[A]n environmental group is asking the state to apply protections to a nearly 150-acre wetland in Shelburne that would prohibit or slow development in the area.
The Vermont Natural Resources Council petitioned the Agency of Natural Resources on Tuesday to give the LaPlatte River Marsh a Class I designation, the highest level of protection offered through the state.
The designation would prohibit development within the wetland and slow development in a 100-foot-wide buffer around it, said VNRC’s policy and water program director, Jon Groveman.
The LaPlatte River Marsh is near where Vermont Rail System Inc. has built a set of storage sheds for road salt. The town of Shelburne had fought the project in court, and residents raised concerns about its effect on the LaPlatte River.
The Class I designation is for wetlands that possess some or all of 10 characteristics to an “exceptional” degree, said Dori Barton, an ecologist with Arrowwood Environmental who researched the wetlands for the VNRC.
The criteria include a wetland’s contribution to improving or maintaining water quality, storing floodwaters, controlling erosion and providing wildlife habitat, Barton said.
The application for Class I status documents why the LaPlatte River Marsh is probably exceptional in nine of the 10 criteria, Barton said.
Few other wetlands in Vermont have so many types of wetland communities all coexisting, she said.
Vermont has six Class I wetlands, including three newly designated.
Groveman said he hopes the agency will decide on the LaPlatte River Marsh petition within months.
The organization successfully petitioned for Class I status for the Northshore Wetland in Burlington in the 1990s, Groveman said.
VNRC tried unsuccessfully to have another wetland reclassified in the early 2000s.
The group continues to research other wetlands worth reclassifying to a higher status, said Groveman, a former general counsel for the ANR.
But he said the agency should be taking the lead on efforts like this one. “It’s really something the agency should be doing as a matter of course,” Groveman said.
VNRC acted in this case because it looked like the wetlands wouldn’t be sufficiently evaluated for Class I status otherwise, he said.
But Class I wetlands protections will take effect for the three newest designees Saturday, said Laura Lapierre, the ANR’s wetlands program manager.
The three are Chickering Fen Wetland in Calais, Dennis Pond Wetlands in Brunswick, and the Sandbar Wetlands in Milton and Colchester.
A fourth, Black Gum Swamps in Vernon, was nearly designated Class I as well, but agency officials withdrew the application in response to concerns raised by Vernon residents. ANR officials have said they intend to pursue Class I designation for Black Gum Swamps once those issues are resolved.
There’s heightened interest in wetlands protection, both at the agency level and elsewhere, Lapierre said.
The VNRC petition is the first of its kind the agency has received since at least 2012, when the agency began taking the applications instead of the Natural Resources Board, Lapierre said.
The application is a sizable one, Lapierre said, and agency staffers will require some time to review it. The proposal will then undergo a public review period to determine whether the LaPlatte River Marsh meets the standard of “irreplaceable and unique to Vermont’s natural heritage,” Lapierre said.
