Material from a Stowe Reporter story by Caleigh Cross was used in this report.
[A] 20-acre landslide in Mount Mansfield State Forest last Friday left parts of both Cotton Brook Road and the entirety of Fosters Trail closed. Officials say they’re working to reopen the road, but are unsure about the future of the trail.
A press release from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resouces says that visitors can still access the recreation area as normal from the Cotton Brook parking area in Stowe, but are urged to use caution and respect closures, as dangerous conditions remain. The closures begin at clearly marked signs a short distance from the parking area.
Walter Opuszynski, a field recreation specialist with the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks & Recreation, said after the slide it was “all hands on deck” getting the area closed, and that now, they’re still very much in the “assessment phase.”
“It sort of feels like a bit of holding pattern right now as geologists are taking closer look at the situation,” Opuszynski said.
He said they’re looking for more data to make a decision on when Cotton Brook Road will be open again. But as far as Fosters Trail goes, Opuszynski said the damage there is far more extensive, and his staff is unsure if they can make the trail safe for the future.
“It makes no sense to reset a trail where these landslides could occur again,” Opuszynski said. “Putting all that energy and effort into something that could just be destroyed in future.”
This area has seen landslides before, but never like this, Opuszynski said.
The name Cotton Brook Road, he explained, comes from the clay soil that has a bit of a gray/white color to it, and since the banks of the river are highly erosive, when the clay slides off, the water can look totally white.
Opuszynski said the area where the slide occurred is labelled as a “highly sensitive area”. He’s said some of the geologists he’s been working with said it’s the biggest slide they’ve ever seen in Vermont.
“Nobody anticipated we would ever have a slide this big for sure,” Opuszynski said. “It is pretty dramatic.”
He said the department is assessing whether landslides might occur in other places. He noted that the slide was in part caused by the soil being so saturated.
“That’s one of the primary reasons why Cotton Brook Road is closed at this point,” Opuszynski said.
Opuszynski said as soon as they can get people back into the area, they will.
“This is still an active slide,” Opuszynski said. “We are evaluating and monitoring it and do have the goal of being able to make good determination as to when things are safe enough to shift gears and work on holding up public use again.”
John Bauer, president of Friends of the Waterbury Reservoir, told the Stowe Reporter that a sand deposit has formed where the Cotton Brook flows into the reservoir.
“I was actually paddling the reservoir yesterday and I was at the mouth of the Cotton Brook, and there’s this huge sand delta that is forming as a result of all of the material that is washing out and coming down the river, which is pretty incredible,” Bauer said Tuesday.
Bauer said the Waterbury Reservoir’s day use area still hasn’t opened for the season because of the cloudy conditions of the water, which make it unsafe for children and less seasoned swimmers, and he thinks the landslide will only worsen the problem and keep it closed for longer.
Bauer marveled at the size of the landslide.
“Coming across that big washout on the Cotton Brook end, it was like, wow, this is a lot of material coming down,” Bauer said.
Roger Murphy, president of Stowe Trails Partnership, says the landslide could be a setback, or it could be an opportunity.
Stowe Trails Partnership has been working with mountain biking groups in Killington, Waitsfield, Waterbury and Rochester to connect the Stowe and Waterbury trails in the Cotton Brook area.
“That Cotton Brook area is a vital off-pavement connection between the Waterbury trails and the Stowe trails, but (it’s) also part of a trail system called the Velomont Trail, which is in the process of being created that’s going to link Killington to Stowe, so we’ll be working with the state and doing everything we can to try and open that up again,” Murphy said.
He doesn’t know yet what Stowe Trails Partnership’s role will be.
“I think people are concerned, but they believe that the state recognizes the importance of the road. They’ve done some logging off that road in the past and it’s an important, well-traveled link between Waterbury and Stowe,” Murphy said. “I think people will be concerned but will also be willing to be a part of whatever they need to do to bring it online.”
He thinks the mountain biking community will rally to restore the area.
“At first blush, this looks like a pretty big deal, but I think we’re pretty resilient and we understand that, as mountain bikers, we need to deal with natural events,” Murphy said.
