A roomful of Shelburne neighbors turned out to ask questions and voice concerns last Wednesday night as a petition to reclassify the LaPlatte River wetlands winds its way through the approval process. The LaPlatte wetlands, at the river’s entry into Lake Champlain, have long served as “a soup-to-nuts training ground for young biologists, ecologists, scientists,”… Read More »
It’s a place where rare birds and fish congregate, people paddle in search of new sights, pollutants stop short of Lake Champlain, and lake floodwaters halt their march toward land. Shelburne’s LaPlatte River Marsh Wetlands are a unique place, and a rare one in Chittenden County and in Vermont. On Aug. 30, the Vermont Agency… Read More »
Algae blooms, fueled by excess nutrients in the environment, have become a frequent summer occurrence in local lakes, potentially creating unsafe conditions for swimmers and other water users. At Lake Iroquois, a team of researchers from the University of Vermont is studying how one of these nutrients – phosphorus – gets into the lake, and… Read More »
A crowd gathered Monday to celebrate Memorial Day at the veterans monuments in the Village. Local Boy Scouts from Troop 690 carried in the flags, and Ellie Baker led those assembled in singing the National Anthem. Prayers were offered by Pastors Jared Hamilton of the United Church of Hinesburg, Ed Hart of Lighthouse Baptist Church,… Read More »
Several months of preparation and training culminated Sunday as the Hinesburg Fire Department burned down a house outside the village. Signs stood along the roadway, volunteers took turns directing traffic, and smoke billowed across Route 116 as firefighters practiced their skills in a real fire. Both fire and EMS trainings have been underway at the… Read More »
Saturday was the 19th annual Big Truck Day at Hinesburg Community School. Hosted by Hinesburg Nursery School, the event drew crowds of kids to the fields behind the school, where they found an array of vehicles just waiting to be climbed on and explored. Kids, many with faces painted, tugged parents from tractor to truck,… Read More »
On Friday, March 31, an accident on U.S. Route 7 in Charlotte led to two people entrapped in vehicles and four sent to the hospital. In a statement released this Saturday, Vermont State Police noted that in relation to this accident, driver Edward Woodruff, 70, of Westport, N.Y., was “cited to appear in Chittenden Superior… Read More »
Last Thursday night at Hinesburg Town Hall, every seat was taken and some folks stood in the back. Plenty of people, when signing in, checked “yes” in the column asking whether they wished to speak. The public information meeting, regarding the use of an herbicide in Lake Iroquois, drew concerns, support, and questions from an… Read More »
The Town of Charlotte will have a cleaner creek, and Lake Champlain will see a little less stormwater runoff, thanks to a 2017 Watershed Grant from Vermont Fish and Wildlife to the Charlotte Town Park Oversight Committee. At the Charlotte Park and Wildlife Refuge, a ditch was excavated in 2006 to capture runoff and prevent… Read More »
The Lewis Creek Association, together with the Monkton Conservation Commission, recently won the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) 2017 Environmental Excellence Award. The award recognizes the organizations’ work to bring environmental stewardship into the planning of the Monkton Wildlife Underpasses on Monkton-Vergennes Road. The application for the FHWA award required a discussion of the project, its… Read More »