Winooski River Watershed Stats

Size

The approximately 690,000-acre watershed covers all of Washington County, almost half of Chittenden County and parts of Lamoille, Caledonia, Orange, and Addison Counties. (For comparison, the city of Burlington is 10,304 acres and the town of Waterbury is 32,768 acres.) The Winooski River is the largest tributary  to Lake Champlain and has more river miles flowing through urban land than any other drainage basin in the state.

Land Use

Approximately 71% of the watershed is forested, 11% is in agriculture and 8% is considered urban. Water accounts for 7% of the total acreage and the remaining percentage is in miscellaneous land uses such as gravel pits. Approximately 75,600 acres of our 690,000-acre watershed are owned by the State of Vermont and managed by the Agency of Natural Resources. The Federal government owns 12,900 acres of land in the watershed. The breakdown in land use between Chittenden and Washington Counties is as follows:

	Chittenden	Washington
Agriculture	13%	10%
Forest	62%	79%
Development	11%	7%
Water	13%	1%
Other	1%	3%

TRIVIA: Since 1982, the percentage of land in agriculture has gone from 16% to 12% and the percentage of urban land has increased from 6% to 8%.

Forests

The forests in the watershed are varied and are often a result of past land use. The original forests were lost through land clearing for agriculture, potash production, and timber harvest and also from forest fires. After the Civil War when 75% of the land was open, there was a decline in agriculture and land was abandoned. Agricultural land changed back to forest. The types of trees that began to grow on this abandoned land depended on the seed source close at hand, the soil, and elevation. Today, typically you will find spruce and fir dominating the spine of the Green Mountains, mixed hardwood (maple-beech-birch) dominating the middle elevations and a softwood (evergreen) and hardwood mix dominating the lower elevations.

TRIVIA: In 1880, Burlington, then a milling center was the third most important wholesale lumber market in the US, importing some 150,000,000 board feet of lumber.

Urban Land

The makeup of urban land in the watershed dedicated to residential use is approximately 80%. Employment figures provide a picture of the type of business/commerce within the watershed. Employment statistics for Chittenden County list the manufacturing, service, and trade industries employing 70% of the workforce. In Washington County, local employment is above state average in the insurance, quarrying and government sectors; below average in agriculture, manufacturing and transportation.

TRIVIA: The four largest employers in Chittenden County are Fletcher Allen Health Care, IBM, the State of Vermont and the University of Vermont.

TRIVIA: The 5 largest employers in Washington County are the State of Vermont, Central Vermont Hospital, National Life Insurance Company, Norwich University and Washington County Mental Health

Agriculture

If we look at agriculture today compared with 50 years ago, we can see the number of farms has decreased dramatically and the amount of land devoted to agricultural has dropped from approximately 65% in 1950 to 12% in 2000. This loss has occurred with the increase in residential home development and conversion of non-tillable farmland to forest.

Even though the number of dairy farms and cows has decreased, the amount of milk produced has increased by statewide by 43% since 1950. We see a different emphasis on the type of farm product. Fruit, vegetable, and beef and sheep farms have replaced the pork and poultry operations of the 50′s.

TRIVIA: In 1950 there were approximately 41,000 milk cows in the watershed compared to approximately 12,500 in 1997. In 1950 there were approximately 3,800 horses in the watershed compared to approximately 1,656 in 1997.

Floods

Floods occur when a stream or river has more water going into its channel than it can hold. The water then spreads out along the land beside the stream (flood plain), following the path of least resistance.  What causes floods? Most often, too much rain or snow melt in too short a time.  If the ground is frozen or soaked from previous rains, it make matters worse because none of the “extra” water can soak into the ground.

Flood Damage

A flood is a natural process. Throw people into the mix and flooding becomes a disaster.  Rivers and streams are always changing, jumping their banks and cutting new channels.  Water is powerful.  Activities and development along streams and rivers need to be well planned or avoided.

TRIVIA: During the 1927 flood, the loss of life and property in the Winooski River Watershed was greater than any other water course in New England.

Dams

Currently there are 90 dams in the Winooski River Watershed. Fifteen are on the Winooski River itself; the rest are on the streams which feed into the river.  Only three of the dams in the watershed were built for flood control and they are on tributaries.

TRIVIA:  The Waterbury Dam on the Little River in Waterbury is roughly four tenths of a mile long.

Electricity is produced at six dams on the main river and seven on tributaries.  The remaining dams were built for recreation, water supply storage and small mill use.  For more information contact the Facilities Engineering Division, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources in Waterbury at 802-241-3453.

TRIVIA:  Ira Allen built the first dams on the river in 1786 to power two sawmills.

Soils and the Glaciers

The glaciers that covered Vermont affected how our watershed looks today and the types of soils we have here.  Melting water formed streams in the ice.  These streams carried soil and gravel down with them as they formed valleys on their way to Lake Champlain.  The water dropped the mixed up soil material it had scraped and picked up earlier.  The lightest particles of soil (silts and clays) ended up in the Champlain Valley.  Generally, the soils are thinner on the peaks of mountains and higher hills and thicker on the sides of these mountains, hills and in the valleys.

At one time a large glacial lake (Lake Vermont) covered all of the lower watershed and went up to the edges of Washington County along the Winooski River into the Mad River, the Dog, the North Branch, Pekin, Stevens and Thatcher Brook.  The heavier “lake bottom” soils and sandy beaches of this lake can be found in towns along these streams.

The sandy beaches of an earlier Lake Champlain can be found in the soil in Burlington, Colchester and other towns close to the Lake.

TRIVIA: Geologists estimate that before the glacier began invading this area, the Green Mountains were as high or higher than the Himalayas, today.

How’s the Fishing?

Most of the streams within the Winooski River drainage basin contain habitat that supports naturally reproducing (i.e. wild) trout populations.  The cool, shaded mountain streams provide homes for wild brook trout; Vermont’s only native stream trout.  Larger tributaries and much of the Winooski River support naturalized populations of wild rainbow and brown trout.  Both species were introduced to Vermont in the late 1800′s; rainbows from the West Coast and brown trout from Europe.  The Dog River has a reputation as one of the best wild rainbow and brown trout streams in the state.  In addition to wild populations, “catcheable” size trout are stocked in several of the larger tributaries and the main river. Trophy stock can be found in the Waterbury area.  Smallmouth bass and walleye can inhabit much of the river downstream of Bolton Falls Dam.

A seasonal migration of fish enters the lower reaches of the Winooski River from Lake Champlain. Large mouth bass and northern pike are common near the mouth, and many of the more than 85 species of fish inhabiting Lake Champlain can be found from time to time.  In recent years, significant numbers of lake trout have come into the Winooski in the fall and winter months.

Since 1993, a fish passage facility has operated at Winooski Dam One (below the Winooski Falls in the City of Winooski).  Spawning salmon are trapped in the fall and trucked and released to reach spawning areas as far upstream as Bolton Falls Dam.

TRIVIA: Trout speeds – cruising speed: two body lengths per second; Sustained speed six to seven body lengths per second; Burst speed: 12 body lengths per second.