Chandler’s free Brown Bag lunch series continues with a talk by Ex­ecutive Director Mary Russ of the White River Partnership at noon on Friday, Feb. 3 in the Esther Mesh Room of Chandler’s Upper Gallery.

The public is invited to bring a lunch to enjoy at this informal gathering as Russ talks about the Partnership’s work and their flood recovery efforts in the region.

Since 1996, the Royalton-based White River Partnership has been bringing people and communities together to improve the long-term health of the White River and its watershed. Over the past 15 years, the WRP and its local, state, and federal partners have worked with over 100 individual landowners and towns to complete over 25 miles of bank stabilization and riparian buf­fer restoration projects.

In addition, the WRP recruits 1,000 annual volunteers to partici­pate in hands-on watershed resto­ration activities, including planting trees, monitoring water quality, managing non-native invasive spe­cies, and cleaning up the river.

After flooding from Tropical Storm Irene, the WRP leveraged strong community partnerships to improve the health of the river by monitoring 21 sites to determine how flooding impacted water qual­ity; helping towns upgrade damaged stream crossing culverts; helping landowners apply for FEMA “buy­out” funds; and helping communi­ties clean-up over 16,000 pounds of flood debris from the banks of the White River.

This monthly series was created by Susan Cliff in partnership with Chandler as a way to strengthen and energize the community by learn­ing more about the innovative and creative people who live and work here.