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🌕 It’s Thursday, August 22. Here’s what’s on deck:
- New trails for all mountain bikes
- An extra hot start to the year
- Mushrooms that eat worms
But first,
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Accounting for recent flood
In February, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency introduced its draft of an updated flood map for Johnson, it showed the 100-year floodplain was getting smaller, not bigger. (The 100-year floodplain refers to areas that have a 1% chance of flooding each year). That meant the map showed flood risks were decreasing and it excluded some areas that have flooded three times in the past year.
The smaller floodplain on the proposed maps came to the attention of town and county officials while they were looking for places to relocate some buildings to avoid future floods. State officials raised concerns and asked FEMA to incorporate more recent flood data into the maps.
The agency initially said they wouldn’t revise the maps. This month they changed their tune – FEMA officials said they will review the map, and possibly update it, our colleague Liam Elder-Connors reported this week. Why these maps matter:
- 💰 FEMA floodplain maps are used to determine if people need to purchase flood insurance. They also make it easier for people living in designated flood zones to get FEMA buyouts.
- 🏫 The maps can help towns make decisions about where to develop and relocate flood-prone infrastructure – an important task as climate change brings more extreme rain and flooding to the region.
- 📜 FEMA’s flood maps are notoriously outdated, and often don’t fully capture flood risks in an area, which is why the agency has been working to update the maps all around the country. Johnson’s current flood map is from the 1980s. FEMA began the years-long process to update it in 2019, and didn't incorporate data from the past year.
- ⏳ It’s unclear when the new flood maps for Johnson will be finished. Even if FEMA hadn’t paused its process to add the recent flood data, it would still take at least two years for the maps to become official.
- 🔎 Many other Vermont towns are waiting on updated flood maps from FEMA. After what happened in Johnson, local officials have alerted other towns around the state to closely examine any draft maps they receive.
In other news
🚵 New trails built with all mountain bikes in mind: After two years in the works, four miles of new trails in Bolton are now complete and fully accessible to adaptive mountain bikes – bikes used by a broad range of people who generally cannot ride a standard mountain bike. Creators say the trail system, called the Driving Range, is the first in the U.S. made universally accessible from its inception.
🍠🧅 Farming in record-high temperatures: It’s getting easier to grow sweet potatoes in Vermont, and pumpkin and onion crops are ready to harvest weeks earlier than normal this year, according to some farmers. Those are some of the changes people are noticing as the state saw its warmest start to the year on record.
🍞🧑🌾 Wheat is growing in Vermont, for the first time in generations: The crop was first planted in Vermont by early European settlers, but production shifted west, away from Vermont’s wet climate and hilly terrain. Now, wheat is making a return to the landscape as bakers try to use more local ingredients in their bread. More mills are also opening in Vermont – some outfitted with granite slabs from Barre to crush wheat into flour.
🧪🌳 Experimenting to save beech trees: The microscopic worms that kills beech trees were first detected in Vermont last year. Since then, they’ve spread across the southeast corner of the state – blown in droplets during storms and carried on birds’ feet. Now, scientists in Connecticut are testing whether compounds from wintergreen and aspirin could protect the plants and if European varieties of the tree might be more resistant to disease.
In your backyard
Get out there
🌻 Soak up the sun(flower): There’s just a few more weeks to enjoy the 6th annual sunflower house at Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock. Visitors are welcome to roam and take photos in the more than 20,000 square feet — called the largest sunflower house in the U.S. with over 50 types of sunflowers. Tickets are $19 for adults.
🪱🌱 Managing land to better handle floods and heat: The White River Natural Resources Conservation District is hosting a day-long workshop starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 24 in South Strafford to talk about how to support soils that soak up water. They’ll have coffee, tea and snacks, and ask you to bring lunch.
🐄🌳🦋🐄 Encouraging pollinators in pastures: Scientists from UVM and Dartmouth will lead a walk on a farm in Barnet and share tips for monitoring and supporting pollinators and birds, from mowing patterns to species selection. They'll also talk about incorporating trees into grazing practices and supporting farm ecosystems. Friday, Aug. 30 at 10 a.m. Free.
🦅📸 Monitor migration: It’s the beginning of the fall migration season when hundreds of thousands of birds fly over Vermont each night. Join the Birds of Vermont Museum in Huntington on Saturday, Aug. 31 to monitor birds on the museum’s property. The event is free, but registration through the museum is required, and donations are welcome. Plan to bring your own binoculars, and dress for the weather.
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Vermont Public's biweekly dose of all things environment.
Thank you for reading! Don’t hesitate to reach out, we'd love to hear from you. Just email us.
Credits: This week’s edition was put together by Lexi Krupp and Sophie Stephens with lots of help from the Vermont Public team, including graphics by Laura Nakasaka. Editing by Brittany Patterson.
