CAVENDISH, Vt. – Culverts are designed to convey stormwater runoff, but can easily become clogged with fallen leaves, vegetation, and debris, which can lead to flooding. For Green Up Day this year, May 2, as people are picking up trash, we are encouraging people to take the time to check culverts, ditches, and drains (aka culverts and closed drainage systems, or CCDs) in and around where they live, to make sure they are clear.
To help the community learn more about CCDs and how to care for them, a free workshop, open to the public, is being held on April 22, at the Cavendish Library, 573 Main Street in Proctorsville, from 5:30-6:30 p.m. As part of the workshop, participants will download and use an open-source phone app to monitor culvert conditions and report to road crews. One of the advantages of the app is that you can continually monitor the CDDs where you live, comparing changes seasonally and yearly. The workshop also includes how to clear out culverts safely, ridding them of vegetation and debris that could block their flow. Please note, there is no crawling in culverts involved.
Culvert Crawlers is a citizen-science, grassroots effort to prevent flooding that is a collaboration with Black River Action Team, Cavendish Connects, and the Rural Rivers Project at Dartmouth.
As part of Green Up Day this year, there will be special Culvert Crawlers teams in Cavendish and Springfield. For more information on the workshop, or to register with one of the Culvert Crawlers teams on Green Up Day, call 802-226-7807, or email culvert.crawlers@gmail.com or cavendishconnects@gmail.com.