Restoring Riparian Buffers at Green Mountain Audubon Center

It would have been a strange scene to onlookers — all thirty of us out in the field dancing to music from the 70s wearing colorful rain gear while April snow blew sideways. Despite the weather and unbeknownst to these onlookers, we were planting hundreds of native plant species along the Huntington River.

The day started at eight in the morning with a small group of Audubon Vermont staff organizing native shrubs and trees into clusters for each planting plot. At this point, it was raining and the paper list of plants was getting soggy, and our fingers were losing dexterity to the cold. Still, we worked quickly and efficiently — if someone had overheard us, they might have compared us to an assembly line in a kitchen. One person would call out the plants needed in a cluster, another would grab the plants and repeat the plant names back to confirm, while the third labeled each plant and bound them all together with a piece of flagging tape containing the cluster’s number. Each cluster contained 10 plants such as birch, dogwood, cherry, oak, arrowwood, and serviceberry. Once a cluster was complete, it was loaded into the tractor bucket to be dropped off at our planting location.  

Our goal with these plants is to restore riparian habitat at the Green Mountain Audubon Center along a stretch of the Huntington River. Riparian habitats are those found adjacent to waterways such as rivers and streams. These areas provide critical wildlife habitat to wildlife species that depend on proximity to both water and vegetation and can act as stop-over locations for migrating birds. Strong riparian buffers can host a mosaic of habitats, ranging from dense forests to open shrublands. Shrublands are a unique yet variable habitat type, not quite forests and not quite grasslands — they fall somewhere in between, dominated by short, woody plants interspersed with grasses. Both shrubland and riparian habitats provide crucial resources for a wide range of wildlife species — each rich with opportunities for shelter, food, and breeding habitat.

After several 100-year flooding events from July 2023-July 2024, these habitats took a huge hit. Invasive species were carried and dispersed by the floods, riverbanks eroded and fell into the water, and sediment was deposited in unusual ways. At the same time, an opportunity presented itself when our farming neighbors let us know they were retiring the field for hay production. This allowed us to consider how we would manage the area for birds and other wildlife by extending the riparian buffer and jumpstarting the natural regenerative process by planting shrubland clusters. Thanks to funding from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Lake Champlain Basin Program, we were able to purchase 339 native plants and shrubs to plant across seven acres of retired agricultural fields running along the Huntington River.  

Our Youth Conservation Leadership Program powered this planting. Audubon Vermont alumni, local high school students, University of Vermont students, and AmeriCorps Members made up the majority of our team of 30 volunteers. Many hands made light work! Every plant we purchased found a new home in the ground after two days of planting. We will monitor the success of these plants as well as the response of avian communities, although it may take several years for the habitat to fully regenerate and provide the resources necessary for wildlife. Once the regenerative process is underway, however, we expect to see benefits for birds including Field Sparrow, Prairie Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Belted Kingfisher, and Tree Swallow as well as native pollinators. You can see some of these plantings the next time you take a walk along our River Trail!