Hadrian’s time in the river was part of an ongoing partnership between VLT and Willowell Foundation, a Monkton-based outdoor education nonprofit that runs a full-time middle and high school program.

In spring 2025, Hadrian’s class assisted VLT’s restoration program in planting stakes and bundled stems of live willow along a severely eroded bank of the Lee River. Through the day, the students also learned why erosion happens, how it influences river health, and what we can do about it.  

Place-based education partnerships like this one are a win-win: students help complete needed projects and learn about sustainable land and water management through hands-on activities.

Photo: Hadrian Wilson, on the left, with a fellow student, and VLT Ecologist Allaire Diamond.

Healthy rivers and streams are messy

When we conserved the Jericho farm a few years ago, we asked its owners — a group of young farmers who run The Farm Upstream — to help us improve the health of the Lee River that runs through the property. Retiring riverside areas from agriculture and encouraging the growth of shrubs and trees there reduces flood risk and improves habitat, here and downstream.  

VLT Ecologist Allaire Diamond jumped at the chance to involve students. A former high school teacher herself, she’s always looking for opportunities to introduce young people to hands-on care for the land.  

“A healthy stream is different than what any of us grew up thinking it was,” said Allaire. “A healthy stream is messy. It’s surrounded by floodplain forest. There might be logjams in it. That mess means tons of organic material that’s going to slow down water, catch sediment, create pools and shade, and support the development of productive habitats.” 

Mimicking nature

The class didn’t just plant willows on the banks — they planted live material into low gravel bars where it will frequently get submerged, for example following a normal summer downpour. Students noticed how willows were naturally growing in nearby gravel bars, and dug in their bundles of willow stems, called fascines, to mimic this natural floodplain formation.

Encouraging woody growth in these places helps create patches of living ‘roughness’ that are critical in a healthy river and floodplain system. And involving students helps them internalize that healthy rivers and streams are messier than we often imagine. 

“On this beautiful spring day, kids were fully experiencing this stream,” said Allaire. “They were falling in pools downstream of a logjam, splashing over cobbles in just a few inches of fast-flowing water, and then getting their feet stuck in the muck of a backwater eddy. All of these sensations help them get to know the diversity of the river.” 

Photo: A student uses a rock to push a willow stem into the bank of the river.