BRATTLEBORO — The Windham Regional Commission has finished its analysis of 40 lakes and ponds, with shoreline totaling nearly 100 miles, and more than 1,400 miles of rivers and streams in the southern portion of the Windham region and a small area in the adjacent Bennington County region, and published its findings.
“Undeveloped Waters in Southeastern Vermont,” the culmination of several years of work by WRC staff, is intended to aid in the maintenance of water quality, habitat values, and related societal benefits to identify and characterize the nature of the undeveloped rivers, streams, lakes, and ponds.
Information in the report can be used by municipalities, landowners, and conservation groups to inform planning for the protection of these resources, and development and implementation of effective regulatory protective measures.
“Undeveloped” refers to the state of the land adjoining these water bodies.
Here is some of what they found:
• In more densely populated southeastern Windham County, few undeveloped waters are found, and many tend to be smaller, and potentially intermittent, headwater streams.
• Southwestern Windham County, and especially southeastern Bennington County, with fewer people and large tracts of undeveloped land, have many more undeveloped waters. The Green Mountain National Forest and the conserved electric utility lands along the Deerfield River contain substantial areas of undeveloped rivers and lakes, and their undeveloped status is fairly secure.
• Less secure are those undeveloped waters in the central part of the study area. Here, fewer conserved lands and, in many cases, an absence of strong town plan policies, might leave development unchecked in riparian (river and stream-related) and lacustrine (lake-related) buffer zones.
This work was achieved by analyzing map data using Geographic Information System (GIS) software to identify and characterize undeveloped waters.
Funding for this project was provided through Section 604(b) of the Federal Clean Water Act, administered by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, with work carried out in 2010 and 2012.
The WRC says it recognizes the value of these undeveloped waters in providing a variety of important environmental and societal benefits, and the need for their protection. Given the important values of undeveloped buffers and the dwindling extent of them, it is important for stakeholders to work to protect those that remain.
The Windham Regional Commission (www.windhamregional.org) is one of 11 regional planning commissions in Vermont, and since 1965 has been assisting the 27 towns in southeastern Vermont to provide effective local government and work cooperatively with them to address regional issues.