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October 2011

LCC Wraps Up Rugg Brook Monitoring Project

In 2011 LCC completed five years of monitoring at a stream restoration site in St. Albans. Rugg Brook was targeted for restoration following an LCC assessment of the watershed. Prior to restoration, the stream had cut up to 11 feet deep into a…

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Before restoration in 2005, note the deep cut banks. The water sits about 10' below the level of the floodplain. Photo by Mike Winslow.

Blue-Green Algae Season Overview

LCC completed its ninth season of blue-green algae monitoring on Lake Champlain. In 2011, volunteers collected 172 samples and there were 29 low alerts and two high alerts issued during the ten weeks of citizen monitoring. MORE

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Blue-Green Algae on Lake Champlain.

University of Vermont awarded $20M to study lake

(Adapted from an AP report)

A science program at the University of Vermont has been awarded a $20 million federal grant, the largest grant in the school's history, to help study the health of the Lake Champlain basin and look at the effects of…

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Photo by Carolyn Bates.

McAllister Clean Up

Commercial divers recently reached the shipwrecked tugboat McAllister to assess whether it still contained diesel fuel from when it sank in 1963. The wreck sits in about 165-feet of water off Schuyler Reef. The tug was carrying diesel fuel when it…

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Tugboat from the McAllister Towing and Transportation Company. Photo by Rob and Jessie Stankey.

Fall Clean Lake Tip

Piles of autumn leaves left in the road can become part of the stormwater problem for the lake. Help keep our waters clean by sweeping or raking leaves away from roadways. Mulch them with a few passes of the lawnmower so the nutrients left in the…

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Photo by Chiot's Run.

Water Conservation Tip

Installing a WaterSense labeled aerator to your faucet is one of the most cost-effective ways to save water. Also consider replacing the entire faucet with a WaterSense labeled model. Either way, you can increase a faucet's efficiency by 30 percent…

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A WaterSense label indicates water saving products.

Tropical Storm Irene: How Do We Prepare for the Next One? Second in a two-part series

Under any scenario events like Tropical Storm Irene and the spring floods of 2011 will be extreme outliers; however, climate models do predict we should expect and prepare for more intense storms in the years to come. MORE

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Photo by USFWS.

Tropical Storm Irene: How Do We Respond? First in a two-part series

Tropical Storm Irene will shape our thoughts about and relationship with rivers for at least a generation. A previous generation reacted to the floods of 1927 by straightening and berming rivers and dredging sediments. Bulldozers ran down the rivers…

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Gravel removal from streams can create more problems than it solves.

Tern, Tern, Tern

The sandbar at the mouth of Mill Creek in Port Henry is covered with loafing birds, white balls of feathers in various states of repose. Most are ring-billed gulls with a few other gulls mixed in, but two birds in particular stand out. They are the…

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Caspian Tern. Image via Wikipedia.

Volunteers Help Clean up Burlington Shoreline

Thanks to the lake lovers who joined the Rozalia Project, LCC and other lake partners in a September cleanup of the Burlington waterfront! The afternoon effort removed 1,500 items and 408 pounds of debris along a half mile of shoreline. MORE

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Important Meetings on Phosphorus Reduction

This week, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation will host important meetings on the re-writing of the Lake Champlain Phosphorous Total Maximum Daily Load or TMDL - the phosphorus reduction…

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