What the Watershed Returns

From Land Conservation to Clean Water Funding

Q: Most people know VHCB for housing and land conservation.  How did VHCB become a clean water funder?

RW:  Act 76, the Clean Water Service Delivery Act of 2019, established a new framework for funding phosphorus-reducing water quality projects across Vermont.  Most water basins now have a designated Clean Water Service Provider that directs funding from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to partners doing the actual work on the ground.

VHCB was designated for the Lake Memphremagog Basin in 2022, based on our expertise in land conservation and water quality.  We act as a pass-through grant funder: we receive money from DEC and, guided by the Basin Water Quality Council — a board of local experts — we decide which projects to fund.  Those projects range from riparian buffer plantings to culvert replacement to forest road obliteration.

All of them target phosphorus, the main nutrient that feeds algal blooms and threatens water quality.  That matters enormously for recreation on our side of the border — but Lake Memphremagog is also a drinking water source for communities in Quebec.  What makes this basin particularly significant is that most of the lake sits in Canada, while most of the watershed is in Vermont.  Our actions have an outsized effect for the amount of lake we have in our state, which makes cross-border collaboration essential.

Beyond Phosphorus: Co-Benefits on the Ground

Q: Every project has to demonstrate phosphorus reduction — but what other outcomes are you seeing?

RW:  We actually score co-benefits as a formal part of our funding application — it’s built into how we evaluate projects.  Our categories include climate resiliency, ecosystem services, aquatic habitat improvement, recreation and community enhancement, education, environmental justice, and local economic impact.

Climate resiliency is a particularly powerful one, because it’s nearly impossible to reduce phosphorus without also doing some form of flood resiliency or erosion prevention work.  Those outcomes are deeply interconnected.

A recent example is the Beebe Plain Project, funded in February 2026.  The project reconnects a waterway back to its floodplain through ditch filling and strategic woody additions, reducing erosion and runoff during heavy rain events.  While it was in its design phase, the town independently began work to replace an undersized culvert downstream — two improvements that will eventually work together in ways that weren’t originally planned.  If a project is on the line for phosphorus efficiency alone but shows strong co-benefits, especially flood resiliency, that’s a project we get excited about.

Education as a Long-Term Investment

Q: VHCB funded the Floating Classroom in Newport.  Why is community education important alongside technical restoration work?

RW:  Technical restoration work is essential.  But there’s a limit to how much it matters if two generations from now, no one sees value in protecting these places.

I view the education component as building another form of resilience into the system.  If we can educate young people to really care about their water, we’re far more likely to see long-term benefits from the restoration work we’re funding today.  VHCB supports the Memphremagog Science and Education Center’s Floating Classroom and the NorthWoods Stewardship Center in the Northeast Kingdom, which connects young people from preschool through their early twenties to the landscape — and in some cases, to careers in conservation.  That’s not something that shows up in a phosphorus calculation, but it absolutely matters.

When Everyone Works Toward the Same Goal

Q: What does it tell us about what’s possible when partners, educators, and community are aligned?

RW:  It tells us the work is so much more than the sum of its parts.  The Valley Brook Project is probably the best example.

Valley Brook started as a VHCB farmer retirement project.  Vermont Fish and Wildlife connected with the Memphremagog Watershed Association about restoration on the newly protected parcel, which grew into a multi-phase project across several towns in the Northeast Kingdom.  The Clean Water Service Provider Program funded several phases; when an infrastructure piece didn’t fit those guidelines, the Leahy GLFC Program covered it.  NorthWoods Stewardship Center crews did the on-the-ground work.  Tree stock came from the Nature Conservancy and Conservation Districts.  Almost every partner we have touched that project in some way.

What made it possible was the quality of the relationships.  The partners in the Memphremagog Basin communicate really well with each other and aren’t afraid to think creatively.  When something falls outside one organization’s capacity or expertise, they say so and find the right person to take it on.  Everyone is on planning calls a few times a year, working to make funds go as far as they possibly can.