With the help of their partners the Town of West Rutland, SLR Consulting, Fabien Earth Movers Inc, and Landowners Russ and Ellen Green, the Vermont Natural Resources Council successfully removed Youngs Brook Dam in the Fall of 2025. Youngs Brook Dam was located along Youngs Brook in West Rutland and was formerly used as a water supply reservoir for the town in the 1920s. The reservoir and dam were abandoned in 1985 and suffered a major breach during a storm event ten years later. This breach caused infrastructure damage downstream and the dam continued to pose a major safety risk during storm events up until its removal. Now that the dam is removed and half an acre of floodplain has been restored, the flood resiliency of the river has significantly improved.  

Fabien Earth Moving strategically drained the former impoundment and excavated approximately 11,000 cubic yards of sediment from behind the dam, along with all of the materials from the former 50-foot-high and 250-long-structure. They then created an 850-foot-long pilot channel, informed by the historic path of Young’s Brook. Trees that were removed for this project were strategically placed along the stream, the floodplain and the hillside to create habitat structure and assist with erosion control and channel formation. The floodplain and hillside were then seeded down with native plant mix to help stabilize soils and revegetate the project site. A planting will take place in the future to help revegetate the restoration site with native tree and shrub species. This project will significantly improve the ecology of the Youngs Brook watershed, restoring natural stream processes including sediment and nutrient transport essential to maintaining healthy stream habitat and equilibrium, while also enhancing aquatic organism passage, and increasing flood storage.

Funding for the design, permitting, and construction came from congressionally delegated funds from retired Sen. Patrick Leahy and administered by FEMA. We also thank the Addison County Regional Planning Commission in its capacity as Clean Water Service Provider for the Otter Creek Basin, Watersheds United Vermont in partnership with Vermont DEC, and the Rutland Natural Resources Conservation District. Without these partners, and the partners listed above, this project could not have been a success.