GREENSBORO – The stewards of the Greensboro Watersheds of the Greensboro Association and the Greensboro Conservation Commission have partnered with the national Adopt-a-drain program to host their adopt-a-culvert program.
The pilot project, begun in 2025 with fifteen volunteers, have adopted 70 culverts on the web site (vt.adopt-a-drain.org). With over 700 culverts and potentially over a 100 users, it became evident that managing the program with simple spreadsheets would become untenable. The new web interface allows the user to create an account and view on a map the culverts that are available for adoption in their neighborhood. Volunteers that previously adopted culverts may use the new web site.
The importance of culvert and ditch monitoring and cleaning became evident during the floods of 2023 and 2024. Undersized and blocked culverts led to road washouts and also resulted in major sediment deposits in town waters. The goal of the adopt-a-culvert program is to ensure that ditches and culverts are maintained by cleaning on a biannual basis or as needed.
Volunteers are asked to remove debris from ditches and check culverts once in the spring and early summer and again in the fall.
The organization is seeking volunteers to monitor ditches and culverts on Greensboro’s Town Roads and clear them of debris. This maintenance task will prevent culvert blockage and significantly reduce road damage. Neighborhood culverts or in other areas in Greensboro may be adopted at vt.adopt-a-drain.org. For more information, contact [email protected].
