zones in which trees and shrubs are growing.)
So our organization helped the group write an application for funding to cover part of the cost of regrading some of the roads and cleaning out their ditches. If successful, the funds will serve as the required 25 percent "match" for a grant from the Better Backroads program. (Many funders require a match. It helps them stretch their own limited funds. And it is evidence of a group’s seriousness of purpose, and capabilities.)
Better Backroads applications are accepted every October. For details, follow this link to the NRCS website.
We also helped the association draft an application to the Watershed Grants Program, which is funded by sales of the Conservation License Plate. Three families have agreed to participate in a buffer planting demonstration project, and share the experience in a buffer tour at the group’s annual summer meeting. Watershed grant applications are due on Dec. 4 this year. For details on the VT Watershed Grants, follow this link to the VT Water Quality Division website.
A citizen visiting our office noticed on the bulletin board a wallet-size card on the Asian longhorned beetle. (We have lots of information on this and other invasive pests. Please stop by the second floor of the Citizens Bank for handouts.) He was sure he’d seen the insect some time back on a sugar maple in his yard, a maple the woodpeckers have been pecking at with increasing enthusiasm in the last couple of years. When he told me he’d routinely stacked packing crates he collected against the tree -- the beetle came to the U.S. from China on packing crates -- my metaphorical antennae perked up.
We’ve since put him in touch with the Agency of Ag’s forest pest person. Ted will be providing her with sample branches, and larvae if he finds them.
A family contacted us to ask for help resolving a culvert issue with their town. The town declined to submit a grant application we drafted for them, but they’ll have it in hand next year should they change their minds meanwhile.
The National Forest has an issue with an illegal dump on a remote portion of a state highway. The folks at the Community Restitution Program can help clean it up. VTrans will help truck it away. And Casella will give us a break on the dump fee. We now need only find a way to keep out people who will discard their couches or analog TVs illegally. (You know who you are and you are right to feel guilty. Just don’t do it again.)
We’ll soon be offering heavy-duty portable skidder bridges, on loan, to loggers. The bridges can control stream impacts caused by logging equipment better than culverts or other crossings. The initiative is sponsored by the Vermont Forests, Parks and Recreation’s Watershed Forest program. BCCD will get out a mailing announcing the program to consulting foresters and loggers as soon as the bridges have been constructed and distribution sites have been located.
Now, what can we do for you?
Shelly Stiles is the district manager for the Bennington County Conservation District, whose mission is promoting rural livelihoods and protecting natural resources in southwestern Vt. Web site at www.bccdvt.org
This column appeared in the Bennington Banner in November 2009, as one of the BCCD's Conservation Currents pieces, a bi-weekly feature written by BCCD board and staff members since August 2006.