Why conserve water in a wet environment like the Lake Champlain basin? Wasted water contributes to lake pollution. MORE Read...
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The high waters of early spring flood low-lying forested areas offer an excellent opportunity to maneuver your kayak or canoe through the trees and button bush of floodplains and back waters. Flooded navigable habitat can be found at the mouths of most major creeks and rivers along the lake. MORE Read...
Help assess Lake Champlain water conditions around the lake this summer as a blue-green algae monitor. The following monitor training sessions are free and open to the public. Stay tuned for additional dates and locations of other upcoming training sessions. Read...
Winter in the Lake Champlain watershed brought abundant snow and ice this year. Before we fully embrace spring, we thought we'd share with you some great visuals taken by LCC members and supporters on their explorations on and around the lake. MORE Read...
The lake clean-up plan known as a TMDL has been the subject of intense debate over the last year. EPA is in the process of developing a pollution budget while Vermont is responsible for outlining an implementation plan for meeting that budget. MORE Read...
The Lake Champlain Committee, along with the Conservation Law Foundation, Vermont Natural Resources Council and Lake Champlain International, held a press conference at the State House in Montpelier last month asking Governor Shumlin to provide leadership to protect and restore Vermont’s waterways. MORE Read...
Plastics are everywhere. Try shopping for household goods and not coming home with plastic products. It’s almost impossible. Plastic does not degrade easily, yet so many plastic products are designed to be thrown away. Given that, it should come as no surprise that plastics are ending up in waterways. MORE Read...
In early February the Vermont Senate passed legislation to protect Vermont shorelands. Over the summer, legislators traveled around the state and held a series of public meetings to hear concerns about the bill. MORE Read...
LCC, the US Environmental Protection Agency and other WaterSense partners are promoting a week focused on water conservation. Wasting water wastes energy and money and can contribute to lake pollution. More than one trillion gallons of water are lost annually in the U.S. due to easy-to-fix household leaks. MORE Read...
For the first time since 2007 Lake Champlain froze over. According to the records kept by the National Weather Service, ice cover used to be a fairly common event. View a slideshow of ice images. MORE Read...
Climate change trends pose threats to the Lake Champlain watershed and Lake Champlain's water quality. Using the notion that "two heads are better than one," the University of Vermont (UVM) and Vermont EPSCoR's Research on Adaptation to Climate Change (RACC) seek to "crowdsource" solutions to these threats. MORE Read...
After the lake freeze, the few pockets of open water on Lake Champlain became magnets for the winter ducks, gulls, and eagles that stuck around and braved the frigid temperatures. MORE Read...
You can view the lake year-round even when you're not lakeside with LCC's color note cards. An eight-card set includes two cards each of four different beautiful lake scenes. At $10 for members, $14 if you haven't joined yet, they're a great deal. MORE Read...
Lake Champlain isn’t the only waterbody facing excessive phosphorus loading. In February, the International Joint Commission (IJC) released a report offering scientific and policy advice to governments as they implement plans to respond to deteriorating Lake Erie water quality. MORE Read...
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) portion of Lake Champlain restoration funding was cut by over a million dollars, from $2,432,000 in 2013 to $1,399,000 for 2014. For over 20 years these annual federal appropriations have supported critical restoration, research, and monitoring programs on the lake. MORE Read...
In late November Vermont released a new “Proposal for a Clean Lake Champlain.” The public comment period for the proposal ended on January 17th. LCC and EPA were among 42 individuals and organizations to weigh in on the state plan.
LCC noted that the state “put forth a robust suite of activities that will go a long way to better managing water resources.” MORE Read...
Drugs are making their way from our medicine cabinets into our waters, and traces of pharmaceuticals have been found in the environment. Drugs may pass through our bodies unchanged or unused pills may be dumped down the toilet. Wastewater treatments systems were not designed to remove pharmaceuticals, and their ultimate environmental fate is unclear. MORE Read...
Amphibians with missing or misshapen limbs have triggered public and scientific attention and concern for over two decades. To help provide a better understanding of the extent of the problem, the USFWS conducted a nationwide-study of frog abnormalities over a ten-year period. MORE Read...
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is proposing new regulations to prevent the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS) at DEC boat launches. The proposed regulatory changes will require boaters to remove all visible plants and animals from boats, trailers and associated equipment and to drain boats before launching at or leaving a DEC boat launch. MORE Read...
February 2nd is World Wetlands Day, a day to raise public awareness about the importance and value of wetlands.
There are countless flooded forests, marshy swales, and peaty bogs throughout the Champlain Basin which help to prevent major floods from occurring downstream and provide important habitat for fish and wildlife. MORE Read...
LCC has been hard at work producing a suite of pamphlets illustrating lessons from Tropical Storm Irene. The pamphlets will soon be available on LCC’s website and we are actively seeking opportunities to present our conclusions to interested audiences. MORE Read...
While the lake bays are covered in ice and water temperatures hover in the 30s, LCC staff are looking ahead to paddling season. We'd love to see your photographs from paddling adventures, visits to trail sites, and other lake outings for use in upcoming publications. We are especially in need of shots of people having fun in and around the water. MORE Read...
Hats off to everyone who helped grow LCC's endowment by contributing to the Legacy Fund campaign! The campaign was initiated by LCC member Cliff Landesman who wanted to do something significant to celebrate his love of the lake and longstanding involvement with LCC. MORE Read...
The area of open water on Lake Champlain has been steadily closing with the frigid winter we have had. Birder Ian Worley reported that the ice front moved northward 18 miles between January 22 and January 24, from near D.A.R. State Park in Addison, Vermont to New York's Split Rock area. MORE Read...
Lake Champlain is breathtakingly beautiful. Spread that beauty around with the purchase of LCC's stunning new photo cards. An eight-card set includes two cards each of four different arresting scenes and costs $10 for members, $14 if you haven't joined yet. (Shipping and handling is extra.) MORE Read...
The state of Vermont and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a series of six meetings around the state to discuss clean-up plans for Lake Champlain. The meetings were very well attended with 60-130 people at each location. MORE Read...
The FDA recently announced that it is requiring manufacturers of anti-bacterial soaps to prove they're safe. We think that's a good idea. The active ingredient in anti-bacterial soaps does not breakdown at wastewater treatment plants so it can end up in our waters. MORE Read...
If you walk along a stream in an agricultural area it is not unusual to encounter pipes discharging water directly into it. These pipes are attached to drain systems that farmers use to lower the water table for their fields. The practice, termed tile draining, can dramatically improve crop yields on marginal fields, but its environmental impact is unclear. MORE Read...
Water conservation is something we may think about during the hot days of summer but what about winter? While we aren't watering lawns or gardens in the Champlain Valley there are still plenty of ways to cut back on water use during the chilly months. MORE Read...
A new report from the USDA offers hope that conservation practices can spread widely in a region in a relatively short period of time. The report shows that adoption of farm conservation practices in the last five years have led to significant offsets of water pollution. MORE Read...
