VECAN & AVCC Present "Monitoring Stormwater Infrastructure with the Culvert Crawlers" Webinar on May 6th - Association of Vermont Conservation Commissions

In partnership with the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network (VECAN), the AVCC hosted a webinar chronicling community science efforts to map, monitor and maintain stormwater infrastructure at the local level. Designed to manage water flow from streams and storms, culverts, ditches, and drains can easily become clogged with leaves, branches and other debris that diminish their mitigating impact on flooding. Properly designed and maintained culverts can also aid in habitat connectivity, prevent road washouts, mitigate soil erosion and pollutant runoff, and protect water quality. The devastating flooding events of the past few years have demonstrated the importance of keeping these often overlooked but critically important infrastructure in good working order, and grassroots volunteers have stepped up to the challenge.

Created in collaboration between the Black River Action Team, Cavendish Connects, Black River Valley Resources, the Rural Rivers Project, and Dartmouth College students, Culvert Crawlers is a community-based stormwater infrastructure monitoring program that aims to keep culverts clear and effective. Kelly Stettner, Director of the Black River Action Team, and Dr. Charis Boke, a researcher in the Anthropology Department at Dartmouth College, explain how the Culvert Crawlers came to be, how they use their mapping platform to monitor culverts, and how people can launch similar initiatives in their own towns. Learn more about the Culvert Crawlers at https://sites.dartmouth.edu/mappingforresilience/culvert-crawlers/

JoAnn Hanowski of the Greensboro Conservation Commission (GCC) addressed the successes and challenges of her town’s Adopt-a-Culvert Program, which also began as a grassroots response to the floods of 2023 and 2024. A partnership between the GCC, the Watershed Stewards of the Greensboro Association, and the national Adopt-a-Drain program, this initiative aims to clear debris from ditches and culverts on at least a biannual basis – once in the spring and again in the fall. Volunteers are directed to use the vt.adopt-a-drain.org website to “adopt” one or more of the 800 culverts throughout the Town of Greensboro. Both approaches represent a potential path forward for communities that want to be proactive in adapting to changing weather patterns.