News Archive

While Lake Champlain is not as cold or icy this winter as it has been in winters of yore, it is still not a place for a casual swim at this time of year. This inaccessibility gives the depths of the lake a certain mystery. What is going on underneath…

LCC and partners of the Champlain Basin Education Initiative (CBEI), a community of organizations engaged in watershed education, will host Watershed for Every Classroom (WEC), a year-long professional development program for interdisciplinary teams…

Changes in precipitation patterns from climate change is fueling cyanobacteria blooms on multiple fronts. Learn about how soil management can help.

After a warm start to the season, it is finally starting to look--and certainly feel--like winter in the Lake Champlain Basin. To make walking and driving safer in this icy season, state and municipal road crews salt roadways. This practice started…

In the depths of Lake Champlain, an eel-like creature slithers among the rocks, hunting for a foraged fish dinner. This is no sinister cousin of Champ—this is the burbot (Lota lota), one of Lake Champlain’s only deep-water predator fish (the other…

In the fall of 2022, the Lake Champlain Committee, Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC), Shelburne Farms and a host of environmental and conservation organizations collaborated on a tribute to Senator Patrick Leahy in recognition of his…

Sincere thanks to our wonderful team of 2022 cyanobacteria monitors and partner organizations. Monitors faithfully checked Lake Champlain and inland lake locations in wind, rain, sleet, and sun during a 20-week long monitoring season and filed over…

Check out topical water articles from the Lake Champlain Basin and beyond:
•    New VT Pesticide Regs Fall Short of Protecting Human & Ecological Health
•    Covid Funds Will Help Improve Water Quality
•    Lakes Are Salt Sensitive
•    Warming…

Calling all teachers to Camp! LCC and our Champlain Basin Education Initiative (CBEI) partners invite educators to sign up for Watershed for Every Classroom 2023/24. You’ll travel around the Lake Champlain Basin visiting farms, paddling waterways,…

The 2022 cyanobacteria monitoring season has come to a close for LCC monitors and partners. Monitors collectively filed over 2,500 reports during this year’s 20-week season. In the links and photographs below you’ll find our last weekly report…

Think about how you interact with Lake Champlain. Do you live near it? Walk along its shores? Perhaps you swim, boat, paddle, fish, or even just skip the occasional stone. Maybe you photograph the sunsets or watch the birds from the shores.…

Site coverage is scant this time of year but all 47 reports from Lake Champlain received during week 19 were of good conditions. For inland lakes, Lake Carmi had a low alert bloom and Joe’s Pond had a high alert. The latter covered a wide swath of…

Only a scattering of monitoring reports are still coming in as we move into stick season but all that do provide important data on water conditions. Lake Champlain was bloom-free for the second fall week in a row. Lake Champlain was bloom-free again…

Good water conditions dominated monitoring reports for the third full week of fall but there are far fewer monitors reporting this time of year on Lake Champlain and inland lakes. This week’s photos don’t show any cyanobacteria but scroll down to see…

Good water conditions dominated monitoring reports for the second week in a row since we moved into the fall season but cyanobacteria blooms continued to show their colors in areas of Lake Champlain and several inland lakes.

Good water conditions dominated monitoring reports during week 15 but blooms showed up in a few Lake Champlain locations as well as several inland lakes. Scroll down to see clear water at Alburgh Dunes State Park, and Graveyard Point on Lake…

Week 14 of monitoring brought cooler weather, fewer sightings of cyanobacteria, but also far fewer monitors to report them. High alert blooms continued in parts of St. Albans Bay, Lake Carmi, and Lake Morey which have all had persistent blooms during…

While the weather cooled during Week 13 of monitoring, blooms continued in several lakes or bays where they were present previously and showed up in some new locations. On Lake Champlain, high alert conditions were restricted to nutrient-rich St.…

Throughout his career in the U.S. Senate, Patrick Leahy has been an unfailing champion for our region's– and the nation's – air, water, and land, and the health of our people. From the Conte National Wildlife Refuge, across the Green Mountain…

Blooms continued into Week 12 of the monitoring season. You can see visuals of some of them from Lake Memphremagog, Lake Morey, Tinmouth Pond, Shelburne Pond and Lake Champlain’s Arnold Bay and Valcour Island, and Lake Champlain’s Keeler Bay. You’ll…

Several monitors reported odd gelatinous globules in the water at several sites in Lake Champlain’s Inland Sea during week 11 of monitoring. Happily they took water samples and photographs and shared the details with us and our partner Dr. Ana…

Happy end of August! As we move towards September, please remember that blooms can still happen as summer wanes which is why we are only about half way through the monitoring season. Blooms have been witnessed through November in our region during…

We’ve had a lot of additional subscribers to our weekly cyanobacteria emails so here’s a link to all the weekly reports from the 2022 season in case you’ve missed any of them. They’re worth checking out for the compilation of reporting results,…

Happily, Central Main Lake was bloom-free during week 8 of monitoring but blooms persisted in sections of St. Albans Bay and Missisquoi Bay on Lake Champlain and Lake Carmi. After a week of bloom-free reports, cyanobacteria was observed again on Lake…

Bloom reports for the week were restricted to the Central Main Lake, St. Albans Bay, and Missisquoi Bay on Lake Champlain and to Knapp Pond and Lake Carmi for Vermont inland lakes.

Conditions at Lake Champlain and inland Vermont waterways were overall much improved from the previous week. Continued warm weather along with the influx of nutrients from periodic storms could trigger additional cyanobacteria blooms so check the…

Most of the week was sunny, hot, calm, and humid and blooms took off in many Lake Champlain locations as well as at Lake Carmi. Heat waves are known to promote cyanobacteria blooms in waterways by increasing thermal stratification, allowing…

It's the season when cyanobacteria blooms are most prevalent. Learn how to recognize them by viewing this video produced in partnership with the Lake Champlain Committee (LCC).

Our week 4 cyanobacteria monitoring report for July 10 through July 16 was delayed due to a breakdown with the cyanobacteria tracker. Monitors filed 187 reports during a busy week with blooms showing up in Lake Champlain’s Inland Sea, Main Lake…

Another week of mainly good water conditions reported by over 100 monitors from Lake Champlain and inland lake locations. Blooms showed up in Lake Champlain’s Mallett’s Bay, North Lake, and Missisquoi Bay and on Lake Carmi and Lake Memphremagog.

We received mainly good water quality reports during the second week of the cyanobacteria monitoring program. Scroll through this email for details of Week 2 2022 monitoring results from 6/26/22 through 7/2/22; photos of clean water conditions at…

Thank you for signing up to receive the Lake Champlain Committee (LCC) Cyanobacteria monitoring reports! Monitoring began the week of June 19 and will run through early fall. Each week we’ll send you an update about conditions monitors are finding…

It's summer time in the Champlain Valley which means spending time in and around your favorite lakes and ponds. Make sure you know how to asses water conditions!

Happy Earth Day! Here are a few ideas for how to celebrate and protect our planet and the special corner we call home from your friends at the Lake Champlain Committee.

The Lake Champlain Committee (LCC), Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), and Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC), have jointly filed a petition requesting that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) either force the State to correct its failed…

Vermont is becoming warmer and wetter due to climate change. Specifically, the Vermont Climate Assessment 2021 notes that both summer and spring precipitation have increased in the Green Mountain State. The Assessment cautions that “[t]his spring…

In sun and rain, heat and cold, monitors collectively filed over 2,700 reports during the 2021 season.

Most monitors reported generally safe conditions during this 19th week of the monitoring season but blooms were also witnessed at select locations.

Wetlands are vital natural resources that must be protected and restored for Vermont to address the impacts of climate change, protect wildlife habitat, restore, and maintain the quality of our waters, and provide other benefits for people and…

While color is fading on the hillsides, it unfortunately is still showing up in the water. October 20 was a particularly busy day for cyanobacteria sightings with blooms reported at a scattering of locations up and down Lake Champlain. Scroll through…