LCBP Awards nearly $455,000 in Grants

Volunteers plant seedlings in a rain garden at the Hunger Mountain Coop in Vermont. (Read more about last year's Barre-Montpelier stormwater education project in the Grants & Research section below.) Photo courtesy of the Friends of the Winooski River.

LCBP awarded 74 grants totaling $454,900 in January. Grants were awarded through two programs, supported with EPA, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, and National Park Service funds. A total of $374,000 in Local Implementation Grants will support a diverse set of projects in four categories: Pollution Prevention, AIS Spread Prevention, Education and Outreach, and Organizational Support. Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership (CVNHP) grants totaling $80,000 were awarded to communities and organizations in Vermont and New York.

Local Implementation Grants allow watershed organizations, schools, municipalities, research institutions, and other partners in Vermont and New York to accomplish important on-the-ground water quality and habitat protection tasks, including implementation of stormwater BMPs in urban and agricultural areas, informing the public about proper disposal of toxic substances, and control of water chestnut and other invasive species. The funds also provide support for basic operating functions such as website development and capacity to offer technical support on water quality issues.

Heritage Grants will support 21 new projects that highlight local heritage and commemorate the War of 1812 and the American Civil War. Ten commemoration projects will promote the anniversaries and support bicentennial/sesquicentennial programs and events. Eleven local heritage proposals will involve youth and students in the research and interpretation of local heritage, and the creation of new artistic expressions of local history and culture through fresh perspectives and new technology.

Since 1992, the LCBP has awarded more than $5.3 million to nearly 850 projects in New York and Vermont through competitive grant programs. Funded projects cover all actions in the Lake Champlain management plan Opportunities for Action, from phosphorus reduction, to preventing the spread of nuisance species, to public education and outreach, to restoring important cultural heritage sites. To learn more about these grants, please search our Grants Database or browse our Grants Map.

Vermont Phosphorus TMDL Update

Impervious surfaces in urban areas are a significant source of runoff and nutrient pollution.

In a renewed effort to achieve water quality goals for Lake Champlain, the State of Vermont and the EPA are working together to revise the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for phosphorus inputs to Lake Champlain from the Vermont portion of the watershed. The TMDL is being established by the EPA and will be implemented at the State level.

Vermont’s most recent TMDL for Lake Champlain was approved in 2002 (New York has a similar TMDL in place).  The Vermont TMDL has been undergoing a revision since 2011, and the EPA contracted with Tetra Tech to conduct lake and watershed modeling to support this revision effort. The current estimated phosphorus load for Lake Champlain (including input from Vermont, New York, and Québec) is 817 metric tons per year (533 metric tons are from Vermont alone). Based on the updated modeling results, the target load is 495 metric tons per year (343 metric tons for Vermont).

In November 2013, the State of Vermont issued a new draft implementation plan to reduce phosphorus loads.  In December, the LCBP facilitated six public meetings with representatives from the State of Vermont and the EPA throughout the basin to inform the public and receive feedback. The EPA replied to the State in mid-January 2014 with a list of suggested improvements to their implementation plan and a description of an accountability framework to ensure that reductions are achieved.

Vermont will now consider the EPA’s recommendations, along with suggestions from the public, and draft a full implementation plan by March 31, 2014. The revised implementation plan is anticipated to include more detailed commitments along with implementation schedules and milestones for each action category.  EPA intends to issue a draft version of key components of the TMDL (such as allocations for point and nonpoint sources) for public input by late spring, and then a final version incorporating the State’s implementation plan by late summer.  Stay tuned for more updates on the TMDL revision as this project progresses.

Read details of the EPA disapproval of the 2002 TMDL and the new TMDL process >> 

Read more about Vermont’s November 2013 draft implementation plan, including comment letters from EPA and the public. >>

Science Brief: Worse than Weeds? Herbicides in our Communities and Lake

Photo courtesy of EPA Region 9

Summertime bounty in the Champlain Valley often means the weeds are growing wild, too. Many farmers and homeowners turn to a quick fix: herbicides. Is it safe for our communities and the Lake? Or is it worse than weeds?

The most widely used herbicide in the United States is glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup and AquaPro, among others, with over 180 million pounds applied annually to home gardens and agricultural and commercial areas. It also is widely used to clear railroad tracks of weeds and to manage roadsides. Glyphosate is a non-selective herbicide and works by blocking enzymes that synthesize amino acids. In other words, it affects most actively growing plants by inhibiting growth at the sub-cellular level, because those amino acids help create proteins that would then become cell walls and other plant structures.

Monsanto first created and patented Roundup in the early 1970s and followed its immediate success with a line of patented glyphosate-resistant crop seeds, marketed as Roundup Ready®.

Globally, glyphosate has dramatically improved crop yield potential, thereby reducing hunger. The World Health Organization, the European Food Safety Agency, and the US Food and Drug Administration all classify glyphosate as non-toxic for both the environment and for people.

But several recent scientific journal articles investigated the link between glyphosate and increased cancer risk, citing evidence that chronic exposure to the pesticide may have adverse health effects, such as increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, breast cancer, and other chronic diseases. Glyphosate also has been shown to have negative effects on microbial life in soils, and on fish and amphibians in water environments, causing larval die-offs, deformities, and long-term soil health degradation.

Read the full article, including literature cited and links to additional information. >>

Lessons Learned from Boat Launch Steward Program

Boat launch stewards play a critical role in AIS management by informing the public about the threats these species pose.

Winter is a quiet time for the boat launch stewards, but it is an ideal time for analyzing the reams of data that the LCBP collects the previous summer. Upon reviewing the data collected at fifteen boat launches on Lake Champlain between Memorial Day and Labor Day, aquatic invasive species (AIS) managers have tracked trends and drawn conclusions.

Perhaps most notable is the number of boats that were found carrying invasives such as Eurasion water milfoil, curly leaf pondweed, and zebra mussels when leaving Lake Champlain. Almost 13,000 boats were inspected while launching or departing from Lake Champlain and 325 (2.5%) were found to be transporting an aquatic invasive species. The 483 AIS specimens collected brings attention to the overland movement of AIS on recreational boats that are trailered from one body of water to another.

Preventing spread of AIS between water bodies is a primary goal of the boat launch steward program. Boats entering Lake Champlain came from as far as Texas and Colorado and included 24 states in total. The water bodies most commonly visited in the two weeks prior to launching in Lake Champlain include Candlewood Lake in Connecticut, the Hudson River, Saratoga Lake, Oneida Lake, and the Atlantic Ocean. These systems harbor AIS that currently are not known to be in Lake Champlain. It is also important to prevent the spread of AIS found in Lake Champlain to other water bodies in the region. The data showed that many of those surveyed next expected to visit water bodies in a dozen states throughout the northeast.

The encouraging news is that 76% of boaters interviewed had previous contact with a steward, and 85% of visitors had taken one or more spread prevention measures, including visual inspection and hand removal, power washing, or clean-drain-dry. AIS research indicates that visual inspection and hand removal reduced the amounts of plants on boats by 88%. High-pressure washing was most effective at removing small-bodied organisms with a 91% removal rate, and low-pressure washing and hand removal were less effective at 74% removal rates. This information will help to target future education and outreach efforts of the stewards.

LCBP’s Meg Modley presented these findings at the North American Lake Management Society annual meeting in San Diego in December. View her presentation. >>

Grant Results

Rozalia Project

The Rozalia Project, based in Granville, Vermont, used an E&O Local Implementation grant to clean up marine debris in Lake Champlain. More than 400 adult volunteers and 290 Vermont students and teachers worked with Vermont Department of Labor crews to pick up more than 500,000 pieces of trash from Lake Champlain’s shorelines. The Rozalia Project also developed public outreach materials and a comprehensive Vermont-based STEM curriculum.

Science and Technology of Underwater Discovery Curriculum
The Lake Champlain Maritime Museum used a Local Implementation grant to develop a new program for high school students that focuses on the application of scientific theory and practices to solve real world research problems in nautical archaeology. LCMM developed five teaching modules grounded in core science and STEM content standards that teachers can use for single- or multi-day programs. Each module addresses an aspect of nautical archeology and can be presented at the LCMM facility or as a classroom program. They also developed a collection of lesson plans that teachers may choose to use before or after participation in the program.
Learn more about the program >>

South Lake Bike Loops
Lake Champlain Bikeways developed six new bike loops, located primarily in New York in the southern portion of the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership. Maps with detailed directions, elevation profiles, and descriptions of points of interest and historical significance were developed for each new route and will be available on the Lake Champlain Bikeways web site. The routes are the Great Sacandaga Lake loop; Town, Lake & Battlefield (starting in Saratoga Springs); Saratoga Battle Area; Rogers Island; Two States (in Bennington, VT and Cambridge, NY areas); and Slate Valley. These loops have options for both long and short rides that offer scenery and historic attractions.

Barre-Montpelier Stormwater Education Project
In an effort to raise awareness about stormwater issues in this urbanized area of Vermont and inform residents about actions they can take to reduce erosion and the associated pollutants, the Friends of the Winooski River conducted outreach efforts and completed two stormwater mitigation projects with volunteers in Barre, Montpelier, and Northfield. The Friends worked with a number of partners to organize educational workshops, deliver a presentation to the Northfield Rotary, and host tables at the Barre Farmers Market and the Granite City Garden Club annual plant sale. In addition, the project constructed a series of check dams in a drainage swale in Northfield and a rain garden to capture and treat runoff from the parking lot at the Hunger Mountain Coop.

Lake George On-Site Rainwater Harvesting Irrigation System Demo
The Champlain Watershed Improvement Coalition of New York (CWICNY) partnered with the town of Lake George to construct a system that collects and retains roof water from the Town of Lake George museum complex, and irrigates adjacent lawn areas. The system can collect 1,100 gallons during a half-inch rainfall event, reducing the immediate discharge of runoff and resulting erosion in local waterways. CWICNY staff worked with local high school students and teachers to construct the project, and conducted demonstrations for municipal and regional planning staff.

Research and Implementation Projects

Research team deploys a seine for fish survey on Malletts Bay. Photo courtesy of Fitzgerald Environmental.

Effects of Lakeshore Development on Littoral Habitat Modeled

Under contract to LCBP, Fitzgerald Environmental, Inc. documented the impact of varying levels of human development on lake-bottom habitat in nearshore areas of Lake Champlain. The study examined 90 sites in Malletts Bay in Vermont, with the goal of extending the methodology to other areas of the Lake. The study found that that the relative influence of natural variables such as wind/wave exposure and shoreline slope were less than the extent of shoreline development. The researchers developed a GIS tool that helps to predict species richness and woody debris habitat in areas outside of Malletts Bay.
Read the full technical report >>

The impervious surface map shows in detail the distribution of roads/railroads (black) and other impervious surfaces (red).

Basin Impervious Surfaces Mapped
Impervious surfaces are important landscape factors affecting stormwater runoff volume and water quality. To facilitate study and management of these features in the Lake Champlain Basin of New York and Vermont, the LCBP contracted with the Spatial Analysis Lab (SAL) at the University of Vermont to develop a new impervious surfaces map for the New York and Vermont portions of the Basin. The SAL mapped two classes of impervious area—Roads\Railroads and Other Impervious Surfaces (which includes driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, buildings, and quarries )—using high resolution aerial photography. The resulting map clearly illustrates the Basin‐wide distribution and density of these surfaces. The map will permit analyses at multiple scales and geographic areas of interest, aiding the study, monitoring, and regulation of impervious surfaces across the Lake Champlain Basin.
Read the full technical report >>
Access the data in shapefile or ESRI geodatabase format.

Tournament volunteers collect data. Photo courtesy of Karla Gratto.

Post Tournament Release Movements of Black Bass
With the increase in popularity of bass fishing tournaments on Lake Champlain, scientists have identified the need to assess the stress on fish and track their dispersal after release during these events.  As part of an LCBP-funded research project, scientists at the Lake Champlain Research Institute (LCRI) at SUNY Plattsburgh conducted a study at nine tournaments in 2011 and 2012. Using tag and recapture methods and radio telemetry, the researchers found that it took fish at least two weeks, and often several months, to disperse from their release point at Plattsburgh on Cumberland Bay, NY. They also found a correlation between fish stress and the distance transported after being caught. Based on their findings, the team made recommendations to move the release point for future tournaments away from the Plattsburgh waterfront and establish a long-term monitoring program of the warmwater fishery in Lake Champlain. To summarize the science content of the project, the team worked with the LCBP to develop a four-page fact sheet for distribution to tournament organizers.
Read the full report >>

Love the Lake

Jean Belisle of Concordia University will be back by popular demand this winter. That must mean more of Colleen's delicious fleur-de-lys cookies!

Save the dates! More fascinating talks and delicious desserts are on the menu this winter. All presentations begin at 6:30.

February 20:

Dynamic Lake Champlain: Forecasting, Climatology and Interesting Phenomena

John Goff, Senior Forecaster NOAA/NWS Burlington, VT

Andrew Loconto, Meteorologist NOAA/NWS Burlington, VT

February 27:

ROVs, AUVs, and Acoustic Telemetry - Studying Fish with Modern Technology

Ellen Marsden, Professor of Fisheries

University of Vermont

March 6:

Around the Island of Montreal During the French Regime

Jean Belisle, Professor Emeritus

Concordia University

March 13:

What Can We Learn from the 2011 Floods?

Mike Winslow, Staff Scientist

Lake Champlain Committee

The LCBP office is in the Gordon-Center House at 54 West Shore Road in Grand Isle, Vermont—just a short walk from the LCT ferry. ALL EVENTS ARE FREE.

Download the flyer >>

World Water Day Celebration

CBEI Teacher Workshop/Student Competition

March 21
Burlington, VT
The Champlain Basin Education Initiative (CBEI) partners will host a teacher workshop about citizen and student science monitoring opportunities from 1-4 p.m. in celebration of World Water Day.

This will be followed by a separate event from 4-7 p.m. featuring a student competition about World Water with prizes to be awarded. Our special guest speaker will be Lisa Borre, a lake conservationist, freelance writer, and avid sailor. Lisa is a regular contributor to National Geographic's Water Currents blog and an active member of the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network.With her husband, she co-founded LakeNet, a world lakes network. Lisa was the Vermont coordinator of the Lake Champlain Basin Program from 1990 to 1997.

More detailed information will be available later this month.

Conferences

38th Annual Meeting of the New England Association of Environmental Biologists (NEAEB)
March 26-28
Burlington, VT
The 2014 New England Association of Environmental Biologists (NEAEB) Annual Conference is being hosted by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation with assistance from the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission and the Lake Champlain Basin Program. The meeting will overlap with "Preparing for What's Next: Climate Change, Stormwater Management and Ecosystem Impacts," an LCBP/NEIWPCC workshop series held March 25-26.

More Information >>

25th Annual Nonpoint Source Pollution Conference
April 29-30
Newport, Rhode Island
New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC), in partnership with its member states, coordinates the Annual Nonpoint Source (NPS) Pollution Conference. The conference brings together New England and New York State participants from government and the private sector, academia, and watershed organizations who are working in NPS pollution management.

More Information >>