The Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission (TRORC) has been awarded $21,200 from the State’s Ecosystem Restoration Program’s (ERP) to design a floodplain restoration area along Pinney Hollow Brook at the site of the former Farmbrook Motel in Plymouth on VT Route 100A. TRORC will work with a consultant this spring to design a restoration plan for this site that creates new floodplain for this tributary that was ravaged by Tropical Storm Irene. New floodplain access will give the river a chance to deposit debris and sediment as well as water during a flood and will improve the Ottauquechee watershed’s health and lessen flooding and erosion risks in Bridgewater and Plymouth.
TRORC also received a small $3,600 grant from VT ERP’s EPA pass-through funds to map all of the destroyed structures from TS Irene. Many of these sites are buyouts and are being converted to town parks but many have just been demolished. As part of the State’s Ecosystem Restoration Program’s annual grant process, TRORC received these grants which will protect water quality and support TRORC’s work with local, state and federal levels of government and to the Region’s non-profits and businesses as well as to improve the long-term health of the Ottauquechee River and its watershed in central Vermont.