In episode 19 of Restoration Round Up, Lauren Jennes and Michele Braun speak about their respective parts in a new incentive program for landowners: Stream Wise. Stream Wise is going into its second year of operation and is a program meant to assess, advise, and reward the work landowners do to maintain their privately owned riparian areas. Lauren, working with the Lake Champlain Basin Program, discusses the organization's wider vision and goals while Michele, the Executive Director of Friends of the Winooski River, one of Stream Wise's first community partners, explains what working within this assessment framework and with landowners across the valley is like. Join us for an overview of a new and rapidly growing program that benefits larger riparian systems by starting with what is small and privately stewarded.

Today we welcome Jessica Rubin to the podcast to speak about her research around mycorrhizae and other means to improve plant's phosphorous uptake. Jess, who began this work seven years ago with the start of an ecological resilience service called mycoevolve, expanded her research in pursuit of a second masters degree, resulting in two studies in Vermont where she compared site inoculation, plant selection, and site management to determine the best efficacy for removing phosphorous from the landscape.

Listen in for updates on her research, her methods for keeping farmers and Abenaki people and practices involved, and her hopes for the future of mycorrhizae inclusion in restoration work!

In this episode we speak to Will Eldridge, an aquatic habitat researcher, and Jess Colby, the Riparian Lands Project Coordinator at the Northwood Stewardship Center. Together they explain the process of an ongoing study about direct seeding- a method of planting trees and other plants in reforestation projects that may prove to be a powerful tool. This project, begun by Pete Emerson six years ago, is a massive undertaking by multiple stakeholders across the state and will begin showing fruit this upcoming Spring. Stay tuned to see what takes root!

This episode was directed by Cate Kreider.