Come work for clean water! Want to protect Lake Champlain's health and accessibility? Have a passion for both policy and field work? Are you a persuasive communicator of scientific and technical information? Direct your skills and energy to protecting the health and accessibility of Lake Champlain as LCC's Director of Science & Water Programs.

Dear Lake friends,

As someone who cares about clean water, are you willing to make one phone call? This week, the Vermont House will make key decisions about whether and how to address the $62.4 million annual investment needed to protect and restore our waterways. Please take a moment to call your legislators today and let them know you want them to invest in water clean-up now.

The White House is proposing to slash the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) budget by 25%. The $2 billion cut from EPA's budget of $8.14 billion represents a mere .05% "savings" in the total federal budget. 

For several years LCC has been raising awareness about tile drains and urging state agencies to focus more attention and regulatory scrutiny on them.

Dr. David Strayer, freshwater ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, shares his thoughts about why any efforts to repeal the EPA rule that defines waters of the United States (WOTUS) should be resisted, especially if you care about the health of our nation's lakes, rivers, streams and wetlands.

The Lake Champlain Committee (LCC) and environmental consulting firm Arrowwood Environmental (AE) won a competitive grant from the Lake Champlain Basin Program to continue our aquatic invasive species mapping and control project.

The Vermont Citizens Advisory Committee (VT CAC) presented its annual Action Plan to the Vermont Legislature last week in a day-long series of meetings at the Vermont State House.

Many thanks to our friends at Magic Hat who have again brewed a special beer to celebrate and support Lake Champlain.

For a brief period in 1998, the United States government officially recognized Lake Champlain as one of the Great Lakes.

Winter is a great time for observing waterfowl on Lake Champlain.

Removing a dam makes a big difference for fish habitat, recreation, the local economy and water quality.

Every month, the Vermont's Clean Water Initiative Program highlights a " Clean Water Superstar", species that help keep waters swimmable, drinkable, and fishable.

Before 1999 Lake Superior ferries never operated all winter between the communities of Bayfield Wisconsin and Madeline Island, the small resort town that's home to about 250 year-round residents. 

A new report by our friends at the National Wildlife Federation outlines how the federal mandate to blend corn-based ethanol into conventional gasoline has degraded waters and destroyed wildlife habitat across the country. Passed in 2005, the mandate increased the demand for corn and resulted in a major transformation on the landscape. Read...

The Vermont Legislature returned on January 4 with new faces and some changes in leadership. Mitzi Johnson of South Hero was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives and Senator Tim Ashe, representing Chittenden County, was elected President Pro Tempore of the Vermont Senate. Congratulations to them and good news for the Lake Champlain Basin, as there are now two leaders that understand firsthand the environmental impacts of the phosphorus pollution on the lake and the surrounding waters.

The Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP), the Congressionally-designated initiative to restore and protect Lake Champlain and its watershed, seeks comments on Opportunities for Action (OFA). OFA maps out a plan for coordinated action by federal, state and provincial jurisdictions.

Last month, LCC, the Conservation Law Foundation, Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, Vermont Natural Resources Council, and others called for Senators to vote against the appointment of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as EPA Administrator.

Help clean up your favorite park or walking trail before spring snowmelt and rains send a lot of foul stuff to the local swimming hole. LCC is looking for community partners for our April Stools' Day events. 

Like a strand of silken thread spun across an expanse of air by an ambitious spider, a river forms a line across the landscape. Its wandering path can be followed upstream, and sometimes traced to a single beginning high on a mountainside or at a spring.

LCC is delighted to have ECO AmeriCorps member, Dominic Brennan, serving with us for a healthy, accessible lake!

LCC is delighted to have Water Protection Advocate, Jared Carpenter, working with us for a healthy, accessible lake! 

Join us at Magic Hat Brewery on February 17 for a special tapping of Wee Heavy Champ -- a beer brewed for Lake Champlain!

LCBP Program Director Eric Howe will deliver a summary of the updated version of Opportunities for Action.Read...

Follow an Atlantic salmon on its journey upstream to spawn in a tributary of Lake Champlain driven by its instincts (and a pickup truck).

Every month, the Vermont's Clean Water Initiative Program highlights a "Clean Water Superstar", species that help keep waters swimmable, drinkable, and fishable. This month the spotlight is on mussels, the hardworking mollusks that filter algae, bacteria, and dead organic material out of the water. 

Walden Pond is a 62-acre kettle pond in sand and gravel that formed around a block of melting glacial ice about 15,000 years ago. It was here that Thoreau produced one of the first maps of an American lake bed by lowering a weighted line through winter ice.

When Cory Williams moved from California to Alaska he skipped rocks across the ice-covered surface of Edmonds Lake and was wowed by the "coolest sound ever".  Read...

Vermont lakeside communities would lose $16.8 million in economic activity and 200 full-time jobs - in July and August alone - for every one-meter (three-foot) decrease in water clarity according to a study recently released by the University of Vermont and the Lake Champlain Basin Program.  Read...

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has informed Global Partners LP that an air quality renewal permit for its Albany terminals, approved more than four years ago, would be considered as a new application, which requires the department to begin the environmental review process anew. Read...

New research suggests that Lake Champlain may be more susceptible to damage from climate change than was previously understood-and that, therefore, the rules created by the EPA to protect the lake may be inadequate to prevent algae blooms and water quality problems as the region gets hotter and wetter. Read...