Mike Kline Receives LCC Legacy Award

Earlier this year, LCC honored Mike Kline, manager of the Rivers Program at the VT Dept. of Environmental Conservation with our Legacy Award. For nearly three decades Mike has worked tirelessly and effectively to align state and federal programs to combine flood and erosion hazard mitigation with other aspects of watershed management and to move away from stream channelization and promote natural stream stability. Stressing the importance of river science and data collection, he has developed a nationally-recognized River Corridor Planning and Protection Program to minimize riverine erosion based on the principles of stream equilibrium and natural floodplain function. His work and that of his team of river scientists, engineers and floodplain managers is helping Vermont communities and landowners implement projects to improve water quality, restore riverine ecosystems, and mitigate flood and erosion hazards.

"Mike has shared his water wisdom liberally over the years, offering technical training sessions to LCC and other non-profits as well as the private sector and helping other states adopt the river corridor and floodplain protection approaches he helped to pioneer" stated LCC Executive Director Lori Fisher. "He looks at rivers as a scientist, ecologist, recreationalist, detective and as a storyteller. His telling of a river's story has shaped policy to protect and restore waterways within the Lake Champlain Basin and beyond."