Construction & Conservation at the VINS Nature Center

VINS combined both construction and conservation for many aspects of the VINS Nature Center project.

CONSERVING REUSABLE RESOURCES
Tree stumps and slash were ground up and used for electricity generation at the wood-fired energy plant in Ryegate, Vermont. More than 40 pine trees were skinned out (stripped of bark) and were used as naturally shaped structural elements in the building. Approximately 12,000 board feet of hardwood and softwood were milled for office furniture, picnic tables, lean-tos, and other outdoor structures.

A particularly happy discovery was an abundance of useable topsoil, gravel and fill. Approximately 7,500 yards of topsoil and the equivalent of 1,100 truck loads of gravel were found on the site and used during construction.

PRESERVING NATURE
Approximately 40 acres of the 47-acre site will remain largely undisturbed. Existing flora and fauna is currently the subject of a multi-year bioinventory being conducted by Kerstin Lange, a graduate student at the University of Vermont’s Ecological Planning Program, and Dan Ruddell, a graduate student in environmental studies at Antioch New England Graduate School.

The inventory will establish a baseline which will show how animal and plant species are affected by VINS’s occupancy of the site in future years. So far the study has identified 22 tree species, seven amphibian species, and a number of mammal species, including fisher, coyote, otter, beaver, and mink. The avian portion of the bioinventory has indentified 23 bird species, including Swainson’s thrush, Scarlet tanager, Red-shouldered hawk, Myrtle warbler, Green-backed heron, Baltimore oriole, and Pileated woodpecker. The vegetation inventory has identified thick carpets of maidenhair fern and, in the nearby Quechee Gorge, the rare Hyssop-leaved fleabane.

RENEWING THE LAND
VINS restored what was a heavily used commercial property into an educational green space. The screens of trees and native shrubs which were planted along Route 4 prevent the drive-by public to see little of the building site itself. When people enter the property from the busy highway, they encounter a green, beautiful landscape that invites them to slow down and explore the natural world.

Storm water runoff from Route 4 and the VINS parking lots are controlled and treated for pollutants by a series of planted “bioswales,” grass-lined drainage ditches, and constructed wetland areas.