The Ecological Planning Laboratory (EPL) at the University of Vermont is a partnership between UVM Extension and the Field Naturalist Graduate program, in year two of a three-year pilot phase. The EPL helps communities tackle vital projects on their land, with an emphasis on social-ecological health at the watershed scale. As their website states, “sustaining momentum over years is often the greatest challenge of land-based projects, from starting a riparian tree nursery to coordinating multi-town climate resilience plans. The EPL offers a guiding hand throughout the project, connecting communities with funding to leverage UVM resources and expertise — faculty, graduate student consultants, and undergraduate interns”. 

On November 2nd, 2024 the EPL hosted their first symposium at Jefford’s Hall a the University of Vermont. Approximately 30 people attended the event and this podcast is a recording of the morning session. We recorded a short conversation with a small group of six associated with a project in the Mad River Valley that is dealing with the Knotweed infestation. The Knotweed project represents just one of the projects of the Ecological Planning lab, and we use this as a case study to discuss the topic of “Emergence”. Emergence in leadership, social organizing and project development.

We started the conversation with a small group of six, then expanded to the entire group of approximately 30 people for questions and an expanded conversation. Participating in the initial conversation are:

• Walter Poleman,  Senior Lecturer at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, Director of the Field Naturalist Program
• Jito Coleman from the Warren Conservation Commission
• Dave Maroney, GIS Coordinator Consulting Ecologist with the Ecological Planning Laboratory
• Mariano Rodriguez-Cabal, assistant professor at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources
• Bella Linville, senior in the Rubenstein School/Mad River Valley Knotweed intern

In addition to the community members, this conversation references a few people I mention here to give greater context to the conversation – Hans Estrin, one of the key plays in the Ecological Planning Lab at UVM, Kurt Lindberg from the Waitsfield Conservation Commission, Roy Beckford, Associate Dean and Director of UVM Extension in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Steve Libby, Flood Recovery Consultant at Vermont Emergency Management. 

Ecological Planning Laboratory

Warren Vermont - Conservation Commission

Waitsfield Vermont - Conservation Commission

Fayston Vermont - Conservation Commission

 
Bordertown is an ecomedia project coming to you from the upper Winooski watershed in central Vermont. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency, equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive.
 
 Music for this Podcast – "So Good" by Railroad Earth.

After our initial discussion, we broke up into smaller groups to carry on the conversation, then convened again for a final group conversation. Kurt Lindberg, from the Waitsfield Conservation Commission facilitated this next section.

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Paul Gambill is the Executive Director of the Community Engagement Lab. Their mission is to "bring people of all ages together in projects that activate their creativity to imagine and build more just and thriving communities". Their current project, The Montpelier Bridges to Belonging shares the stories that connect us to each other — and the stories that reveal where we need to build new bridges to ensure that Montpelier is a welcoming place where everyone can belong and thrive.

Paul brings 30 years experience as an arts administrator, musician and educator to his role as Executive Director of the Community Engagement Lab. His innovative community-engaged projects have been GRAMMY nominated, featured as models of best practice at national conventions, and received national awards for children's media, including the Parents’ Choice Foundation Gold Award. He has founded three non-profit arts organizations which have attracted regional and national funding and programming awards.

Before relocating with his family to Vermont in 2009, Paul was founder and music director of the Nashville Chamber Orchestra for 20 years, and music director of the Nashville Ballet for six years.

Bordertown is an ecomedia project coming to you from the Upper-Winooski watershed in central Vermont. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency, equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive.

Music for this Podcast – "Only By the Light" by Railroad Earth.

This episode features Paul Carnahan. Librarian of the Vermont Historical Society (VHS) from 1990 to 2022. Paul  currently serves on Montpelier’s Historic Preservation Commission and the board of the Montpelier Historical Society. He recently became part of Montpelier’s Commission for Recovery and Resiliency, offering a historical perspective on Montpelier, as the Commission envisions a resilient future.

Paul worked with Montpelier Alive to create the Bridges of Montpelier slideshow, an amazing presentation about Montpelier’s bridges. Bridges are powerful symbols of connection, transformation, aspiration and overcoming obstacles. This project seeks to alleviate some of the economic and environmental challenges Montpelier has been facing. And mark your calendar for November 16th  as Montpelier Alive lights up our bridges in celebration with the Bridge Illumination Project.

Bordertown Description
Bordertown is an ecomedia project coming to you from the Upper-Winooski watershed in central Vermont. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency, equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive.
 
 

Links:

Montpelier Alive’s “Bridges” Project

Bridges of Montpelier Slide Show

The Montpelier Commission for Recovery and Resilience

Music by Railroad Earth - song in this episode - Grandfather Mountain

Today on the podcast we welcome Pat Moulton. 

In November of 2023 Pat was appointed by Governor Phil Scott as the Central Vermont Recovery Officer for the State of Vermont.

The Recovery Office is the state-level entity tasked with coordinating available federal funds and local mitigation and community revitalization work. Pat is the first geographic appointee to the office, focusing on central Vermont and the Winooski River watershed.

Pat has 40 years of experience in economic development and workforce development. She also has experience in environmental permitting, including chairing Vermont’s Environmental Board which oversaw Act 250.

I recorded this podcast at the end of June and I’m posting it in the first week of August. In the past six weeks, there have been two major floods in the state of Vermont, resulting in significant damage - again here in central Vermont and also in the Northeast Kingdom. Pat commented in this interview that her work is to spearhead recovery efforts as well as preparedness initiatives, as floods such as those on July 11th of 2023 will indeed happen again. I think we where all shocked that it happened just one year later.

Pat’s work is certainly critical, as is all of our efforts to understand the make the systemic changes necessary, to adapt to this new reality of a signivicant rainfall events in Vermont!

Music for this Podcast – "Bread and Water" by Railroad Earth.

Today we welcome Paul Costello, the former Executive Director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development. Paul retired from this position in 2021. Lifetime Vermonter, Paul dedicated most of his career to helping Vermont towns and cities build community, identify goals and visions and build strategies to accomplish these goals. 

On July 11th, 2023, intense and widespread rainfall led to catastrophic flooding throughout the state of Vermont, leaving the entire downtown of the capitol city, Montpelier, underwater.

After the floods, Paul was instrumental in organizing the City of Montpelier, The Montpelier Foundation and Montpelier Alive, in a series of community conversations about recovery and the future of Montpelier. This led to the formation of the Montpelier Commission for Recovery and Resilience, which serves as a convening and resource partner for the city and all working groups advancing flood recovery and resilience projects in the city.  

Bordertown is an ecomedia project coming to you from the Upper-Winooski watershed in central Vermont. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency, equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive.

Music for this Podcast – "One More Night On The Road" by Railroad Earth.

Today we welcome Jon Copans, the Executive Director of The Commission for Recovery & Resilience.

On July 11th, 2023, intense and widespread rainfall led to catastrophic flooding throughout the state of Vermont, leaving the entire downtown of the capitol city, Montpelier, underwater.

Immediately following the flood, Paul Costello, the former executive director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development, worked with the City of Montpelier, The Montpelier Foundation and Montpelier Alive, to convene a series of community conversations about recovery and the future of Montpelier.

The visioning process of those public forums resulted in roughly 20 priorities and the establishment of a new leadership structure to coordinate and advance strategies leading to recovery and resiliency in central Vermont. This paved the way for the hiring of Jon for a two-year term, as Executive Director beginning this month, May of 2024.

Bordertown is an ecomedia project coming to you from the Upper-Winooski watershed in central Vermont. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency, equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive.

Music for this Podcast – "Like a Buddha" by Railroad Earth.

Today we welcome Hans Estrin from the University of Vermont’s Ecological Planning Laboratory. Hans talks about his childhood days in the Plainfield/Marshfield, VT area, describes the trajectory of his career and gives a glimpse of the Ecological Planning Laboratory emerging out the UVM.

The Ecological Planning Laboratory helps communities tackle vital projects on their land, offering long-term support in partnership with UVM Extension and the Field Naturalist graduate program. Ecological management can be contentious. Rather than trying to step in and resolve all conflict, the EPL uses the tension in these thorny issues to drive and deepen civil engagement, cultivating resilience for people and communities in Vermont's watersheds.

Bordertown is an ecomedia project coming to you from the Upper-Winooski watershed in central Vermont. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency, equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive.
 
To learn more about UVM’s Ecological Planning Laboratory you can contact Hans directly at 802-380-2109, or email him at [email protected]

Today on the podcast we welcome Ben Doyle and Aly Richards, from The Commission for Recovery and Resilience.

On July 11th, 2023, intense and widespread rainfall led to catastrophic flooding throughout the State, leaving the entire downtown of the capitol city, Montpelier, underwater.

As the flood-waters resided, Paul Costello, the former executive director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development, worked with the City of Montpelier, The Montpelier Foundation and Montpelier Alive, to convene a series of community conversations about recovery and the future of Montpelier.

The visioning process of those public forums resulted in roughly 20 priorities and the establishment of a new leadership structure to coordinate and advance strategies leading to recovery and resiliency in central Vermont. This is truly democracy in action…

"If you want to go fast, go by yourself. If you want to go far, go with everyone". Says Ben Doyle, "We’re really committed to harnessing the intelligence, enthusiasm, commitment and love of this community".

Bordertown is an ecomedia project coming to you from the Upper Winooski River Watershed of Central Vermont. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage conversation around resiliency, equity, and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive. Bordertown is hosted by Vic Guadagno.

To learn more about The Commission or to make a donation to Central Vermont flood effort please visit Montpelier STRONG.

 And thanks to Todd Sheaffer and Railroad Earth for providing the music.

The Bordertown Flood series tells the stories of Central Vermonters experiencing the 2023 flood disaster.

This episode features Beth Rusnock, president of the National Life Group Foundation and Daphne Larkin, Communications and Media Relations Director of the National Life Group.

Beth Rusnock says that the National Life Group wants to make sure that "the communities that their campuses are a part of - that they are vibrant. That they are places where our employees want to live, want to be a part of... "

Daphne Larkin adds that "this culture of volunteering and getting involved with our community is baked into everything that we do.  Everybody feels it, every body lives it, and we have people doing good in the name of National Life, all over the country".

If you want to donate to the flood recovery effort in central Vermont flood please visit the Montpelier STRONG Recovery Foundation.

Music for this Podcast – "The Good Life" by Railroad Earth. 

Bordertown is hosted by Vic Guadagno and recorded in Montpelier, Vermont – located in the Upper-Winooski Watershed. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency, equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive.
 
On July 11th A State of Disaster was declared for all 14 counties of the state of Vermont after extensive rain in two days triggered the worst flooding since Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. The National Weather Service reported unofficial rainfall observations for a 38-hour period with 6.82 inches at the Montpelier airport, 7.8 inches in Barre and up to 8.65 inches in Andover. The Winooski River at Montpelier, capital city of Vermont - jumped by over 14 feet in the space of 20 hours. The Winooski finally crested at 21.25 feet, well above Major Flood Stage of 17.5 feet
 
 

The Bordertown Flood series tells the stories of Central Vermonters experiencing the 2023 flood disaster.

This episode feature Katie Trautz, the Executive Director of Montpelier Alive.

Katie describes that Montpelier is not set-up as a resilient town in terms of systems,  however, the community is extremely song. And that community resilience is most important. Not every place has a community that is this strong.

Katie says, "I really think that organizations like Montpelier Alive are there to support the downtown and support the city, no matter what the event is that is happening. A lot of downtown organization across the country do step in during these disasters. This is the true meaning of revitalization work".

If you would like to donate to Montpelier Alive, please visit their website.

If you want to donate the flood recover effort in central Vermont, please visit the Montpelier Strong Recovery Fund website

Music for this Podcast by From Good Homes

Bordertown is hosted by Vic Guadagno and recorded in Montpelier, Vermont – located in the Upper-Winooski Watershed. Our goal is to serve as an instrument for relationship building and communication, and to encourage the conversation around resiliency, equity and justice. Our intention is to celebrate life and community - and to help create conditions for all life to thrive.
 
 

On July 11th A State of Disaster was declared for all 14 counties of the state of Vermont after extensive rain in two days triggered the worst flooding since Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. The National Weather Service reported unofficial rainfall observations for a 38-hour period with 6.82 inches at the Montpelier airport, 7.8 inches in Barre and up to 8.65 inches in Andover.

The Winooski River at Montpelier, capital city of Vermont - jumped by over 14 feet in the space of 20 hours. The Winooski finally crested at 21.25 feet, well above Major Flood Stage of 17.5 feet.