The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation is soliciting public input on the draft Tactical Basin Plan for Vermont’s Ompompanoosuc, Stevens, Wells, and Waits River Basin. There is a meeting at Blue Mountain Union tonight at 6:30 p.m. and at Thetford Academy on Thursday, Oct. 22 at 6:30 p.m. Remote access in the links above.
Lawmakers say it supplies 1 million lake trout eggs a year and breeds salmon. The Fish and Wildlife Service hasn’t confirmed its plans.
Lake Willoughby, recognized for more than a century as one of the most beautiful places in New England with a National Natural Landmark designation, was failed by everyone except the local residents who fought valiantly to protect the scenic beauty of an extraordinary place.
Vail Resorts needs snow – and lots of it
In everyday English, decommissioned sounds like gone. In federal nuclear rules, it means something narrower.
Vermont is one of 14 states with no dedicated scrap-tire program.
While skeptics often view chemtrail concerns as unfounded, history reveals a pattern of secrecy and manipulation that warrants critical consideration. Could modern weather modification efforts be hidden in plain sight, or are we witnessing natural phenomena misunderstood?
For decades, Vermonters for a Clean Environment (VCE) has been a watchdog looking out for Vermonters, our communities, and the environment.
Anti-data center group starts campaign. Roadless rule change decried. Veteran data hack.
Research shows that Vermont could be an important destination for wildlife as the climate changes.
Many things in life exhibit both positive and negative results. Global warming has detriments and benefits.
Without buyers for the wood forest management generates, good forest management activities become economically difficult, or impossible, to carry out. And without sustainable management, we believe Vermont will lose the forest benefits we care about, and — worst case — significant acreages of forest.
Biologist Kevin Tolan from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies tells WCAX-TV the lack of mowing is spawning invasive plants choking off the very grass that was designed to save ground-nesting birds.
State health officials are encouraging private well owners in the Newport Center area to test their well water after a collaborative study found elevated levels of naturally occurring uranium and gross alpha radiation in some wells on the north side of Vance Hill Road.
Vermont should watch the air-conditioning fight carefully
A federal estimate says a family of four wastes nearly $3,000 of food a year. Vermont is one of the only states that can tell you what happens to it next — and the men hauling the cans see how much of it still ends up in the trash.
As the state pours money into flood resilience, the historical record and the latest science complicate a familiar story.
Can Vermont ever clean up 480 million pounds of legacy phosphorus?
A recent University of Vermont study found that natural causes, including invasive insects, are killing more trees than logging in the Northeast.
The beach will remain closed until further notice. Town officials noted that even after skies clear, runoff creates conditions favorable for E. coli bacteria and harmful cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae.
Experts attribute the growth of tick-related illnesses to climate change and more frequent tick-human contact.
H.710 got very little testimony in the House Energy & Digital Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee, with a brief stop in the Senate Finance Committee. As it passed through the various committees, it was clear that legislators did not understand the bill. There was much confusion about what it meant.
Vermont is more likely to see extreme rainfall and flooding than a drought this summer, based on the current seasonal precipitation outlook.
H.727- Data Center Bill veto analysis
Greensboro and other communities debate herbicide use on invasives.
A co-branded four-pack at Good Measure sends 10% of every sale to dam-removal work in the Winooski watershed. Here’s what that work actually does for a river — and why it matters.
If Vermont’s climate policies cannot measurably affect the climate, and if the worst-case scenarios used to justify urgency are no longer considered plausible, why should Vermonters keep paying for the Global Warming Solutions Act and Clean Heat Standard?
The EAB is a beetle introduced from Asia that attacks all native ash trees (trees in the Fraxinus group). If trees are not treated, this insect is expected to kill nearly 99% of Vermont’s ash trees.
As the weather gets warmer, Vermont’s brook trout are staying cool.
A multi-agency team will set fire to 53 acres of the Sandbar Wildlife Management Area in Milton starting Tuesday, in an effort to restore one of Vermont’s rarest and most endangered forest types.
A fruitful two weeks in Bandera, Texas at ‘Confluence,’ and ‘American Regeneration Conference’ with AcresUSA
The University of Vermont has opened the first weather station in the Vermont Mesonet, a planned statewide network of automated weather stations to monitor and report real-time data to improve extreme weather preparedness, agricultural planning, and research.
Green Up Day, Saturday May 2, is a statewide effort in the US state of Vermont to clean up roadside trash.
While property taxes go up every year, the pittance paid by renewable power projects is fixed for the life of the project. Feel free to scream or maybe cry.
Vermont has approximately 51,474 seasonal and vacation homes. A meaningful but unknown share of those structures sit on or near Vermont’s roughly 800 lakes and ponds.
Compass Vermont reported on farmers’ impact on lake conditions. Readers wanted to know about the impact of sewer systems. It’s a fair question.
Former Vermont governor Howard Dean is warning that proposals to expand nuclear power and attract large-scale data centers risk creating long-term environmental and economic problems for the state.
Key questions are now in play – how will Act 181 shift and what might accompany the repeal?
Paraquat, one of the most widely used herbicides in the U.S., would be phased out over five years
Spearheaded by the Vermont Public Service Department, the program would give energy navigator services to Vermont residents. Energy navigators are trained professionals or volunteers who inform residents how to make their homes more energy efficient, such as with weatherization projects or installing heat pumps. Under the bill, they would also inform clients about rebates and incentives.
“Foundational” first step toward Cap & Invest Carbon Tax passes on a near party line vote after Republican fight.
According to members of the committee and available footage, a motion was seemingly made and the committee adjourned without addressing it. However, the Chair of the committee denies breaking any rules.
Don’t Undermine Memphremagog’s Purity Inc., known as DUMP, had requested the Jurisdictional Opinion, which the commission coordinator agreed with, stating that NEWSVT’s leachate pretreatment system would require an amended permit if the company sought to convert the experimental system to a permanent installation.
The bill targets the Global Warming Solutions Act, the Clean Heat Standard, the Renewable Energy Standard, Act 59 (the 30×30 and 50×50 conservation goals), and Act 181 (the Land Use Review Board and future land use mapping overhaul). If passed, all five would be frozen in place for eight years while a comprehensive study evaluates their cumulative impacts on housing, energy costs, and property rights.
A Vermont school district is under federal investigation amid allegations that its policies discriminate against girls by allowing biological males to compete in girls’ sports. “These policies jeopardize both the safety and the equal opportunities of women in educational programs and activities,” OCR said in a statement announcing the investigations.
At two public meetings held a week apart, Council members and staff from the Climate Action Office walked through Vermont’s updated Climate Action Plan, introduced a list of “Top 10 Priority Actions,” and discussed next steps — even as the state has already missed its first statutory emissions benchmark and faces mounting costs to reach the next.
The Global Warming Solutions Act money pit deepens!
Two bills sit before the Vermont Senate that would undo the state’s unfolding climate policy disaster. S.110 would repeal the Global Warming Solutions Act’s citizen-suit provision and convert its mandates back to goals. S.68 would repeal the Affordable Heat Act.
First study of wildfire smoke’s effects on children with asthma in the Northeast reveals growing health risks for the region as climate change fuels more smoke-filled summers.
The release of a new digital initiative this week has brought renewed focus to a quiet but growing environmental crisis in Vermont’s most populous county: the salination of local waterways.
Originally introduced at the 1992 Rio Summit, Agenda 21 is an international action plan for sustainable development that aims to address the balance between human activity and environmental sustainability.
Major dairy processors and manufacturers accumulated hundreds of permit violations in 2024 while state regulators emphasize “partnership” over enforcement.
“We can refill the Great Salt Lake,” writes Augustus in a post on X last week.“This month, Rainmaker began the largest cloud seeding project in modern American history. With Utah and Idaho, we are enhancing snowpack across 7,500 square miles of the Bear River Basin.”
New bees bring Vermont’s total to 352 species—more bees than any other northern New England state
Nitrogen is a bit of a conundrum. In its gaseous form it’s the most abundant element in the atmosphere, but few organisms can readily use it. And while all living organisms contain nitrogen, a new University of Vermont study finds that even tiny amounts of nitrogen can fuel cyanobacterial blooms and disrupt lake ecosystems.
What does this portend for Vermont?
Imprecise data muddles turf field debate at Champlain Valley Union
Beechnut production excellent in most of Vermont
A Texas developer’s proposal for a large battery storage system at the former Vermont Yankee nuclear site highlights a sizable list important considerations.
Predatory industrial-scale renewable energy development in Vermont has just reached an all-time low with continued ecological devastation and accompanying rate hikes in queue.
In Vermont, the line between environmental policymaking and courtroom strategy has nearly disappeared. The same advocacy network that helped write the state’s climate and water rules now sues the agencies and farms that follow them—an endless loop of petitions, corrective orders, and consent decrees that leaves little room for either legislators or citizens.
A pair of environmental nonprofits are threatening to sue one of Vermont’s largest dairies for allegedly polluting Dead Creek, a tributary of Lake Champlain — but the dispute could reach far beyond a single Addison County farm. If the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC) prevail, their interpretation of the Clean Water Act could redefine how nearly every Vermont farm manages its land and water.
The true danger for Vermont lies not in the probability of an earthquake, but in the catastrophic consequences a moderate one could have on the state’s beloved historic brick buildings.
The ultimate destination for these climate-migrating lobsters is north, into the cooler, more stable waters of Canada.
Vermont has both the lowest energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the country. Vermont does not need a greater tax burden. Period.
Signed into law in June 2023, Act 59 sets ambitious goals to conserve 30% of Vermont’s land by 2030 and 50% by 2050. These targets align with the international “30 by 30” initiative but extend Vermont’s commitments even further by setting a 50% benchmark for mid-century.
What are the people to do when a law creates a trap that plunders precious resources and hard earned money and brings harm to Vermonters, all for zero beneficial environmental impact?
Vermont is projected to see warmer temperatures and more precipitation overall, but that precipitation is expected to come in heavier, less frequent bursts.
Low water levels make this September a good time to clean debris out of rivers.
Officials are using the herbicide, ProcellarCOR, which has been used in lakes and ponds such as Lake Fairlee, Lake Morey, and Sunset Lake, to battle the invasive milfoil.
The project, first identified in the 2016 Memphremagog Stormwater Master Plan managed by the Memphremagog Watershed Association, is now known as the Newport City Elementary School Green Schools Initiative. It supports ongoing efforts to meet Lake Memphremagog’s Total Maximum Daily Load requirements for phosphorus reduction and the Tactical Basin Plan workplan for the watershed.
Scientists say the fish are a reliable measure of lake and basin ecological health.
South Carolina Judge latest to dismiss lawsuit similar to Vermont’s.
In the Netherlands, a design group called Why Knot turns knotweed into lightweight, formaldehyde-free building panels. Vermont’s regulatory system is too antiquated to see it as a win-win.
How particulate pollution from tires is worse than from tailpipes, and why this matters.
How changing management methods impact air quality and weather
But there are ways to improve those roads that reduce pollution and strengthen against floods.
“This case demonstrates the problematic nature of the Global Warming Solutions Act’s expansive private right of action provision,” said Vermont’s Secretary of Natural Resources, Julie Moore, in a written statement to VDC yesterday morning.
According to Curt Lindberg, chair of the Waitsfield Conservation Commission, the project spans a cumulative 260 worksites across the region.
While that’s great news for business, it isn’t so great for locals or the environment, which can withstand the impact of overcrowding, pollution, and traffic during peak months.
Our ancestors built covered bridges and stone foundations that lasted centuries. Today’s challenge is no different – to ensure the infrastructure we are currently building lasts, we must build for the climate we’re inheriting, not the one we’ve lost.
The Vermont Climate Superfund Law aimed at holding oil companies financially responsible for flooding and other damages caused by climate change is facing a flurry of litigation that Gov. Phil Scott anticipated when he declined to endorse the measure last year.
But beneath the public “blackboard” narrative lies a deeper and more disturbing story — one of covert military projects, hidden agendas, and atmospheric manipulation without informed consent.
The ISC office in China operates under the supervision of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), an entity linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and designated by both the Trump and Biden administrations as a CCP foreign influence operation.
Believe it or not: yes, they do – but not in the way you might think.
Climate Council remains an expensive, incompetent, very bad joke.
Refuses to enforce stupid, unworkable law.
Vermont Public’s propaganda superficially simplifies a complex issue into ‘the Democrats want climate policy and the Republicans are pushing back’.
Congress has passed a measure to overturn California’s phased-in 2035 ban on the sale of new gas cars.
In conversation over the weekend many Vermonters pointed out that it seems to be rainy every single Saturday! While this may seem like a classic complaint during mid-May, this recent flood in the Mad River Valley certainly triggers memories of floods in Vermont in recent years.
Systems that can deliver reliable power at the scales necessary for robust growth remain anchored in precisely the fuels the transitionists want to abandon.
A House committee recently heard the introduction of seven new bills covering five topics legislators hope to tackle.
State misses emissions goal, despite fossil fuel use and pollution reduction, report says. Lawmakers earlier this month listened to the report.
The bugs have been spotted in 96 out of Vermont’s 247 municipal areas, the state says
Are offshore wind turbines for the birds?
Desperate calls for Scott to delay unrealistic, logistically impossible GWSA requirements with Executive Order.
If there’s any benefit at all, it doesn’t get back to the people paying the bills.
Action on these measures keeps Vermont at the forefront of climate action while avoiding the pitfalls of unfunded mandates, including those that leave space for unnecessary and counter-productive legal challenges.
In an effort to provide a perspective from people who are not part of the choir and are not engaging with you, I endeavor to channel what you might hear, if you could find a way.
A vote to repeal the Clean Heat Standard will be held in the Vermont Senate this afternoon. The vote will be close and Lt. Gov. John Rodgers has said he will cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of repeal.
