Stormwater runoff can transport sediment, nutrients, and other pollutants to nearby waterways, challenging communities to find practical, cost-effective solutions that improve water quality while supporting healthy landscapes. This workshop, from Jack Eaton from Carriff and Natasha Duarte from the Composting Association of Vermont, highlights a nature-based stormwater management project at The Garden at 485 Elm, a community garden in Montpelier, Vermont, located adjacent to the North Branch of the Winooski River. Using this site as a case study, participants will explore a two-part approach to slowing, filtering, and infiltrating runoff before it reaches the river. The project utilized locally sourced woody debris to produce biochar on site, which was then incorporated into biodegradable socks installed at key runoff entry points. A second treatment system employed biodegradable socks filled with a low-nutrient compost-based growing media and vegetation to capture sediment, reduce flow velocity, and promote infiltration as water moved through the landscape toward an established riparian buffer. The session will examine the roles of compost, wood mulch, biochar, vegetation, and soil health in creating a layered, resilient stormwater management system. Presenters will share project design considerations, installation methods, monitoring observations, and lessons learned, with an emphasis on replicable strategies that can be adapted to community gardens, urban green spaces, and other managed landscapes.

Participants will leave with practical knowledge and actionable ideas for integrating compost-based and nature-based practices to reduce runoff, improve infiltration, enhance soil function, and protect downstream water quality.

Learning Objectives:

Understand how compost-, biochar-, and vegetation-based practices can be integrated to manage stormwater runoff.

Evaluate the design and implementation of biodegradable sock systems for sediment capture and infiltration.

Identify opportunities to adapt these nature-based approaches to a variety of landscape and community settings.  

Workshop Hosts: Composting Association of Vermont & Carriff