In 2009, the Orleans and Essex County NRCDs launched the NEK Lakeshore Buffering Program. OCNRCD supported many lake shoreland owners in completing buffer plantings and associated stormwater projects. This work is continuing, with 2024 being a busy year of lake restoration work for the District.

We completed 12 Lake Wise assessments as a part of the Echo-Seymour Lake Watershed Action Plan, resulting in seven new awards for these two gold-star lakes. The VTDEC Lake Wise program provides us with a great tool for encouraging property owners to adopt shoreland best management practices.

We wrapped up another Lake Watershed Action Plan, this time for the Echo (Seymour) watershed. Over the past three years, we have led FOUR Lake Watershed Action Plans. With the completion of the Echo-Seymour LWAP, we've identified a grand total of 246 restoration opportunities! There is a lot of potential for us to design and implement many more projects in the future to continue to improve and protect the water quality in our beautiful lakes.

We installed three shoreland restoration projects on Shadow and Crystal Lakes, with the goal of managing the flow of stormwater, enhancing shoreland vegetation, and protecting eroding shores to help catch, slow and absorb water. It's been exciting to see these ideas implemented and supported by water quality advocates and property owners.

We are moving forward with the design of a priority project from the Caspian LWAP. Another lake watershed project that was identified during an LWAP for design is the Barr project on Shadow Lake. The District recently secured funding through the Lamoille Clean Water Service Provider for the design of a wetland buffer and to stabilize stream banks with tree plantings.

We are building relationships with contractors. Last year, we began working more intentionally on reaching out to contractors who work on our lakeshores. We began building a list of over 40 excavators, landscapers, designers, and other service providers with the goal of helping folks to get trained in lakeshore BMPs and to generate a solid list of people we can work with or refer to property owners. To augment this effort, we hosted a hands-on workshop in September at Crystal Lake. We were able to share our knowledge of lake shoreland restoration with over 25 contractors by showing the work in action. 

We are hiring a Lake Watershed Program Specialist to build our capacity to do this work. Bevin has been doing our outreach and communications in this area, and Sarah has been delivering limited project management services. It's time to add a dedicated staff member to work with lake associations to carry forward our LWAPs, and to manage project development, design, and implementation of more lake restoration projects. For more information, click on the box below.