Friends of the Mad River’s Storm Smart program is starting up again this spring. For the last six years, Friends of the Mad River staff have worked with dozens of Mad River Valley community members to learn about the role their properties can play in protecting healthy lands and clean water. Through the Storm Smart program, FMR staff provide homeowners and property managers a free assessment and custom report that describes the way water moves through their properties as well as steps they can take to reduce the risks of flooding and erosion.
IT ADDS UP
“When water lands in the Mad River Valley, its path is impacted by the actual texture and makeup of the landscape,” said FMR stewardship manager Ira Shadis. “Water that lands on a paved parking area, a rooftop, or other impermeable surfaces, will run straight across the surface, and pick up speed and energy that can lead to increased flooding and erosion damage downhill. In contrast, water that lands in the forest is slowed down and dispersed as soon as it hits the canopy of leaves and branches. From there, the water is absorbed into the sponge-like forest floor where it slowly percolates into the groundwater below. When the Mad River wakes up after a big storm, what we are seeing in the heavy flows and brown, turbid waters reflects what is happening uphill from the river, in its tributaries and in the surrounding land.”
A PART TO PLAY
Storm Smart was launched in 2018 as part of Friends work with the Ridge to River Coalition focused on flood and stormwater resilience. The coalition brought together members from the five towns that make up the Mad River watershed (Moretown, Duxbury, Waitsfield, Fayston, and Warren), as well as interested community members. In addition to launching the Storm Smart program, the coalition led to the 2016 Stone Environmental Report, a significant look into the state of roads and water in the Mad River Valley, and the development of stormwater master plans that lay out clean water projects for each town.
“Building resilience is a community effort,” Shadis said, “and there are opportunities to make a real impact at every level. These opportunities expand when we broaden our understanding of resilience to also include the well-being of our wildlife neighbors. Intact blocks of forest, healthy riparian buffers along streams, thriving wetlands, reconnected floodplains, and appropriately-sized culverts all protect our roads and homes by reducing the impacts of storms and provide much-needed habitat for wildlife at the same time. While the Storm Smart assessment focuses on the way water moves through a given property, we are trying to see the property in the full context of the surrounding ecosystem.”
Storm Smart in 2023 has been funded wholly or in part by the United State Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement (LC 00A00707-0) to NEIWPCC in partnership with the Lake Champlain Basin Program.
To schedule a Storm Smart assessment or learn more reach out to Shadis at
