Date of Completion
2022
Document Type
Honors College Thesis
Department
Environmental Sciences
Thesis Type
Honors College
First Advisor
Kris Stepenuck
Second Advisor
Kristen Underwood
Third Advisor
Gretchen Alexander
Keywords
Vermont, River Corridor Easement, geomorphology, monitoring, river restoration, riparian buffer
Abstract
River corridor easements (RCEs) are a passive approach to river restoration in which a landowner sells their rights to manage a river channel on their property and agrees to forego new development within the easement. The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) uses RCEs as a strategy to minimize conflicts between human investments and river dynamics as well as to reestablish healthy river systems. The DEC is interested in expanding the monitoring of RCEs to collect information about the ecology and geomorphology of the easement sites. This project drew from existing monitoring and stream geomorphic assessments to formalize a protocol for monitoring RCEs. This protocol collects information about the use and maintenance of the easement, the buffer vegetation, and the geomorphology of the channel, and is intended to be used repeatedly for long term monitoring. The protocol was then tested by multiple people to determine how much variability existed in data collected by different observers. There was a lot of variability between observers, much of which could be addressed with additional training and clarity in the protocol instructions. A revised protocol was developed based on these observations. It may also be more efficient in some cases to invest resources into monitoring using aerial imagery and LiDAR. Ultimately the goals of this monitoring effort should be considered to ensure that time and resources are being used in the most impactful way.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Egler, Cecelia J., "Developing and Testing a Monitoring Protocol for River Corridor Easements in Vermont" (2022). UVM Honors College Senior Theses. 515.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/hcoltheses/515