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BY LYNN MACNICOL

a.nks to Em Richards, the West River
Watershed Coordinator — and volunteers
who refuse to wait until problems get
worse — the state’s first totally local grassroots-
run basin planning initiative is well underway.
_ Em feels an urgency about the rivers
and watersheds that feed them. “Whatever you
do is eventually going to get into the river,” she
warns. And anything that empties into a river is
part of the watershed. ‘
A statewide program links officials

I with local citizens in forming watershed coun-

cils to protect all of Vermont’s rivers. Due to the
state’s money crunch, it would have taken a
couple more years for officials to start the Basin
11 council, which would include the West,
Saxtons and Williams rivers. But Em Richards
and concerned groups, working together as the
West River Watershed Alliance, jump-started
the program and have already begun monitoring
streams and educating the public about water
issues. , .
Em Richards lives in Westminster
with her partner, three cats and an iguana
named Moofie, near the West River in south-
eastern Vermont. Since 85 percent of the land is
forested, there’s less industry and farming to

' compromise the health of the area’s streams,

she says. The watershed hosts major ski areas at
Stratton, Bromley and Magic Mountains, and
summer brings hikers, campers and kayakers to
the woods and rivers. -

Em isn’t from there, however. She
grew up in the small town of Greenland, New
Hampshire “at the end of a long dirt road.” Her
family was the only one living there and her
brothers were much older, so young Em spent

‘hours alone wandering in the woods and on the

beach of Great Bay, a large salt-water tidal
inlet. ~

“I wasn’t lonely when I was in the
woods and when I was walking by the shore — I
think there was a certain reverence for it for
me,” she remembers.

After high school she went to the
University of New Hampshire, where she con-
sidered studying oceanography but finished

. school with a degree in art history and German.

She lived in Austria for a year, came back, got
married and moved to Colorado.

 

Em and her husband later moved to

Maryland to raise their two daughters. After 10
years, she gave up her graphics design studio to
go back to school, discovering she had a knack
for natural science courses such as microbiolo-
gy. Em got an entry-level job with an environ-
mental firm as a “picker” — someone who takes
aquatic “bug” samples from streams and
processes them for environmental studies.

As she followed her new career inter-
ests, Em discovered she was gay, and met Jan;
the two have now been together for nearly 20
years. Em and her husband divorced, and the
two women raised Em’s daughters together.

Meanwhile, Em — following what she
calls her “zig-zag” career path — had worked her

way up to project supervisor at Versar, an envi-
ronmental consulting firm. She ran projects
involving wetlands and stonn waterquality, and
prepared assessments and impact statements for
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the
Department of Defense. She was responsible for
large contracts of up to $1 million.

But after years of living in Maryland,
it was time to come back home to New
England. Rather than head back to New
Hampshire, Em chose Vermont. She opened a
satellite office for Ver-sar in Putney, while Jan
finished a degree in Maryland; and after a year
of separation they settled in together in their

new home.

Em and Jan were joined in a civil
union in 2002, which several of their coworkers ,
attended. “Some of them were cute about it,”
Em recalls, and they insisted that “of course we
knew” about their relationship.

Vermonters for about two years now,
the couple is finding a strong and supportive
community in their adopted home. The All
Souls Unitarian Universalist Church is “opening
its doors to any gays in the area,” Em says.
When she and her partner came out last year to
their co-religionists, “we were welcomed with
open arms.” '

When the events of September 11,
2001 made her job difficult because of

increased security measures, Em began looking ,

- elsewhere in her field and took the job as water-

shed coordinator. .

“I would like to focus all my atten- _
tion on water,” Em says. “Water is the essence
of our being. Without it we’re dead. There’s
going to be real trouble in 20 years if we don’t
do something” as a community to protect our
water resources in this area of Vermont.

Last summer, Em’ Richards and a
group _of volunteers surveyed the users of sever-
al area swimming holes. That survey included
Indian Love Call — the upper “gay” section of
which was shown to be one of the cleanest
around. While there doesn’t seem to be a prob-
lem of gays being harassed there, Em says
straight swimmers tend to stay away, using the
lower pools. I

While she agrees that gender minori-
ties “have incredible hills to climb” to be
accepted, she expresses the desire to be “just
the watershed coordinator and not the gay
watershed coordinator.” She adds that it’s
important for lesbians and gay men to be out,
whatever their jobs.

Her presence as watershed coordina- '
tor, her insistence on including the watershed’s
lgbt users, and her solution-oriented approach
help prevent any potential for gay scapegoating,
especially around Indian Love Call. I _, ,  ,,

She is fiercely protective of an essen- ‘
tial resource, and gets angry when people don’t

/care, or worse yet, think they can do something.
better than Nature can. “If enough people had a
true understanding of natural events and a sense
of awe, it wouldn’t be such a struggle to get
people involved,” she says.

‘ Em isdetermined to get as many peo-'
ple involved in watershed protection as she can.
“I think if peoplejust had a sense of connection

that we wouldn’t have to have so many laws
and regulations. The West is a beautiful river,
and we need to keep it that way. We have a lit-
tle bit of time to do that.” V

There will be a basin planning publicfqrum
January 29 in Newfane. [f you ’re interested in
getting involved, Contact Em at 802-254-
5323x109, or em.Riclzards@vacd. org.

 

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