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When water floods our streets, we may look to the closest river as the source, but the origins of that flow might be surprisingly far afield. In this program, we will look at topographical maps of our region to understand the drainage areas of familiar streams and how they connect to form the Winooski River watershed, then zoom in on downtown Montpelier to explore how water flows through a developed landscape. Finally, we’ll learn about the work being done by the Winooski Flood Resilience Collaborative to help our watershed communities work together to seek nature-based solutions to climate change challenges.

About the Presenter: Michele Braun has been the Executive Director of Friends of the Winooski River since 2017. She has a master of science degree in Natural Resources Planning, and has worked nationally on sustainable communities initiatives and locally as a land use planner. These experiences supported her work managing home buyouts for the Town of Northfield following Tropical Storm Irene, and collaborating with Friends of the Winooski to develop the Dog River Park floodplain project. Ecological restoration has become one of her favorite things, especially because it has so many benefits: clean water, healthy habitat, and flood resilience.

About our Naturalist Journeys 2026 Winter Presentation Series: This season is about understanding how our watersheds function, how our rivers flow, and which actions move us towards—or away from—becoming a more resilient riverside community. The series runs December through March.

Naturalist Journeys is made possible by our sponsors:

Hunger Mountain Coop
Onion River Outdoors
Washington Electric Co-op
Catamount Solar
Waite-Heindel Environmental

This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement (LC 00A01526-0) to NEIWPCC in partnership with the Lake Champlain Basin Program.