Project Highlights

From outreach and education to project and program implementation, our goal is to create local solutions for natural resources concerns.

Explore our latest projects and programs showcasing our efforts to protect and restore natural resources in our community.

Conservation Block Parties

Across Grand Isle County

Event attendees gather along the lake.

  • The Lake Champlain Basin is home to nearly 600,000 people. The impacts of our actions are seen and felt by all those who enjoy the region. To keep our waters clean, we hope to motivate residents to act in fun, simple and accessible ways that positively impact our shared ecosystems.

  • In collaboration with the South Hero Land Trust, we hosted five block parties—one in each town in Grand Isle County. Each event focused on a shared issue or interest identified by the local community, from living alongside wetlands and best practices for lakefront living to native plants, resilient garden design, and managing private roads. Experts guided discussions and shared practical, easy-to-implement solutions for participants to use at home. These gatherings brought communities together in a fun and engaging way—with food, music, door prizes, and more—to inspire actions that together can have a big impact on water quality.

Keeler Bay Action Plan

South Hero

Rainbow over Keeler Bay.

  • Keeler Bay, located in the northeast arm of Lake Champlain and surrounded by South Hero, offers scenic views, recreation, and drinking water. It supports local tourism and businesses. The surrounding 6.8-square mile watershed drains water—often carrying fertilizer, oil, pesticides, bacteria, and eroded debris—into the bay. This runoff can lead to elevated phosphorus levels, harming water quality and aquatic life. Whether we live on the shore or inland, our actions impact the health of the bay.

  • It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more.In 2021, the Grand Isle County Natural Resources Conservation District and South Hero Land Trust began working with local residents to develop the Keeler Bay Action Plan. This assessment and planning tool provides an in-depth analysis of the watershed’s landscape, encompassing shorelines, streams, roads, and more. With funding and support from the Lake Champlain Basin Program, we identified 25 ready-to-build projects. These projects, upon implementation, are expected to improve the water quality in the bay, enhance its surrounding ecosystem, and provide the community engagement and education.

    Click here to learn about the plan and all the ways you can help Keeler Bay.

Locally Led Conservation

Across Grand Isle County

Two people in a farm field one with a shirt that says NO OTHER LAKE

  • Conservation works best when shaped by people who live and work on the land. This ensures that conservation efforts reflect the needs, priorities, and knowledge of our local communities. This approach puts decision-making in the hands of those who know the land best, creating solutions that are more responsive, more effective, and rooted in community priorities.

  • In 2023 and 2024, we partnered with our fellow Northwest Natural Resources Conservation Districts and USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to hear directly from community members through meetings, surveys, and planning sessions. This input shaped a regional conservation action plan focused on real-world solutions to the most pressing resource concerns. Thanks to this work, almost $2 million in additional federal funding has been directed to Grand Isle, Franklin, and Lamoille counties. This funding supported practices offered through the USDA-NRCS Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), opening the door for landowners to make lasting improvements to soil, water, and wildlife resources.