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Vermont Process-Based Restoration Network

Welcome to the VTPBR Network

The Vermont Process-Based Restoration (PBR) Network is a diverse collaborative of natural resource practitioners working and learning together about process-based restoration practices. The network provides a space for people working on these project types to come together to discuss successes and challenges, navigate regulatory realities, and connect with contractors, consultants, and project managers who might be available to partner on the next project. For upcoming events and meetings, contact Elijah Schumacher.

Contact Elijah

Upcoming events & PBR in the news

Event: Valley Brook Restoration Project, Morgan, VT

A misty stream running through fields

When: September 17, 2026 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm (Rain date: September 22, 2026)

Where: Valley Brook Streambank Management Area, 1435 Valley Road, Morgan, VT

Join Patrick Hurley and colleagues from the Memphremagog Watershed Association (MWA) to walk the Valley Brook restoration site. Patrick and his team designed restoration practices aimed at enhancing roughness and stream-wetland-floodplain function by incorporating wood and rock structures meant to slow flows, encourage sediment deposition, and enhance fish and wildlife habitat complexity. The tour will highlight several aspects of a multi-phase, catchment-scale project which includes removing & upgrading crossing structures, obliterating roads, disconnecting drainage ditches, reconstructing alluvial fans, and acres of riparian plantings. Learn how PBR techniques can be incorporated alongside other restoration practices and discuss the planning, design, permitting, and implementation process.

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Event: Upper Waits River Strategic Wood Addition (SWA), Orange, VT

A person stands in a river in the middle of a forest with branches and tree trunks running through it

When: October 13, 2026 12:30 pm – 4:00 pm (Rain date: October 16, 2026)

Where: Parking area just off US-302, Orange, VT (44.17668, -72.30108)

Jud Kratzer, Fisheries Biologist with Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, has been implementing and studying strategic woody addition projects in Vermont for over a decade and has documented significant increases in brook trout populations at strategic wood addition sites. Visit a section of the upper Waits River with Jud to observe a completed SWA project and discuss wood placement and techniques, permitting, site selection, and more! This project was completed in 2024 and added large wood to 2.7 river miles, improving fish and wildlife habitat structure, bank stability, channel roughness, and floodplain access.

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In the news: Vermont’s brook trout population

Vermont’s state fish is ‘thriving’ despite national population decline | Vermont Public

In the news: beaver coexistence

In rural Vermont, a pioneer of beaver coexistence continues his life’s work | VTDigger

What is Process Based Restoration?

Process-based includes a range of approaches that initiate or accelerate natural hydrologic, geomorphic, and biological processes leading to improved stream and floodplain conditions. PBR practices are adaptive over time to environmental feedback with the goal of encouraging a self-sustaining, dynamic riverscape ecosystems. PBR approaches generally involve adding wood and other natural materials to stream and wetland systems. Methods fall on a spectrum scaled to restoration goals and stream/watershed size, and include beaver mimicry (Beaver Dam Analogs or BDAs), Post-Assisted Log Structures (PALS), Strategic Wood Addition (SWA), brush packing to restore headwater wetland areas, and other techniques.

PBR is different from engineered restoration efforts in that PBR typically uses low-tech, low-emission, and hand-scaled solutions with natural materials that are meant to eventually break down and become part of living and evolving ecosystems. While engineered, fixed solutions are appropriate in certain scenarios where there is a need to stabilize a system (to protect infrastructure, for example), PBR invites us to carefully consider the needs of the site. Rather than automatically turning to expensive solutions with lots of concrete and heavy machinery, whenever possible, PBR opts for lighter-touch, lower-impact solutions where nature does the work for us.

What are the benefits of PBR?

PBR offers a practical, low-impact approach to improving the health and resilience of rivers and floodplains by working with — rather than against — natural systems. Using low-tech, low-carbon methods and locally sourced materials like wood and vegetation, PBR techniques help rivers slow, spread, and store water more effectively. This, in turn, supports cleaner water, richer and more diverse habitat, and stronger resilience to flooding and climate change.

Unlike heavily engineered solutions, PBR encourages dynamic, self-sustaining ecosystems that adapt over time, often at lower cost and with fewer environmental impacts. By harnessing natural processes, PBR not only restores ecological function but also creates more flexible, enduring solutions for landscape stewardship. In short, PBR:

  • Enhances a river’s capacity to store, slow and spread water
  • Maintains and improves water quality
  • Restores more diverse habitat for native plants and wildlife
  • Improves flood and climate resiliency

Common PBR Approaches

1. Beaver Dam Analog

BDAs are hand-built structures that mimic and promote the processes of beaver dam activity. BDAs are permeable structures that can either span or intrude into the channel, constructed with a mixture of woody debris and fill material to promote temporary ponding of water. These can include postless, post-assisted, or post-and-wicker line BDAs. BDA’s are often built using live willow cuttings which can resprout given enough light and water. In Vermont where willow is often not as available as it is in much of the west where this technique was developed, we frequently need to get creative and explore the materials that are available on the local landscape.

2. Post-Assisted Log Structure

PALS are hand-built structures that mimic and promote the processes of wood accumulation. Woody material of various sizes is pinned together with untreated wooden posts that are driven into the substrate. These can include bank-attached, mid-channel, or channel-spanning PALS.

3. Strategic Wood Addition

Strategic wood addition (from the Vermont Strategic Wood Addition Handbook) includes a variety of techniques that can be used to securely add large woody material to streams. In most cases, riparian trees are felled directly into the stream using a chainsaw, although trees could be transported to the stream from upland sites. Strategic wood addition includes “chop-and-drop” and “chop-and-grip” techniques. “Chop-and-drop” is a technique that can be used on streams where the riparian trees are large relative to the channel. In these small streams, manipulation of the downed trees is not necessary to stabilize them. In larger streams, a grip hoist is used to position downed trees in secure locations so that they will be less likely to move during high flow events, hence the “drop-and-grip” method.

4. Brush Packing

This low-tech, cost-effective technique puts large quantities of “slash” – material from vegetative management – toward filtering sediment, reducing erosion, slowing headcut travel upstream, improving habitat, and improving the carbon- and water-sequestering soil sponge of upland landscapes. This is an iterative process and practitioners should revisit sites regularly to check on progress and add more material.

Interested in joining the network?

Contact Elijah

Who we are

Facilitator

close up photo of young man wearing baseball cap and red plaid shirt with pine woods behind. VermontElijah Schumacher is Vermont Land Trust’s Watershed Specialist. He can be reached at elijah@vlt.org

 

 

Steering Committee

pic of man wearing hatShayne Jaquith is The Nature Conservancy in Vermont’s Watershed Restoration Manager. He can be reached at shayne.jaquith@tnc.org

 

 

Shawn White is the Watershed Forestry Partnership’s Watershed Forestry Partnership Coordinator. She can be reached at shawn.white@uvm.edu

 

 

Allaire Diamond portraitAllaire Diamond is Vermont Land Trust’s Ecology and Restoration Program Director. She can be reached at allaire@vlt.org

 

 

Network Design Team

Dorothy Kinney-Landis is Franklin County Natural Resource Conservation District’s Natural Resources Planner. She can be reached at dorothy@franklincountynrcd.org

 

 

Erin Rodgers is Trout Unlimited’s Eastern Region Program Manager. She can be reached at erin.rodgers@tu.org

 

 

Jud Kratzer is a Fisheries Biologist for the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife. He can be reached at jud.kratzer@vermont.gov

 

 

Karina Dailey is the Vermont Natural Resources Council’s Science and Restoration Director. She can be reached at kdailey@vnrc.org

 

 

Lauren Weston is Franklin County Natural Resource Conservation District’s District Manager. She can be reached at lauren@franklincountynrcd.org

 

 

Matt Thorne is The Nature Conservancy in Vermont’s Director of Freshwater & Community Resilience. He can be reached at matthew.thorne@tnc.org

 

 

Patrick Hurley is Memphremagog Watershed Association’s Watershed Project Manager (and principal at Windenwater LLC). He can be reached at phurley@mwavt.org

 

 

Ted Sedell is the Orleans County Natural Resource Conservation District’s Riparian Lands Program Manager. He can be reached at ted.sedell@orleanscountynrcd.org

 

 

Tyler Miller portraitTyler Miller is Vermont Land Trust’s Executive Vice President of Programs. He can be reached at tyler@vlt.org

 

Additional Resources

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Field Note

Leave it to beavers

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View of a restored streambed in Dorset, Vermont
Field Note

Improving flood resilience through small dam removal

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Conserved creek winding through a floodplain of woods and cornfield in Vermont. Meandering creeks in natural floodplains are better for clean water and flood safety.
Field Note

Flood safety and clean water in Vermont: natural, lasting solutions

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Elijah Schumacher

Watershed Specialist

Elijah plays a key role in our Ecology & Restoration Team, with a focus on surface water planning, wetland and ecological assessments, and restoration projects to support the ecological health of working lands. Before joining VLT in 2026, he spent four years as a Wetland Ecologist for the state Wetlands Program, working with landowners and developing his skills in wetland delineation, surface water mapping, restoration planning, and botany. He has also worked on a variety of projects in Kauai’i, Oregon, and New Hampshire. In his free time, he enjoys snowboarding, basketball, gardening with a good audiobook, and coffee shops.

Email
(802) 505-3095

Elijah Schumacher

Watershed Specialist

Elijah plays a key role in our Ecology & Restoration Team, with a focus on surface water planning, wetland and ecological assessments, and restoration projects to support the ecological health of working lands. Before joining VLT in 2026, he spent four years as a Wetland Ecologist for the state Wetlands Program, working with landowners and developing his skills in wetland delineation, surface water mapping, restoration planning, and botany. He has also worked on a variety of projects in Kauai’i, Oregon, and New Hampshire. In his free time, he enjoys snowboarding, basketball, gardening with a good audiobook, and coffee shops.

Email
(802) 505-3095

Elijah Schumacher

Watershed Specialist

Elijah plays a key role in our Ecology & Restoration Team, with a focus on surface water planning, wetland and ecological assessments, and restoration projects to support the ecological health of working lands. Before joining VLT in 2026, he spent four years as a Wetland Ecologist for the state Wetlands Program, working with landowners and developing his skills in wetland delineation, surface water mapping, restoration planning, and botany. He has also worked on a variety of projects in Kauai’i, Oregon, and New Hampshire. In his free time, he enjoys snowboarding, basketball, gardening with a good audiobook, and coffee shops.

Email
(802) 505-3095

Elijah Schumacher

Watershed Specialist

Elijah plays a key role in our Ecology & Restoration Team, with a focus on surface water planning, wetland and ecological assessments, and restoration projects to support the ecological health of working lands. Before joining VLT in 2026, he spent four years as a Wetland Ecologist for the state Wetlands Program, working with landowners and developing his skills in wetland delineation, surface water mapping, restoration planning, and botany. He has also worked on a variety of projects in Kauai’i, Oregon, and New Hampshire. In his free time, he enjoys snowboarding, basketball, gardening with a good audiobook, and coffee shops.

Email
(802) 505-3095