Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance’s (SeVWA’s) water quality monitoring program was begun about 10 years ago. At that time, the organization was known as West River Watershed Alliance (WRWA). In 2014 there are 26 river and stream sites that SeVWA is monitoring and those sites are in the West River and Williams River watersheds and along the Saxtons River and Whetstone Brook. There are 26 volunteers that sample at those sites every 2 weeks during the summer, with 8 additional volunteers filling-in for the “regulars” on occasional days during the monitoring season. This summer the river monitoring program began on Wednesday, June 18th. The last 2014 sampling date at all sites will be on August 27th.

“How likely: 2 out 4 How severe: 3 out of 4”

“Rain is expected to overspread the region from west to east this evening. The rain will become heavy at times late tonight continuing into Wednesday. The rain may be accompanied by embedded thunderstorms resulting in torrential rainfall. Rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches in one hour are possible in a few locations. This will bring the potential for urban and localized flash flooding. Some small stream flooding is also possible.

Recommended actions: Act quickly. Move to higher ground at once. Get away from places subject to rapid flooding, such as dry Creek Beds or places along streams. Avoid already flooded areas.”

http://www.google.org/publicalerts/alert?aid=f7073f37dfbd078&hl=en&gl=us&source=web

This lonely volunteer shaft of corn is growing downtown, near the firehouse.

Except…

I don’t think its corn.

Looks more like sorghum, but I don’t think sorghum grows in Vermont.

If it is, how did it get here?

Any ideas?

This past Wednesday, July 30th, marked the fourth sampling day of the season for river monitoring by Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance (SeVWA). Earlier in the week heavy rains and thunderstorms brought severe flooding to some towns in our sampling region which includes the West, Williams, and Saxtons rivers as well as North Branch Brook, Rock River, and the Whetstone Brook.

August is vacation month and as everyone prepares to head to new or traditional vacation places, please think about how you can help to maintain healthy waterways. Some of these ways are complying with boating laws and regulations, carrying out all trash, and making sure harsh chemicals are disposed of properly. Also, checking boating equipment for aquatic invasive species helps to prevent the spread of non-native plants and animals into waterways. Think about the steps of CLEAN, DRAIN and DRY as you recreate on waterbodies or move your activities from one waterbody to another. Taking these steps will help prevent the transport of invasive aquatic species from one waterbody to another.

In the iBrattleboro’s column “Today In Local History” of July 28, 2014 the leading entry from 1860 reported:

“A meteoric body was seen passing through the heavens over this village at apparently no very great height on Friday evening of last week. The time was about ten o’clock and not more than a minute was occupied in the passage of the brilliant object. It lighted up the heavens with great brilliancy, and with its long and illuminating train it was momentarily thought to be an enormous piece of fireworks.”

On Oct 20, 2012 Halley’s Comet Orionid Shower visited the Northern Hemisphere and on that night standing in the center of Prospect Graveyard on South Main Street three Brattleboro residents had agreed to meet at 10pm. This is my email newsletter sent the next day: