LEARN ABOUT THE VT AGRICULTURAL WATER QUALITY PARTNERSHIP

July 5, 2024 – This spring farmers, agencies and organizations, and community members throughout the state dug in pulling invasives, planting trees and investing in Vermont’s future. The Vermont Agricultural Water Quality Partnership (VAWQP) acknowledges and celebrates the investments of farmers to help ensure our waters stay clear. The VAWQP released its annual report highlighting the impacts of state and federal investments toward protecting and improving water quality. 

Vermont farms must meet high standards for environmental stewardship, while balancing shifting markets, tough environmental conditions, and long days of hard work. The VAWQP was established in 2012 to support the evolving challenge of achieving Vermont’s agricultural water quality goals. The VAWQP focuses on reducing the pollution that results from excess nutrients used on farms from entering waterways by coordinating partner efforts to provide education, technical and financial assistance to the farming community. 

"The relationships and collaboration among the organizations of the Partnership create a foundation in which we can build towards our water quality goals.” said Jill Arace, Executive Director of the Vermont Association of Conservation Districts.

The VAWQP reports that in 2023, $36.2 million was invested by state and federal entities throughout Vermont to implement agricultural water quality projects. This assistance helped farmers install conservation practices such as crop rotation, manure injection, reduced tillage and cover crops, grass buffers and 115 acres of riparian forest buffers. These vegetated areas adjacent to waters filter runoff and nutrients; stabilize eroding banks, prevent flood damage, support ecosystems, and provide habitat. 

These figures highlight that farmers are accelerating their adoption of conservation practices that benefit water quality and soil health. Farmers are helping to move the needle in meeting our goals, with  20% of the phosphorous reduction requirements met in the Lake Champlain phosphorus reduction plan, or TMDL, and 14% in the Lake Memphremagog TMDL. The agricultural sector alone has reduced an estimated 35.55 metric tons of phosphorus, or two and a half dump truck loads, from entering Vermont’s water bodies.

The VAWQP report highlights the success of collaboration on the Boneyard Farm in Fletcher, Vermont. Since buying the property three years ago, farm owners Hannah and John Doyle have been hard at work building the farm into a viable business, while also installing projects that benefit water and soil health, wildlife habitat, biodiversity, climate and flood resiliency. 

In the spring of 2023, the Doyle Family and the Franklin County Natural Resources Conservation District (NRCD) spearheaded the planting of thousands of trees and shrubs along 1,830 feet of stream in two of their hay pastures – an area covering 4.2 acres.

According to staff who worked on the project, this farm’s story highlights the importance of collaboration across organizations to achieve conservation goals. “Coordinating with so many partners had its moments of challenges, but clear communication and ongoing engagement ultimately results in a successful project,” said Franklin County NRCD District Manager Lauren Weston. Almost every member of the Vermont Agricultural Water Quality Partnership, alongside other partner organizations, played a role in supporting the farm in 2023. 

“We care about the land more than we care about making money,” Hannah shared. “The future of our farm depends on being a viable business – but it also depends on how we take care of the land and the community.”

There is no easy fix to “clean up” our lakes and rivers from historical phosphorus loading and it will take time to see the results of water quality efforts; encouragingly in recent years, significant progress has been made in improving and protecting water quality across the state.

To learn more about the Lake Champlain phosphorus Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and the work being done across sectors to achieve the goals of pollution reduction, the Lake Champlain Basin Program, another VAWQP member organization, has created a series of animations and videos that describe these issues in simple terms. The full collection of media is available at www.cleanwaterwork.com. 

The Vermont Agricultural Water Quality Partnership is dedicated to improving agricultural water quality in Vermont by coordinating efforts to provide education, technical and financial assistance to our farming community. The Partnership collaborates to leverage unique resources, funding mechanisms, technical expertise, outreach techniques, and more. For more information on the partnership and the missions of the partner organizations, and to view the partnership’s annual report and 5-year strategic plan, visit https://vtagcleanwater.org/.

The members of the partnership include: USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA Farm Service Agency, Vermont Association of Conservation Districts, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, University of Vermont Extension, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Department of Environmental Conservation, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and the Patrick Leahy Lake Champlain Basin Program.