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Master's Project: An Ecological Inventory And Assessment Of The Pond Brook Region In Monkton, Vermont, Lyra D. Brennan

Rubenstein School Masters Project Publications

The Pond Brook Watershed in Monkton, Vermont, is a 19,000-acre patchwork of northern white cedar swamps, oak-covered ridgetops, and prime agricultural soils. Over 95% of the watershed is privately owned, limiting ecologists’ abilities to conduct a landscape-scale field assessment or determine significant natural resources within the area. I was hired by the Agricultural and Natural Areas Committee of Monkton [ANAC] to conduct an ecological assessment of the Pond Brook Watershed by visiting a diverse sampling of privately-owned parcels and inventorying the 300-acre town owned wetland.

I worked with over 30 individual landowners to understand current and historical land use in …