BRATTLEBORO-In 2011, Tropical Storm Irene changed the landscape of Vermont, including turning a house lot at 805 Western Ave. into a flooded, vacant, unbuildable space bordering Whetstone Brook.
Now, Edible Brattleboro is changing that piece of the landscape yet again, partnering with the town to create a public "food forest" there.
The organization, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2025, is a community nonprofit with the overall mission of "growing food - everywhere, for everyone."
Edible Brattleboro has established many public help-yourself gardens and a free produce stand, in addition to leading programs that educate people about the interconnectedness of health, food, soil, and community.
The 0.63-acre lot had included a house and pool at the time Irene hit. As it did elsewhere, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offered a flood buyout to the homeowner to ensure the property would not be developed.
FEMA then handed the property off to the town, and the foundation and pool were covered over.
"We'd been sitting on this parcel without an idea of what to do with it," says Brattleboro Sustainability Coordinator Stephen Dotson. "As Edible Brattleboro gained momentum, I thought this was a property they could use.
"Improving the soil and increasing biodiversity will help improve the soil carbon sponge that retains water on site, thus mitigating the effects of flooding both up- and downstream," Dotson wrote in a brief on the project. "The intention is for the public to access the food forest to enjoy being in nature, learn about native plants, and harvest food."
Specific details and arrangements of the project and its constraints were detailed in a Memorandum of Understanding, passed by the Selectboard early this year and signed by the town and Edible Brattleboro.
The town retains ownership of the parcel.
'We should do this here'
Marilyn Chiarello is one of the founders of Edible Brattleboro and continues to serve as a leader with a vision.
Less than two years after she moved to Brattleboro and inspired by a TED Talk from England, she envisioned replacing lawns around town with edible landscapes for all to share.
"I thought, 'We should do this here,'" says Chiarello, who shared her vision with Tim Stevenson, a community organizer and a founder of Post Oil Solutions.
He helped find other interested parties to get the project started, and within a few months, the first Edible Brattleboro garden was planted.
"I didn't know very many people at the time; I was just here a year and a half," says Chiarello. "But a bunch of what we call 'founding mamas' sat around a table, and then we started a small bed in the back parking lot of the Co-op, and it just grew. And then it became my baby."
She praised the town for its support.
"We had restrictions on that site, but since they've restored the flood plain upstream at Melrose Terrace, we haven't had any flooding. We're just hoping for the best and that it will be more stable for the future."
Help yourself to food
Since breaking ground the first weekend in May, the group has already planted more than 25 fruit and nut trees plus berry bushes and shrubs. Soon, herbaceous plantings will go in, to be followed next year by mostly perennials and some annual beds.
When the time comes to harvest fruit at the site, it becomes available to the community on a "help yourself" basis. Any extra bounty will be shared at the weekly harvest stand at Turning Point Recovery Center on Frost Street every Sunday through October from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Edible Brattleboro has already established several other gardens, including those at the Brattleboro Food Co-op, Turning Point, Groundworks Collaborative's Foodworks, and The Root Social Justice Center.
The group has also planted cherry trees at the Brattleboro Municipal Center on Main Street. In addition, the town now has multiple adopt-a-garden sites.
Paying for it
For the past two years, Edible Brattleboro has been coordinating and planning for this project in partnership with the town Planning Services Department and with Dotson, who Chiarello credits with being an invaluable resource.
The project has been designed to fit within the constraints of the parcel and the needs of the town in consultation with the Tree Warden and Tree Committee, the Zoning Administrator, the Department of Public Works, and others.
Bordering Whetstone Brook, the new garden is near three low-income housing developments and Academy School.
"We've been working for several years to make this a reality and now, thanks to a $50,000 grant over two years from the Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Program, it is happening," Chiarello says.
The project is also supported by a $4,000 grant from the Climate Catalysts Innovation Fund of the Vermont Council on Rural Development.
A private donor has also helped establish the garden and purchase plantings.
"It's exciting," Chiarello says. "We started with a small grant to just restore the water hook-up on the site, and the town was so generous and provided the labor. A bunch of local organizations have been so supportive to help us get this project going. It's the biggest thing we've every undertaken."
On Sept. 11, a group from Vermont Forestry will visit several sites that experienced urban flooding damage from Irene, including this one, with the intention of seeing how the town has handled the flood situation.
Dotson continues assisting the group, mostly by "making sure they abide by the agreement and are being good neighbors, like any project."
"The town wants the project to succeed as much as Edible Brattleboro does," he says. "It's such a beautiful reuse of an otherwise unusable parcel. And we're grateful to have organizations such as Edible here to be able to play that role."
Final plans
Final plans for the site will include a kiosk near the sidewalk along Western Avenue.
The kiosk will include a site map and information to help readers identify plants. It will touch on ecosystem regeneration techniques and the importance of urban forestry in heat mitigation, fostering biodiversity, and enhancing the overall well-being of the community.
Signage will be placed in the beds to identify plants and harvest information.
Edible Brattleboro intends to plant a pollinator garden along the sidewalk with a pathway entrance to the rest of the site. The interior section of the lot will include a mix of annual and perennial vegetable garden beds with pathways weaving around the beds.
A small seating area will also be included, using benches or cut logs for seats.
The "riparian buffer zone" will be left undeveloped except for a pathway and maybe a seating area and table.
One issue remains: making the site fully accessible.
"When we were getting started, we ran into accessibility issues and we hadn't budgeted for that," Chiarello says.
"We really want this to be accessible for everyone, not just those who can walk," she adds. "I feel we were remiss in not thinking of that."
The group will also seek more grant funding to help make the pathways fully accessible.
Project advances town objectives
Dotson says the project helps advance several intentions of town officials, including:
• Preserving the land and other environmental resources critical to the long-term success of the local agricultural economy.
• Supporting community-led initiatives to strengthen the food system, including the development of necessary infrastructure (such as dry and cold storage, commercial food-processing kitchens, distribution outlets, slaughterhouses, and community gardens).
• Encouraging pride and sense of ownership of parks and mini-parks through facilities that are well maintained, landscaped, and programmed.
• Encouraging preservation and restoration of wildlife corridors, wetlands, and riparian habitats.
• Promoting, sponsoring, and organizing opportunities that connect residents to the natural environment.
"The town looks forward to seeing a productive and beneficial reuse of this currently vacant and unused parcel and has faith in the ability of Edible Brattleboro to pursue this project," Dotson writes.
"What we've done inside of three months, I find it amazing," Chiarello says.
Volunteers are needed on-site on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., depending on how much work there is that week. To donate your time, email ediblebrattleboro@gmail.com, call 802-254-9121, or visit ediblebrattleboro.org.
This News item by Virginia Ray was written for The Commons.