 It's a very nice turnout, nice to see everybody. You guys are in, you can't get out. My name is Eric Chippendon, I'm president of the Prince of Waterbury Reservoir. I'm here with the Obama Board members, the three, Sheila, my wife Francine who's a treasure. Mike just stepped out. Michael Bard, who's hiding somewhere. There's Michael. Eric, maybe you can introduce Ashley. She's here too. Oh yes, Ashley. Ashley Proto is here. Ashley's attending a high college and she's doing a project with us on the invasive species this summer. So, welcome aboard, Ashley. Okay, we've got a lot to go over. It's going to be a really nice evening. I'm looking forward to this presentation myself. We have our, Sheila is very talented with these projects and so we always look forward to that. When you look at the Waterbury Reservoir, the 8th largest lake in Vermont, what's kind of interesting is that many of the people who drive through town in even Vermonters don't realize it exists because you really can't see it except in certain days, maybe in the winter as you go by. It's 860 surface acres and technically it's not a natural resource. It's a man-made lake with a dam. But I would have to say that it would feel very unnatural, even an unnatural resource. I mean it would really feel unnatural if it weren't here. It's a very beautiful lake. So the Friends of Waterbury Reservoir came together in the early 90s. And sort of we took a break. It was a very intense few years when we first started and it became, you know, came back to life in just after 2000. We'll have some, yeah. Excuse me, we, some of the people in the back can't hear you that well. Okay. I'll just reject a little more. Sure. We're going to have some time after the presentation to answer questions. And when you go around the reservoir, there are just so many different aspects to it. First, the dam itself. It's quite a piece of work. It's been updated tremendously over the years. And then you have the campsites. You have the different, you know, uses of the reservoir. So we, as the Friends, represent all the legal and, you know, users of the reservoir. And a lot of the things that we've gotten into, you see the fish stock mine, then these little bins in the corner there are used all over the country. And it's surprising that they aren't used in Vermont. But the fishermen, like you could speak to that just a little bit. They do get used, don't they? But sometimes the fish lines break. The monofilament lines break, and birds get tangled up in them. And even if they're thrown in the trash, when the trucks dump the trash, wherever they dump it, the birds flock around that, as you know, and feed. And they get tangled up in these filaments. So up until we put these together last year, the only place you could get up in the lower bins were places like Dick's Sporty Goods. And the fishermen bring their lines in there. So we redesigned the ones that we saw. West of the Mississippi, they're very popular. But even in New Jersey and down south, they're all over the place by the thousands. And they just aren't in Vermont. But the State of Vermont actually asked for the plants, so I put together the plants. We just let me see more of them. So this lifts up, and it can only, I redesigned it so that it can only go up so high so it would automatically come down and close. Because people are putting, from our stories that we would read, we're putting a junk in there, you know, trash. So we had very, very little trash with us. Do you want to say something? An occasional bottle cap or maybe a cigarette bottle. That was a great success. And we're now collecting all that because we have an artist who wants to take all these pieces of things in there. Something very colorful so that she wants to do something with it. So I think we're going to leave it at that. And Sheila's going to take over and tell us a story. All right, thank you. Eric, let me take your... Oh, yes. And we'll show you speak up. Yes, I will speak up. And of course Eric said that I have talent at doing these presentations and of course the first slide has a glitch in it. Because this is a MAC system and the MAC system didn't read my PowerPoint correctly. So that's the worst one. There are two other little tiny ones that hopefully you won't even notice. Well, you don't point it out to us. I won't point it out. That one is so obvious. And I'm so glad you're here tonight. Much better to be here than on the reservoir tonight, quite frankly. And Sheila, one thing I forgot to mention. There's some handouts up here including... We have some of the maps in black and white. So if you don't have one of these maps, you can welcome the book and pick one up and kind of follow Sheila through the journey here. So while people are getting set, Eric explained a little bit who we are and our mission statement is to protect, improve and enhance the ecological recreational community values of the Waterbury Reservoir. Whoops, you know what? That was our starting slide. This is our starting slide in set-ups. That's one of our local osprey that I saw about two weeks ago on the reservoir. He's welcoming you because this time of year they will loudly welcome you when they see you. So the reservoir is 860 acres in the summer. Water levels do vary, so the size will vary a little bit. Six miles long, it has about 18 miles of shoreline. And what is around it is Mount Mansfield State Forest, 37,000 acres. So that's why the area around it is also a precious resource. So on your maps, what we're going to do is we're going to take a clockwise tour around the reservoir. And we're going to start at the dam, the Waterbury Dam, and where there's access there. And this is the Waterbury Dam, and obviously without the dam there would be no reservoir. We would have the Waterbury mud hole. And the dam itself is almost 1,900 feet long and 187 feet high. And anyone that's taken one of the dam tours that are periodically offered can really get a chance to see this. It's really a fascinating structure. And I'm not an engineer, but I'm amazed, and I'm certainly amazed at this. So we all know about the flood in 1927, which drove the people to the roofs, and it was less than 10 years later. The CCC and the Army Corps of Engineers constructed the dam that made the reservoir. The CCC camp had more 80 buildings, 2,000 men as a memorial to some men who died in a tragic incident. And you see that as we're going up the road towards Little River State Park, that monument is there. We're not going to spend a lot of time on that because where's Judy? I understand next week you're going to have a whole presentation focused on the fascinating history of the CCC camp. So, but that is, we consider that as part of the reservoir. Of the old campgrounds for the CCC. Yes. A third has been completed. Oh, excellent. And this summer they're going to do the other two thirds. Fantastic. Yeah, that's great. And she's amazing by the way. That just increases the number of trails and user friendly areas around the reservoir. So this is, you don't have to read all that, but essentially what that's important for people to know is that the dam has undergone a risk assessment. There's a report that's coming out probably this year or next year. And sometime in the next three to five years, repairs are going to have to be made and the dam is going to have to be lowered. Now how much, how to agree and for how long, hopefully it won't be a complete drain like was done, you know, 20 years ago. But they do have to make the repairs. There'll be advanced notice to everybody about that. The Department of Environmental Conservation and the Army Corps of Engineers, they will hold public events to inform people who have already held some to show this process for assessing the dam. And obviously if the dam is being repaired and the water level has to go down, that may affect some of the recreation on the reservoir, some of the campsites, some of the state parks. But that's still kind of in flux because they're still planning on what repairs, how long they're going to take. So it's a process. One thing that's interesting is the state of Vermont owns this dam. All right. And you may have all heard or seen the information about the controversy over the Green River Reservoir Dam. One big difference is the Waterbury Reservoir Dam has the U.S. Corps of Engineers involved in the maintenance repair and all that. The Green River has no Army Corps of Engineers. It has nothing to do with the Green River Dam. It's just more still water and light. So that makes, that's a big difference. So you really can't compare the two situations. And so from the dam, we're heading northwest to Little River State Park. And Little River State Park is very large, very popular, but it's a lovely campground. I've stayed there, even living 10 miles down the road. I've stayed there early season and late season. It's very pretty. It has tents, RV sites, 32s and five cabins, which a lot of the state parks have gone to now. Four walls and closed little cabins. They're really cute. So the trails around the state park, which also generally consider the CCC camp trails, they're popular with hikers and mountain bikers. And if you take the trails up towards the old rickard farm and things like that, you can see the old cemeteries, the old cellar holes. If people don't steal them, you know, some of the old bottles and household implements that are found are left on the stone walls. And that was from the early 1800s. And what's interesting is the trails that are up there now, it's an amazing system of mountain bike trails up there now. In the last five to six years, it's absolutely incredible what the Waterbury Area Trails Alliance has done, but it's not for free. You know, they're getting grants, they work. If a mountain biker wants to win and use those trails, they have to get a pass from the state park. And they have to park in a designated area. So it's a cooperative effort between the state parks and the mountain bikers. Mountain bikers aren't just taking advantage of this great environment without a cost. And it's a really good relationship between the two. Waterbury Area Trails Association is a really responsible organization. The state park area. We're going to go north along the western shore of the reservoir. We're going to go past where the no-wings on markers are. So from Little River State Park north, there's I don't know how many tenths of a mile, power boats can still go at whatever speed is safe, I guess. But once they hit those no-wings on markers, north of that, they cannot create a wake when they're traveling. And beyond that is where we're going to start seeing the remote campsites, which are paddling only campsites. Paddling in our boat in. You also might see one of the floating rangers. And the floating rangers, that's Chad Hummel. Many of you know him and been out there. He's moved up the ladder in the state parks. He's now an assistant regional director. And Ben Fulton, who was Chad's assistant last year, is now going to be in charge of the floating rangers. The remote campsite rangers. And you might see a little mink hiding along the shoreline. Well, every reservoir is one of the places where every year, at least once or twice, I'll see a little mink. If they actually sit still long enough, I can actually get a picture. And this is a campsite, the northern end. This happens to be one of my favorite campsites, because it's kind of tucked in and it's very close to the water and is right across from where the eagles hang out. So there's Judy's friend. She might not remember him. Maybe she's forgotten, but anyway. So what's amazing about the campsites is anyone that's been out there or even knows that geography of the reservoir, there's ledge on some sides of that, steep, steep ledge. And every campsite now has a moldering privy at the campsite. People that used to camp out there before the state took over the campsites, you may remember the disgusting, vile, unhygienic mess in the woods behind the rocks, behind the tree, up in the tree. It was disgusting. So it's better that, you know, obviously they didn't build them all, 28 campsites, I think. It was a gradual process, but I think two years ago they finished the last one, which involved the youth conservation corps going up a ledge. And at site 15, it's quite a climb up to the privy. Chad used to call it Machu Puchu, because it's Machu Puchu to get up. This is the one at 16, which is my site, where it's kind of a lovely little traverse. You go back there. It takes about eight minutes to get up there, so you have to time things really well. But they do have walls. They do have a roof. And any of us who have camped at Green River know that you have the lovely thrones with a view, shall we say. No walls, no roof. So now we're going to come up to the landslide area. Just anyone that's, you know, been in Waterbury area around the rest of our past few years knows the landslide areas heard of it. When a heavy rain event in May, early June of 2019, some mountain bikers were hiking up beyond Foster's Trail, and suddenly the mountain was sliding, the hillside was sliding down next to them. And at least three acres of earth slid into the reservoir of the Cotton Brook Delta. Used to be a nice little, the Cotton Brook came in and there was a nice shoreline. Camp site was there. It came out on a peninsula. Peninsula though, all gone now. So A&R has been doing studies, immediately went out, did studies, the aerial photos. The aerial photos. And this is some of them. And what you don't get here is the perspective, because that's three acres of mud just sliding down. Think of the pictures you see in Hawaii, the volcanoes with the lava pouring down. It was like that, but it was mud. Thick glutinous sticky clay mud, taking trees, wildlife, you know, all the ground cover, rocks, rocks that could move boulders, all but tumbled down to the reservoir. This is my dog, and all that area, this was about a week after the landslide. That is all mud, and all used to be water. You know, it was completely mud, and the water, it was like paddling through coffee. It was just so thick and so much. You could paddle through, you could pick up your paddle and the mud was coating your paddle. This is an aerial picture that A&R took with their drone. And all that mud, this, you can see all the way out, around and down. That was all reservoirs. That was all water. And in that summer of 2019, there was nothing but a big mud hole. This is a picture I took, again, about two weeks after the landslide with my canoe. And normally, the reservoir width in that section was from A to C. But when I paddled that day, it was A to B. And you couldn't get through the power boat because it was that deep. It was like, I get stuck occasionally, I have to pull my canoe through. But that was how narrow it got. But nature heals itself. And even for the summer of 2020 and 2021, it was really soft at Delta. And you may have seen, if you were out there, a big sign that Chad had to put up Keep Off. Because even though it wasn't technically quicksand, it had the same function as quicksand. People were stepping in at sinking and not being able to get their feet out moving. It was so soft and so gooey. But now, the Delta has grown up. This was, I think, in 2020, 21. This was 2020, two years ago, where the end of the year, where the grass was just starting to grow up a year after the landslide. And basically, Philly used to be reservoir there. But now, at least, it's not a big mud hole. Growth is coming up and the birds love it. I've seen so much wildlife in there. And there also now is, once again, you can see the river or the cottonbrook. You can't paddle up all the way, you can't paddle very far because you get up and it gets too shallow. But you can at least see where the brook feeds into the river. It's more clearly defined. It has a peninsula on one side of the peninsula. And the other thing used to be there. But now, it's a much more natural flow of the brook down into the reservoir. So this cottonbrook end, the northern end of the reservoir, is full of wildlife. And it has no campsites within that circle. The farthest north campsite on the western shore is number 19. On the eastern side, it's number 18. And beyond that, there's no campsites. And that's where the wildlife hang out. I saw that bear when I was camping about two years ago. Just walking across, right across the landslide area. There he goes, happiest to be. And just north of site 19, there's a big bank. And I couldn't manage to save it clear enough. But when the reservoir was drained about 20 years ago, the water was about six feet down to that was ground. Where a picture of my son, who was about eight at the time, standing with his mountain bike, like what would now be eight feet underwater, that same spot. Because that's what would turn around. We'd walk to the big landslide and turn around. But that slide now, and there's even more, when I saw it the other day, trees that have come all down on it. But it's a pretty cool slide because the snapping turtles will crawl up there. And it's almost vertical. And they'll go up 10, 12 feet. When they see whoop, they'll slide right down. The painted turtles hang out the lower section. And northern roughland swallows, if you look, sometimes you'll see the little holes where they go in to do their little nesting. And even the belted kingfisher's apparently will nest in there. I have not seen a belted kingfisher come out of a hole there, but I've seen many belted kingfisher's on all the dead trees that hang down in that area. So the northern end is, unfortunately, the area where it's most obvious that the reservoir is facing an issue with brittle myad, which is an invasive species. And as the summer goes along, you realize when you're paddling the northern end, it's harder and harder to drag your paddle through the water because you're dragging it through, I call it vegetable paddling, or salad paddling, because you're going through all the foliage that's just growing and just taking over the area under the surface of the water. We're going to talk a little bit about the invasive species in a little bit. So this is a great blue heron, which is our logo, is a great blue heron. This guy caught himself a little fish when I was watching him. And herons are considered an indicator species. An indicator species is a species that tells you if a water body is healthy. So the fact that we have great blue herons is a good sign. Just as I was coming in, was anyone listening to VPR and hearing the story about the river otters in the Detroit? For the first time ever, a guy got a picture of a river otter in the Detroit river, which was amazing because river otters will only live where water is clear. I see them here all the time. So for that's an indicator species. The river otter is also an indicator species. If you see river otters, that water is going to be clean. They're not going to live in polluted, crooked, dirty water. But we like the heron because that's our, the great blue heron, because that's our logo. And there are over 50 bird species that can be seen on the reservoir. I've seen about 35 of them. And if you know this lackey, the birding expert from Stowe, she's fantastic. She does her Loon Watch every year, which is the third Saturday of July every year. Every water body that has lunes in it, the state volunteers go out and count lunes and count lune chicks. And she does our watery reservoir one because I do the Loon Watch at Green River. So she's done it for many years, even before our organization. And last year I think she detected, she doesn't count lunes because she's an expert birder. She counts every other bird. And she counted over 46 birds in a 12 period on a Saturday morning in July. And one of the species, which is pretty cool, I don't have a picture of it, for the first time ever, she had found a marsh ram in the watery reservoir up at the Crodden Brook End. And I heard about that, I was all excited because so now my search was to find a marsh ram. I listened to it, I listened to the sound it makes on my eBird account so I get familiar with it. I went out about two weeks after that and I was paddling in the marsh areas and I said, I hear it, I hear a marsh ram. I hear a marsh ram but I have to see it to believe it. I don't trust my auditory identification skills. Sure enough, there are some grasses sitting upside down with this big, you know, ring tail going up and down was a marsh ram. I got a picture of it, a video clip of it and I went to Liz's juice. Yes, you found him, yes! So I can check that lifer off. We have eagles at the northern end. We have a pair, we have a juvenile. This year I've only seen one of the adults and one juvenile. In years past I've seen two mature adults and a juvenile. So I'm worried that our other eagle might have caught gabion's lure or something. But I'll keep watching. We have green herons, one of my favorite birds. Osprey, this time of year especially. They're quite popular. Anyone on the bird on the right is, take a guess. Be brave. It's a bald eagle. It's an immature bald eagle. And we have them, but this is quite a young one. He's got a lot of brown, no white heart at all. She was, I think, a year and a half. She had a little green band on her leg and under that, and the other one had a silver band. The silver band is a federal band. The green band, I looked it up, meant that she was tagged in New Jersey. And I, my camera, I don't have a super zoom or anything. So I couldn't get like any numbers off it. But I sent the best pictures I could to Margaret Fowle, our bird, our eagle expert in Vermont. Because I hadn't heard back from the New Jersey people because my email probably just went in their spam folder. But she got in touch with them and the people from New Jersey told me that it's a female. She was banded in New Jersey like a year and a half before I took this picture. I think it was about a year and a half, a little a year and four months, something like that. And they sent me a video clip because when she was hatched and fledged, they had a camera, a bird cam on the nest. So I was able to see this bird happy. But I haven't seen her since. I'm always looking for banded birds. And then we also have mammals. We don't just have birds and reptiles and things like that. So we have porcupines. And very often we see the deer. You can't quite see in that picture, but there was a fawn right behind her. And this is the time of year when I go out, I expect that I will see the fawns with the does. I see them swimming across the reservoir. Mama leading the little baby and the little baby. 2019, another exciting moment for me was I was paddling out at Cotton Brook and I looked over and I said, oh my God, there's a loon on a nest. There has never been until this time a documented case of a loon nesting on the watery reservoir. So I took pictures. And the reason that loons have not been successful in the watery reservoir is that fluctuation in the water level. Because of their anatomy, loons have to nest close to the water. Their feet are way back on their body. If you've ever seen a, I have a video, but I didn't put it on there. If you've ever seen a loon trying to walk on land, it's pretty funny. It's pretty cartoonish actually. They're not built for land. They're built for water. So they have to nest close to the water. Which makes problematic on a reservoir. So this loon is so excited. Eric Hanson, who's the state, and you may have seen the presentations from him, the state director of the loon program, and he centered the picture. He's like, yes, yes, watch that nest, watch that nest. Of course within a week, we had torrential rains, which led to the last flood, and the nest was gone. So that August, Eric suggested that maybe we could set out a loon raft. Even though it was after the nesting season for loons, they tend to nest. They're starting to pick out the nest spots now, and by the end of May, they'll be nesting, they'll hatch, and by the 4th of July, usually the chicks are born, 28-day incubation time. And this was in August by the time we got to it. But he said, at least let's get it out there. The loons can kind of get used to the fact that it's there, because the loons are still around. And a loon raft is basically a square of big timbers with wire mesh, the same mesh that's used for lobster traps, put over the top of it, with flotation underneath, anchored down with cinder blocks. And onto that platform, Eric and Francine and I helped Eric Hanson. We put mud on it. We put moss on it. We put trees on it. We basically planted it to make it another little marsh island for the loons. And every year, we have to go out in the spring because of the water levels and the ice in the reservoir. We can't leave ours out in the water. We have to pull it on to shore. And we have to get out and do the messy, wet, muddy job of dragging this thing back out, replanting it, getting it in position. That was two seasons ago, wasn't it? That was in 2019. We did that. And then this year, Mike joined us this year. Wasn't it fun? Thankfully, he had his waiters on. I had my dry suit because someone's going to get wet. You know, someone has to win the water and get wet. We have not had the loons nest on it yet. In 20 or 21, we haven't had the nest on it. We put the signs. People are in the water seeing the signs that say loom nesting area, please stay away. We put those out around it. And I have a picture of the loons swimming around the signs that say, loom nest here. And I'm yelling at those, no looms, over there. And then last year, I go out, and 100 feet from a loom nest is essentially the same little Marci Island where they tried to nest before. And I look over and the two looms are mating. They're like, no, no looms. You're not in the right spot. So we moved the raft over, just thinking, well, they kind of like that area apparently, suits their needs or something. But they didn't. So this year, when we positioned it, we positioned it closer to where they first nested kind of in the general area where they were mating last year and out of the main flow of traffic. If you paddle out or boat out from Cotton Brook, you know, when you get out past the channel where the river comes in, you have that narrow section where this Marci Island is on your left as you're paddling out. Marci on the right. You didn't want the nest in there even though the looms might like it there because it's just so much traffic that we couldn't put the signs up. So it's out and we're just keeping our fingers and web feet crossed. So then at the far end of the reservoir is the Moscow Paddlers Access Area which the state, again in conjunction with Green Mountain Power and the management plan put a lovely improved the access area for the parking improved the, it's just a kayak and canoe access, no powerboat access. They improved it very nice but we do get high water events in the reservoir and on the right you can see that same kiosk with water up to right here. I've paddled in from the cornfield where the whole road is flooded the canoe went on the road and paddle in on the road. I think it was that day it was my guess that I did that. So then we've gone up and we're going to head back now. We were up to the far northern end and we're heading back south and it's a little broader still some campsite scattered around. You might see some of the fishermen. This is actually the area where I am most likely to run into fishermen and they might be looking for rainbow tout, brown tout, small moat bass, bull head, yellow perch any sort of other, other things too, Mike. These are some of the fishermen that you might see out there. Michael, can you identify the fish for us? I hope I can. Okay. My wife, the two ones that my wife has are small moat bass. Very representative. There are bigger ones there. There are five pounders in the reservoir not that they're frequent and the one that is a beautiful brown trout. Yeah, he's beauty. That was caught just down from the dam if people recognize there are cliffs over there but that was actually cheating a little bit because some of the that fish was caught not illegally it was caught after the season that you can't take them so that fish was released. One way back. But those are the Fish and Wildlife Department they have trophy fish that sometimes they stop. They have brewed fish that are too old to keep in the hatcheries and sometimes they stock and we just happen to be there the day that we got the stocking. And they were all hungry. Oh yeah, they were hungry. They didn't hesitate to bite on anything. And then I'm not sure what Mr. Loon has but I've seen Loon eat bigger fish than that on the reservoir. Is anyone here and they all here seeing Loon eat a big fish? Little fish they just you know pop down whatever. The big fish they basically they dive under water and they shred it and then they come up and they go on to eat some more they basically shred the fish just going along. But there have been Loon that have died from choking on a fish that's too big. So. Chew your food slowly. Exactly. But if you ever see them going at it they don't slow it. And then they come up and they got peace and every now and then I'll see them fighting with the fish and the fish is still fighting back. That doesn't usually last very long though. That's why it's so important oh no go ahead. That's why it's so important that I don't know how many years it must be close to 20 years ago that the state of Vermont banned the use of the lead lead split shot and sinkers and stuff like that anything less than a four rounds. Right. But a lot of things is Loon and ducks and stuff like that. Well chocolate Loon though when we get to the bids but there was it was just I was just hearing Eric Hansen talk last week on BPR and if a Loon eats one little tiny lead sinker it's dead. It cannot survive. And of course there you know they're fish and they'll feed off the bottom and they other other fish that have caught whatever so they're going to get that and it kills them and I found three dead Loon in the past five years thankfully none of them were lead poisoned they died from the Fungal Infection of the Loon So concretions Oh yeah Who's heard of concretions? Oh we got some to hand around. I need a bag though. Yeah we need a bag I want a bag so one looks like makes a mouse this one is just like a blob a blob is mine a little bit like well we don't talk we don't talk about what it looks like but anyway but they're they're they look like somebody might have caught them So do you know where to find them on the reservoir? If you know what they are do you know where to find them? This is where you find them The concretion what it is it's obvious it's hard it's compact and it's a it's a massive matter and it's that big hillside kind of diagonally southeast of the Little River State Park that big sandy hillside over there and what happens is it's just this chemical process that happens with the minerals the sand water the rain water the sand and the pressure as it gets put on there creates these amazing shapes so if you go out to that every now and then you'll see if you go out there you'll see kids climbing up in there and I think they're just climbing because it's a fun big sand hill I don't think they know what they might find but that's a pretty cool thing and I don't know it's the only place I know around in Vermont I don't know I suppose there are other places in Vermont where it can be found I find them in my garden oh cool okay because something about the same kind of soil and the same kind of environmental circumstances yeah so often I'm sure they just get you know kids looking for cool stuff they just get tossed aside because they just think it's a rock but I think they're pretty cool it's an elephant rock an elephant rock it's a pretty characteristic projection of rock onto the res where it's almost right under the power lines that go across from Blush Hill to Gregg Hill and it is a designated day use of the state park so people can paddle in people can also walk in on Gregg Hill Road but they're not allowed to camp there and for many years that was a big problem because it was a cypher many a wild crazy party and you know long term camping and you know bad bad situ bad scene whatever of course the folks that live on Gregg Hill Road have to deal with the parking and the cars and the noise and the trash and the litter and the debris I use it a lot in the winter just for fun snowshoe just a quick half hour snowshoe up elephant rock and it's really pretty and it's very quiet in the off season no one's around the reservoir is quiet you can hike out there and it's completely empty but in the summer it is a crazy busy spot between the swimmers and the people jumping up and the picnickers and the kayakers and the paddlers and the power boats going through that narrow stretch of the reservoir so one of our concerns as an organization is safety for all users on the reservoir not just paddlers not just stand-up paddle boarders power boaters swimmers water skiers you know if someone's towing their 12 year old kid on a water boat kids water skiing you don't want that boat to suddenly have to you know steer to avoid a paddler or something like that because that could endanger the safety of the kids skiing behind the boat so we really try to emphasize safety we try not to preach but obviously any safety messages sometimes can come across as preaching but we try to emphasize is that the rest of us are everyone and that if everyone calms down takes it easy and thinks before they act and tries to respect the existing rules whether it's the 200 foot rule that power boats have to follow not creating a wake or within a boat or whether it's swimmers that we've put together some posters and some information last year for swimmers to remind them when swimmers are swimmers with elephant rock to the Davis area a blood shield to the Davis area that they're crossing a motorboat area and that maybe they should wear a bright orange swim cap or tow a swim buoy behind them or have a paddler with them some way to let them be visible because it's their safety we're worried about their safety we're going to Elmer Rock where a lot of people originated which was Waterbury Santa State Park which is very busy and one of the things that Francine might be able to address this I have not when you leave elephant rock and head up towards the state park on that far shoreline if the water is clear which since the landslide it's been hard to be really clear the conditions have to be just right in the shallow water there you can see foundations remnants of the buildings that were there before the reservoir there's a little cove over just past elephant rock if you tuck in there the water's fairly shallow so you don't see motorboats in there but if you're on a paddle board or a kayak you're really within a few feet of foundations of the original farms that were there and it's and when you're when it was when it was drained in 2000 you could see where all the roads were the bridges were and if you follow those the foundations are really close to where the roads were because people didn't like to plow back then so they always built their houses very close to the road so it's fascinating if you have a chance to go out there and just take take time to really look under the water you'll see it and you can see streams coming in there and there are also some pretty good sized bridge abutments when there was a road going the road came from the water center right through and over to the yeah so pretty cool yeah so in the state park you know very busy and on the right we have Eric and Walter Carpenter a ranger from the water center state park what are they holding well they're holding one of our fish line recycling bins and this is the monofilament fishing line recycling bins and there'll be all five access areas three last year we're going to add it to the dam and we're going to add one at the little river state park boat access for the campers there and we have labels on them and we have information signs for the fishermen above and the people just to remind them why because the fishing line you know is to protect our wildlife and the sign that actually goes above you know explains that and Sheila didn't the chat actually untangled well the the reason right we started it last year because the year before ranger chat Amal had got a call about a cormorant was entangled in fishing line now I don't know anyone that loves cormorants they're pretty good for pictures because they sit still but you know they're kind of we call them but whatever you think about cormorants no bird should be left to starve to death because it's beak is entangled in fishing line that's just not right so Chad went out with a big net he managed to catch the cormorant who wasn't very happy he managed to get the fishing line untangled now my experience paddling all over the northeast and in Canada I was aware of the danger of fishing line and I've had every year if I find bobbers or sinkers or I collect everything I find and at the end of the year I usually have a tackle box full of stuff that I've collected because there's danger to the wildlife and the birds so we knew that a bird had already gotten entangled and the cormorant was our test case but in the future it could be one of our bald eagles it could be one of our looms it could be one of our green herring or you know mallards or our wood ducks so we were able to be able to fish and perch in the trees and raise their young without the danger of being entangled in fishing line and though the bins are designed for the monofilament fishing line because of the danger it presents and because the fact that it doesn't right away goes to the landfill and other birds can get into it we also found people putting discarded lures broken bobbers hooks leaders sinkers in the bin we know that's not the purpose we weren't complaining about that at all because if those sinkers and the leaders were in our recycling bin they weren't on the ground or someone was going to eat them so the Waterbury Saturday Park is a great starting point for all new water activities Kayak or standup paddle board he was really big there there's a group that does standup paddle board yoga I guess you gotta have a good balance for that I'd be a little younger than I am and then if you're really lucky at the day Euceria you can see the amazing athletes from the Northeast Disabled Athletic Association in action has anyone seen them and what they can do they are it is amazing Kathy Webster's program they're based primarily at Waterbury Center the day Euceria but they have started branching out they come to Green River a couple times a year no one gets turned away it doesn't matter what your level of disability what's your level of motor function or motor challenge you have is Kathy will find a way to put you in a kayak and have you own enjoying the water and Drew Bressel takes the pictures for them and she shared these with us I'm just curious why don't you sit on top kayaks it seems like it would be if someone's disabled you know for some people they might they might but a lot of these folks it's a wide range of challenges from folks that have had strokes that may only have movement on one side of their body to folks that are paraplegic that have extremely limited motion and it's all the kayaks are adapted without rigors paddle assist so that the paddle sits on a frame basically and the person can do a complete kayak paddle with just this much motion it's absolutely amazing and there's a whole system for getting the folks in and out of the boat but that's a good question Mike and I don't this is what you know Kathy uses but I things would just be natural it would be easy for someone maybe there's some disability you'd want the right you know the closure but I would think someone you know who you know was paralyzed it would just be easier to sit yeah Kathy you know get out there Thursday mornings or out there I think get out there watch them and ask Kathy she's fantastic she's great she's the woman in the pink tank top so when we leave the days there we head over back towards the Blue Shield boat access and we pass by the waterski slalom course we set up the Green Mountain waterskiers and I've only seen them a couple of times if I paddle from Blue Shield it's usually about six in the morning but that's it makes sense for them to come out early and the Blue Shield access was completely rebuilt a few years ago such as the dam access was and the Cottonbrook access was it's part of the agreement of Green Mountain power with the state with the management plan for the whole reservoir they really improved it it's really nice but it still draws thousands and thousands and thousands and people every year you know the big boats and the trailers and people trying to turn around and the people with their kids and their kayaks trying to get out it's it's not a it's not the best situation we're aware of that we are we always hear about that it's a town road it's not a it's not part of the state park system but state park works with the town to put a portapotty there you know help with other things there's an increased parking area up there they're in the process on the blush hill area they it's already gone through the DRB for the additional parking which should hopefully alleviate a little bit of this we just got the permit last week didn't go like that so I mean the town has been aware for a number of years if they put signs up that say no parking what do we think what happens to the signs they get torn down or they get shot up so so everyone is aware of that but the improvement over the axis is really nice and blush hill is one of our primary sites for the invasive species Greta program we talked about the Brunelnaya to the northern end but our Greta program primarily is a blush hill but also a little bit sometimes at the dam and hopefully this year with some additional people and with our intern we can increase our presence and the Greta's have the signs they're there usually on weekends busy times so that boats coming in to the reservoir we know where they've been if they've been at a lake that has Eurasian millfoil or another invasive species we're going to want to know that we're going to check that they also will check boats coming out of our reservoir to make sure that our boaters aren't transporting Brunelnaya or anything else that might show up in the reservoir with other water bodies and the Greta's have had as many interactions with boaters during the season and that's just on weekends you know it's not it's 8 to 10 hours a week you know total probably and every boat doesn't get interactive because obviously a four boaters are coming down the Greta's dealing with one the others aren't going to wait usually they're going to want to win most people are good okay thank you most people are really good apparently according to Zach and even though Brunelnaya is what we find in ours some of the other curly pond curly leaf pond weed and some of the Eurasian water milk oil has been found on boats headed to our reservoir we want to get those before they get in our reservoir so now we're going to head back to the dam under the view of Hamelshump and Bolton back to our starting point which basically is at the dam and the dam access and now our tour is complete so we hope you can get out and enjoy your own actual trip around this great local resource we'll see you out there is that a real frog? that's a real frog yes it was a cotton actually and the otter I love seeing otters on the reservoir they don't like seeing me all the time but I love seeing them so any questions or comments or anything make sure if you can come to the presentation of the CC camp next week I highly recommend it on the 5th next Wednesday at 6.30 Marty Potscotch is from Connecticut he's written a couple of books one on the Out Around X and One on CCK camps in Connecticut and Anne's been great with giving me a ton of information and he's like a kid in a candy store the next book is going to be Vermont so he's just thrilled but anyway he's been wonderful to deal with I should say to interact with again and so come out he's a historian and a retired teacher and loves nothing more than to talk about just the the CCC camps in Waterbury was the largest Vermont has 30 of them and Waterbury was the largest so we know about the dam and the other was right down here where the swimming pool and the tennis courts are and I didn't even realize that until Marty told me Marty from Connecticut yes Anne he was looking for a picture of that but we have one upstairs it's the small right I took a picture of that and it was a glare and everything but he's coming next Wednesday at noon and so he'll we'll be up yeah we'll be we'll be up yeah so anyway please do come to that presentation it should be a lot of fun yes so this presentation is going to be or a committee or a committee and how will people access it I will send the information okay yeah alright we we'll have it up on our website on the Waterbury the website after Gilberto does his work and such and then it'll be on their website as well right and then and then it will be on our website for friends of Waterbury Reservoir and also hopefully we'll get it on our Facebook page within the next week which is Friends of Waterbury Reservoir is a type of Facebook yes have you seen any Fischer Castle that way at all I have not but I've heard them well I know I believe I've heard them that pretty distinctive part I live along who drive and right behind us in the woods up there there's a pair of Fischer Castle a pair they're probably screaming quite a bit yeah they're pretty cool we give them the coyotes as I get to say something oh yeah the coyotes absolutely absolutely we've got some business cards up on the desk if anybody has questions you can contact Friends of Waterbury Reservoir yeah anything from one of them is going to be maybe lower when the water is going to be lower to what's out there events whatever so feel free to take that and anything else that you want I did want to oh I need to get a question here you're sick as they I took a tour on the time to both of the Reservoir whatever it happened to them not sure who was doing it I know we've seen the pontoon boats out there I don't know if they actually there's a fall foliage tour that it might have been it might have been there was about 20 years ago it would have been around the time there was a draining and refreshing it you know when it was refilled maybe they did it and there is a fellow who runs the who runs the foliage tours who is it the fishing the fly fish fly fish or Bob Shannon they can look very popular foliage boat tours sort of pontoon boat but maybe that and I just wanted to really thank you guys so much for all of your hard work because I know before the organization started you know there was there were a ton of voter votes and I'm not putting down voter votes to understand but there was a lot of I want to say I don't know is misuse the right word but the organization I've just been so blessed to have you guys amongst us and all the hard work you do and I know so many of the members so I just want to say oh thank you thank you so much and thank you yeah and you know one more thing Nikki just so you didn't all know who the board members are there are actually five of us here Walt who works over at the day there is also Mike Bob if you don't know him you should and then of course Eric myself and Sheila and then this year so the I just a quick shout out to the invasive species Greeter program so this program was started by the previous treasurer Chuck Cloteca who many of you may know and I took it over when I became treasurer a couple years ago we were able to grow it this year thanks to not only the internet from the ANR but also some generous donations from other people in this community and outside of this community so we will actually have three paid Greeters on the reservoir they'll be their weekends mostly our intern Ashley is going to because she works locally in the weekends she's going to do some during a week which will be the first time we have somebody doing that and we'll see how much we're missing I think we've been and also we also have another Greeter who will be a volunteer with Ashley and that's our beautiful daughter Lumira and so she just took the training and she called me and said mom this is going to be hard there's a lot to this and it's a great program and it's a statewide program and a lot of the data we collect is incredibly important to the to the state to really get a handle on the invasive species and where they are and where they're going in this state and so if you see anyone out there with a bright yellow shirt that says Greeter on the back say hi to them and Greeter and just be kind and understand that they're there to really help the whole community and as I said Ashley will be out there during the week and Lumira will also be out there during the week so we will have quite a presence probably more than a lot of years ago so anyway that's it yes would you have contact information for the National for this National Disability Athletic Association um they do you do Facebook no okay I will you know I'll play one of our cards on the Facebook page but he doesn't do Facebook because we do have a link for it they have a great Facebook page because they post all their pictures if you want to I'll send you a link to the website if we get your information alright one last thing I would be remiss not to mention this uh we do this all this stuff is not free so we would love love to have you all as members you know contribute as little or as much as you can we do get some grant money from the state of Vermont which supports the Greeter program I know you know I've worked hard you know through the town of Waterbury we get a thousand dollars from the town of Waterbury and we do get some of the we are supported by the town of Stowe uh $500 a year which is great and um and then as I said we've been able to reach out and uh Lawson's Finest they give us a very nice you know we specifically ask to support the Greeter program with them and they were generous and with that for us as well and there are others up to the plate so we're excited to see to get that program a little bit more robust this year and we'll hopefully we'll see some little results when everyone's few dollars does add up you know if you could donate five ten you know we would love if you could donate a hundred five hundred but again if enough people a lot of people use the reservoir if everyone just gave a little bit especially to keep all the invasions out of the reservoirs so so important because this is I as I think Eric and I always call the Crown School of Water Marine I know I don't have a smart phone I don't do that so we actually our business cards are here we don't have phone numbers it's easier so there are few of us monitor the email it's easier for us if you email your questions and your thoughts and your concerns and your thank yous to that email address to whoever can answer your questions she just wants to try to stand the QR codes if you wanted to donate was this this was work? this works it should okay or you can go to our website okay this is our swimming pool