25 Nov A Watershed Moment: Building the Next Generation of Lake Memphremagog Stewards
Clean Water Programs
A Watershed Moment
Building the next generation of Lake Memphremagog stewards — where infrastructure investment, cross-border collaboration, and education meet on the water.
Photo: MemSEC
As the Clean Water Service Provider for the Lake Memphremagog Basin, VHCB administers funding programs that go beyond infrastructure — supporting projects that reduce phosphorus loading, restore aquatic habitats, and build community capacity for long-term watershed stewardship. Through two complementary programs, VHCB is demonstrating how strategic investment in water quality, education, and collaboration creates lasting change.
In Newport, Vermont, these investments are coming together to show how clean water improvements become most effective when communities — especially young people — understand why they matter.
Building Stewardship Through Interactive Education
One powerful example is the work of the Memphremagog Science & Education Center (MemSEC). In 2018, MemSEC launched its Floating Classroom aboard the Northern Star, docked at Newport City Docks. In this unique setting, students develop fieldwork skills through hands-on learning about water monitoring and local conservation efforts in the Lake Memphremagog watershed.
The program has grown significantly, serving 775 K–12 students from 24 regional schools, including Newport City Elementary, Derby Elementary, Troy School, Coventry, Irasburg, Brownington, and Barton. MemSEC has even shared in-person programs with 80 students from Magog Montessori through a cross-border collaborative partnership with COGESAF — extending the reach of watershed stewardship across the US–Canada border.
Students aboard the Northern Star practice water quality monitoring as part of MemSEC’s Floating Classroom program on Lake Memphremagog. Photo: MemSEC.
“Invest in the youth, educate them and help them appreciate their community — economic and social development will follow.”
Douglas Casson Coutts, Chair of the Education Committee, MemSEC
From Boat to Building: A Year-Round Learning Space
Vermont’s climate makes year-round outdoor learning challenging. Recognizing this, MemSEC worked to create a permanent land-based facility to expand the program. In April 2025, with partial funding from the Leahy Memphremagog Clean Water Program (LMCWP) administered by VHCB, the center opened a hybrid learning space in Newport’s Gateway Center.
The new facility features bilingual informative panels explaining the lake’s geologic origins, upland and aquatic habitats, and the history of the Abenaki people of the watershed. Interactive elements include a stream model demonstrating erosion and deposition, and an augmented-reality sandbox using projection technology to map topography and surface water runoff.
These immersive experiences serve two purposes: educating students about complex water-quality science while fostering a deep sense of place, connection, and responsibility that inspires lasting watershed stewardship.
Infrastructure Meets Education: Stormwater and the Schoolyard
Alongside these educational advances, the watershed is seeing infrastructure improvements that directly protect water quality. At Newport City Elementary School, a major green-infrastructure project recently reached completion to manage stormwater runoff and reduce phosphorus and sediment deposits in Lake Memphremagog.
Funded through Vermont’s Green Schools Initiative, the new system diverts water from parking lots, rooftops, and lawns into an R-Tank HD infiltration system — reducing an estimated 2.9 pounds of phosphorus and 592 pounds of sediment annually.
The project’s strength lies in its integration with education. The school contributed a 10% match by investing in environmental education through MemSEC, enabling students to earn Leave-No-Trace Awareness Certification through Floating Classroom experiences aboard the Northern Star. This dual investment in infrastructure and youth engagement ensures clean-water improvements are anchored by informed community members who understand why these efforts matter.
“We preserve what we love; we protect better what we know.”
Baba Dioum, engineer and forester — invoked by MemSEC Education Committee
Catalyzing Capacity, Collaboration, and Conservation
Students gain fieldwork skills through MemSEC’s Floating Classroom. Photo: MemSEC.
VHCB’s dedicated funding and program support drive these successes. In August 2024, VHCB awarded $886,323 in the first round of LMCWP funding to seven organizations in the Lake Memphremagog watershed — advancing aquatic habitat improvement and increasing organizational capacity, filling critical funding gaps.
These strategic investments ensure conservation projects, infrastructure upgrades, education initiatives, and habitat enhancements become part of a sustained, adaptive program of watershed stewardship. What emerges is a living example of how a watershed becomes a classroom, infrastructure investments become teaching moments, and young students become the next generation of stewards for the lake and river systems sustaining their communities.
“A healthy river and a healthy lake — it all starts upstream.”
John Aldridge, Director, MemSEC
When infrastructure investment, cross-border collaboration, and youth education work in concert, clean water improvements are no longer just technical achievements — they become community commitments. In Newport, Vermont, the watershed is becoming a classroom, and the next generation of stewards is already at work.
Learn More
To learn more about VHCB’s Clean Water Programs, visit vhcb.org/conservation/water-quality.
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