The Poultney-Mettowee Watershed Partnership is a project of the Poultney-Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District in Vermont and the Washington County Soil and Water Conservation District in New York with funding provided by the Lake Champlain Basin Program. It is coordinated by Ghostwriters Communications in Poultney, Vermont. A steering committee, made up of individuals and representatives of many different stakeholder groups in the watershed, will make recommendations to the Conservation Districts for management priorities and on-the-ground project activities.

The mission of the Poultney-Mettowee Watershed Partnership is to bring together the efforts of citizens and organizations that share the common vision of conserving, protecting, and enhancing the natural and cultural resources of the watershed.

Partnership Goals:

• To improve water quality.
• To enhance and interpret wildlife populations and habitats and other natural resources.
• Maintain a healthy agricultural based economy while protecting, restoring, and conserving the soil and water resources of agricultural land.
• To educate youth, educators, adults, residents, and visitors about conservation practices and the environment around them.
• To maintain and enhance agriculture-related and nature-based recreation opportunities.

The 309,000-acre Poultney-Mettowee Watershed is located in 17 Vermont and New York towns. The watershed is compromised of a combination of farmlands, forested areas, villages, and rural communities. These areas are home to a diversity of wild and domestic plants and animals including several rare or significant species.

A watershed is the land that water flows across or under on its way to a stream, river, or lake. Within the watershed all water eventually flows to the lowest point. On the way, water travels over the surface of the land and across farm fields, roads, forested lands, lawns, or it travels underground as ground water.

Public involvement:

A series of public forums were held throughout the watershed to generate project ideas. On-going input is sought from all interested community members during the year. A draft plan will be available for public comment. This website has been created in order to provide people with another way to participate in identifying projects or commenting on plans..

A project can be many different things: picking up trash at a favorite swimming hole, building rip rap at an eroding streambank, fencing cattle out of a stream, building recreational or interpretive trails, educating youth about the environment, or hundreds of others. Some projects are already underway and others are scheduled to begin soon. Community volunteers will accomplish much of the work with leadership and funding developed by the Partnership.

For more information or to help out contact:

Project Coordinators at (802) 287-4284, Joel Flewelling or Mary Jeanne Packer or e-mail joel@gwriters.com or mjpacker@gwriters.com.

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