Two projects with connections to the Rural Rivers Project have received funding as part of the Arts Integration Initiative by the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College. Aletha Spang (Dartmouth College, Department of Geography) received funding for a community quilting project which will visualize social elements of flood response in the Black River Watershed. Hayden Miller (Dartmouth College ‘25) received funding to create a high-resolution map of the White River to provide insight into the impacts of the 2023 floods. Abstracts for their projects are included below, and information on all the grant recipients can be found on the Hopkins Center website.
Quilting for Resilience: Stitching Together Stories of Mutual Aid from Vermont’s Floods – Aletha Spang, Dr. Sarah Kelly, and Dr. Charis Boke
In the aftermath of Vermont’s 2023 floods, residents took recovery efforts into their own hands. This project seeks to support community resilience by combining participatory art and mapping. Through a series of collaborative quilting events, we will engage community members in the Black River Watershed in visualizing social relationships and mutual aid efforts that were vital for flood recovery. The quilt map pieces will be sewn together in a collaborative event at Dartmouth, allowing members of the college to learn from local knowledge and build community. The quilt map will be displayed in the impacted communities and Dartmouth’s campus, allowing information about the flood to be shared and preserved. This work will reveal the social and spatial patterns of disaster response in rural areas, helping to inform future mitigation efforts and strengthen community networks.
Visualizing Vermont Flooding: Mapping the White River with Drone Media – Hayden Miller ’25
Extreme flooding has become increasingly prominent in Vermont, affecting the state both socially and ecologically. To understand the impacts of flooding and to share the ecological beauty of Vermont’s rivers, I will create the first ultra high-resolution map of the entire 56 miles of the White River. Through an interactive ArcGIS Storymap, a multimedia display, and a collection of high-resolution photographs, this project will provide important insight into Vermont’s unprecedented flooding from a new, aerial perspective.
Over the past year, I have been researching the complex dimensions behind the destruction from the 2023 summer floods in Vermont. Much of my interest in this subject has stemmed from the critical, anthropological concept that purely-natural disasters – particularly those related to climatic phenomena – do not exist. Rather, it has been asserted that behind such disasters, there are unnatural influences – including sociological factors relating to economics and land use – that can be traced to affect their development, scope, or impact. This is not to say that climate disasters lack any natural elements – after all, the Earth’s climate system is, at its core, natural. However, even within the isolated dimension of climate science, it is quite clear that the intense floods experienced across Vermont in the summer of 2023 were unnatural, or abnormal, at least in their time frame and intensity.
I am currently writing a research article that seeks to reconcile these 2 overarching elements of “the unnatural” in Vermont’s 2023 summer floods – namely, the sheer, abnormal intensity of the floods, and the historical circumstances related to economics and land management in the area – as seen in the context of the town of Ludlow. My article will more specifically focus on the disaster as it impacted one particular group in the town: mobile homes, particularly those within the Black River Mobile Home Court. Many of Ludlow’s historic structures – such as the landmark woolen mill – have experienced recurring, intense flooding since the town’s settlement, with records dating back to the 1800s. The historic economic circumstances and land use decisions pertaining to Ludlow’s early history as a mill town – with structures built near to, or on, the Black River precisely for this reliance on water – can be traced to have largely influenced the damage that those historic floods produced. However, the Black River Mobile Home Court – the main site of my study – was built along the banks of the Black River only 50 years ago, after Ludlow had transitioned from primarily a mill-based economy to a tourism-based economy. In just this 50-year period, the Mobile Home Court has already experienced some of the most damaging floods in the town’s history. Through extensive archival, historical, and ethnographic research, I have arrived at the conclusion that a review of history – the history of the region of the Black River Mobile Home Court, the history of Ludlow, and the history of Vermont – can help to explain the recent disaster of the 2023 summer floods in Ludlow. Based upon this research, I am writing this article with the intention of putting into conversation the 2 overarching, “unnatural” influences of this disaster: the unique, climate-change-influenced phenomenon behind the power of this flood, and the economic and land use histories of Ludlow. I believe that this article will give further validation to the concept that no climate disaster experienced today is inherently natural, and also with this understanding, perhaps give hope to the further assertion that climate disasters are not inevitable.
After joining the research team for meetings and community events in the summer, I started my role as a research assistant with Dr. Charis Boke in the fall. My research aims to investigate how earth science methods can be more community-grounded. In the context of the 2023 floods, this question guided my attention towards water quality issues. The Ludlow town manager, Brendan McNamara, connected us with Joe Gaudiana, the head of operations at the Ludlow Wastewater Treatment Facility. Myself, Dr. Boke, and Aidan Silvestro ‘27 visited the facility in November to interview Mr. Gaudiana and learn how the facility was impacted by the floods.
Remaining flood damage at the Ludlow Waste Water Treatment Facility. Photos by Aidan Silvestro.
While I focused on water quality issues and wastewater treatment siting, my work this term has varied greatly. I helped Dr. Boke with logistics for the Disaster Justice Symposium, kept the website updated, and Aletha Spang and I spoke to Dr. Beth Reddy’s class about our involvement in the project. In the upcoming term I’m hoping to interview members of the road crews in Ludlow and Cavendish and continue research on earth science methods.
A collaboration between Dartmouth College and Black River community organizations
At A Glance
Monitored and cleaned 220 culverts, drains, and ditches in Cavendish, Vermont
Facilitated four participatory mapping sessions on flood resilience with affected communities in the Black River Valley
Community Science: How community science collaborations build local resilience
Vermont towns facing repeat flooding events are watching their rivers, and approaching storms, closely. The Rural Rivers project aims to build out our understanding of flood impacts and proactive maintenance of stormwater infrastructure. With funding from the Natural Hazards Center in Boulder Colorado, we began an Atlas of Flooding and Community Resilience in spring 2024.
This summer, our research team held four participatory mapping sessions with Ludlow, Cavendish communities and began working with the Long Term Recovery Group. From spring to summer, Dartmouth students and community partners monitored and cleaned 220 culverts, drains, and ditches in Cavendish. The students designed a survey on Survey123, which is an Esri tool that sends the data to the web mapping platform ArcGIS Online. When these more hidden stormwater infrastructure stop working, much more damage occurs during large flood events.
Combined, we are mapping erosion, road breaks, water quality, critical infrastructure, resource hubs, and other sites of concerns identified by communities.
Our community partners include: Kelly Stettner of Black River Action Team, Margo Caulfield of Cavendish Connects, and Melissa Rockhill of the Good Neighbors Resource Board.
From Dartmouth College, Dr. Charis Boke is a Lecturer and Research Associate in Anthropology. Dr Sarah Kelly is a Lecturer and Research Associate in Geography, who runs the Energy Justice Clinic. Aletha Spang is a GIS Specialist with the Geography Department.
Several students have contributed to the project, including: Eben Desilva, Paulie Horvath, Zoe Johnson, Sereena Knight, Claire O’shaughnessy, Erin Parker, Harper Richardson, Sophie Reynolds, Anna Salafsky, Keelia Stevens, Holly Sullivan, Dafne Valenciano Coronado, and Andrew Wilson.
As a long time resident of the Black River Valley, Dr. Boke began this project with Dr. Sarah Kelly after doing mutual aid with these community partners during the Great Flood of 2023. The “Culvert Crawlers” program started in Spring Term with the Energy Justice course taught by Dr. Kelly. This summer, students worked as Community Resilience Fellows with the EJC and local collaborators to continue the culvert monitoring. This fall, students in Dr. Boke’s Anthropology of Disaster class will continue the monitoring in Ludlow, Vermont. The project’s ultimate goal is to continue improving this community science effort and adding interdisciplinary collaborations.
Our initial findings are shared with local towns and formatted to send to the Vermont Culvert Database and the Cavendish Local Hazard Mitigation Plan. Community Resilience Fellows Sophie Reynolds, Zoe Johnson, and Erin Parker with Dr. Kelly presented their findings to the Cavendish Selectboard in August, 2024. We will continue researching with the Long Term Recovery Group and developing a 3 year research project on flood impacts and community resilience in the Black, White, and Ottaquechee Rivers.
Dr. Sarah Kelly and Community Resilience Fellows presented their findings from culvert surveys to the Cavendish Selectboard. From left to right: Erin Parker, Zoe Johnson, and Sophie Reynolds. Our first work day in Ludlow, Vermont with a student group co-organized by EJC with the Office of Sustainability and the Climate and Power course.
Community-based Research: Local Knowledge is Critical to Understand Contemporary Flooding
Community Partner Kelly Stettner of the Black River Action Team shares knowledge about the local ecosystem at a work day.Kelly Stettner explains how volunteers take water quality measurements using a Pringles to students enrolled in Anthropology of Disaster. From left to right: Kelly Stettner, Connor Bragg, Zoe Holmes, Jaya Miller
What’s Next: Stay Tuned for Updates
We will be holding community outreach meetings to share our draft Atlas of Flooding and Community Resilience in the Black River Valley. Students from Dr. Charis Boke’s course Anthropology of Disaster will be developing projects with community partners throughout the fall term, including continued culvert mapping.
Be in Touch
For questions, feedback, article ideas, or story contributions, email Dr. Charis Boke at Charis.Ford.Morrison.Boke@dartmouth.edu or Dr. Sarah Kelly at Sarah.H.Kelly@dartmouth.edu, and we’ll be in touch.
Last Saturday Dr. Sarah Kelly and Cavendish VT community partners taught students about river corridor planning from the perspective of recreators, watershed planners, and dragonflies. The lesson guided students from Greven Field, through areas of the town still in flood recovery, to the bank of the river by the power and waste water treatment plants. Students learned about the impact of flooding on the river, town, and ecosystem. They created maps to document the perspective of one of the stakeholders. The students will continue their work with community partners through Dr. Charis Boke’s course ‘Anthropology of Disaster.’
