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Casin’ the Basin E-Newsletter
Summer 2019 Issue No. 37 Spacer Dark Blue
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Cynaobacteria Season Gets an Early Start

volunteers collecting water samples

Volunteer monitors collect samples of lake water to be tested for the presence of cyanobacteria. Photo: LCBP.

As of mid-July, reports of cyanobacteria blooms (also known as blue-green algae) are widespread across Lake Champlain and several inland water bodies in the Basin. Cyanobacteria are a natural part of nearly every aquatic ecosystem, but can become a nuisance and a health threat under certain conditions. When cyanobacteria growth is accelerated by warm weather, calm water, and excessive nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen, blooms can form that sometimes produce toxins that are harmful to people and pets. Cyanobacteria blooms can look like small green pinhead-sized balls in the water and under more severe conditions may form a layer on the water surface that resembles thick pea soup. Lake users are advised to avoid the water when they suspect cyanobacteria are present. The Vermont Department of Health reports the location of bloom conditions across Lake Champlain on their Cyanobacteria Tracker.

Learn more about cyanobacteria



Fishhook Waterflea Infests Lake Champlain

Fishhook waterfleas and spiny waterfleas

Fishhook waterfleas and spiny waterfleas on a fishing line. Photo: LCBP.

Anglers returning from the waters of Lake Champlain at Shelburne Bay have reported large quantities of the invasive fishhook waterflea fouling their gear this summer. In the first week of July, LCBP boat launch stewards noted that nearly all fishing boats returning to the Shelburne Bay and Converse Bay launches had downriggers infested with the tiny organisms. The stewards removed, treated, and disposed of the fishhook waterfleas. The alarming news came during the busy holiday period of Canada Day on July 1 and the July 4th holiday in the U.S.

Read more



LCBP Welcomes New Staff

Lauren Jenness

Lauren Jenness joined the LCBP this spring! Lauren works across all programs at LCBP, assisting with grant management, the boat launch steward program, outreach programming, and with cultural heritage initiatives. Lauren graduated from the University of Vermont with a B.S. in Environmental Studies in 2016. In her previous work, Lauren evaluated the effects of sea level rise on salt marsh vegetation, performed land-cover mapping and imagery analysis, and worked with volunteers to collect water quality data and install lakeshore-friendly practices on freshwater lakes. Lauren lives in Burlington with her boyfriend and enjoys being on the water and gardening.

 

 

Mike Winslow at Love the Lake

New in 2019, LCBP has initiated an Outreach Steward program to complement the successful boat launch steward program. Outreach Stewards Susan Hagar and Kathleen Lewis have been working public events throughout the Basin since May. Sue and Kat bring a wealth of knowledge and experience in lake issues to their work. Sue has been working in the environmental field 1999. She received her B.A. in Environmental Planning from SUNY Plattsburgh, and also holds an A.A.S. in Environmental Technology from Clinton Community College. She has worked on environmental remediation projects in the Champlain Basin, in outdoor education for the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department and New York State DEC, and on the study of microplastics in Lake Champlain.

 

 

Kathleen Lewis

Kat Lewis is a recent graduate of the University of Vermont Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. She earned a B.S. in Environmental Science with a focus in Water Resources and a minor in Ecological Agriculture. Her undergraduate research and experience working with the UVM Extension Watershed Alliance educating K-12 students about the watershed they live in has provided a keen interest and knowledge of the Lake Champlain Basin that she is excited to share with the public.



Local Grant Projects in Full Swing

students planting rain garden

Friends of the Winooski River used an Education and Outreach grant to engage students in planting a rain garden at Smilie School in Bolton, VT. Photo: Friends of the Winooski River.

It’s the height of the fieldwork season, and more than one hundred projects funded by the LCBP are underway throughout the Basin. The LCBP recently awarded ninety new grants totaling more than $1.3 million. These projects address a range of water quality and ecosystem health issues, including riparian restoration, a municipal road salt reduction program, boat launch steward and greeter programs, and education and outreach initiatives.

Read more

 

 

 



International Year of the Salmon

International Year of the Salmon logo

For just the third time in more than 150 years, scientists have found naturally-reproduced Atlantic salmon fry in the Lake Champlain Basin. The discovery this summer in the North Branch of the Boquet River in New York is an encouraging milestone for scientists and anglers. And it is timed perfectly, as the LCBP and partners celebrate the International Year of the Salmon.

Read more



International Joint Commission Work Continues

The International Joint Commission (IJC) continues work on two projects in the Lake Champlain Basin: the Lake Champlain-Richelieu River Flood Study (2017-2021), and the Nutrient Loading and Impacts in Lake Champlain’s Missisquoi Bay project (2018-2019).

 

The Flood Study work continues with the development of recent flood forecasting models, risk perception public surveys, and development of potential flood mitigation measures in the Lake Champlain and Richelieu River basin. The International Joint Commission provides more information and welcomes public feedback on their website: https://www.ijc.org/en/lcrr, and will hold more public meetings in Vermont, New York, and Québec this fall. These public meetings will provide an opportunity for study personnel to share their recent work on flood mitigation options in the Lake Champlain and Richelieu River basin, and for public stakeholders to ask questions and provide suggestions and feedback.

 

The Missisquoi Bay Water Quality project will wrap up in late 2019 with a set of recommendations on water quality and nutrient loading to be presented to the governments of the U.S. and Canada. Before these recommendations are finalized, LCBP and our Québec partner organization, Organisme de basin versant de la baie Missisquoi, will hold public meetings in early Fall 2019 in Vermont and Québec. We hope to see you there!

 

Snowmelt and heavy springs rains flooded homes on Colchester Point, Vermont in 2011. The IJC Lake Champlain-Richelieu River Flood Study aims to reduce the impacts of flooding to shoreline communities. Photo: LCBP.



Raise the Blade Campaign in Full Swing

Raise the Blade lawn sign at Lake Champlain Chocolates

Local businesses are helping reduce runoff by letting their grass grow to three inches. Photo: Lake Champlain Sea Grant

The LCBP and partners in the Raise the Blade campaign are encouraging homeowners and businesses to take one small step for Lake Champlain and local waterways by raising their lawnmower blades to three inches high, and leaving the clippings on the lawn. Over time, soils will be heathier and better able to absorb stormwater runoff. An easy win for the Lake at no cost to you!

 

Our Raise the Blade partners have shared this message at many events over the past year, including the Vermont flower show, the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility annual conference, and the Burlington farmer's market. Most recently, the Saint Albans Area Watershed Association hosted a 5K road race to benefit water quality. Raise the Blade was featured along the race route and on race t-shirts.

 

Fourteen businesses have already joined the campaign, encouraging their own customers to “raise the blade”. Participating businesses get online visibiliy and can receive promotional rack cards and lawn signs with their company logo. Raise the Blade signs have been traveling on Chittenden County buses and will soon be coming to Plattsburgh as well!

 

Homeowners can receive a Raise the Blade wooden yard stick for easy measuring and to share the message with neighbors. Have someone take a picture of you mowing your lawn to three inches with a yard stick in the picture and send us a photo. We’ll post the photo and enter you into an upcoming drawing to win a free composting lawnmower! This is a great opportunity for a friendly neighborhood competition.

 

How will we verify that this simple step works? Lake Champlain Sea Grant has established ten research plots around the watershed to compare the health of grass mowed with blades set at three inches and one inch. Lake Champlain Sea Grant staff will monitor these plots to measure the health of local soils with lawns mowed to one and three inches and compare these results with tests from other parts of the country.

 

Thank you to our community partners for joining us in this campaign: Lake Champlain Sea Grant/UVM Extension, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Composting Association of Vermont, Lake Champlain Committee, and Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.

 

For more information, visit lawntolake.org or contact Colleen Hickey, LCBP, at (802) 372-3213 or chickey@lcbp.org.



Education and Outreach Highlights

Visitors using ECHO Lake News Studio

Photo: ECHO

New ECHO Exhibit Highlights State of the Lake Report

The LCBP, ECHO, and WCAX News have partnered to develop a new exhibit at ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain that is based on the LCBP’s 2018 State of the Lake and Ecosystems Indicators Report. The exhibit includes a new Lake News “Studio”, where visitors can record one of six pre-scripted lake news stories that report on water quality and ecosystem health issues addressed in the State of the Lake Report. WCAX produced Public Service Announcements and video content to accompany the reports, with lead-ins by WCAX news anchors. ECHO guests can receive their videos by email. The news studio is accompanied by graphic exhibit panels that provide more detail about lake issues, and exterior exhibits will be installed in the public space along the Lake behind ECHO this summer.

 

 

New Diving In Videos Features Art and AIS
The LCBP released two new videos in the Diving In series. The series highlights the many ways that people are learning about and helping to protect water quality and habitat in the Lake Champlain Basin. These videos showcase opportunities for citizen action and efforts of local watershed partners to engage students and community members.

 

student looking at wood mosaic panel

Photo: Peregrine Productions

“Celebrating Art and Water” chronicles an art project done by a group of fifth-grade students and teachers at J.J. Flynn Elementary in Burlington, VT.  The students and teachers worked with community partner Generator Makerspace to create laser-cut wood panel mosaics that reflected favorite elements of their natural world. The project was integrated into classroom lessons in watershed science and the teachers’ own learning as part of the CBEI Watershed for Every Classroom program, and were submitted for the Champlain Basin Education Initiative’s annual World Water Day Celebration.
Watch "Celebrating Art and Water"

 

“Monitoring for Invasives in the Adirondack Backcountry” documents volunteers working with the Adirondack Mountain Club and the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program to search for and identify aquatic invasive species in backcountry water bodies of the Adirondack Park in New York.
Watch "Monitoring for Invasive in the Adirondack Backcountry"

 

 

Watershed for Every Classroom

An enthusiastic and ambitious group of educators completed the Watershed for Every Classroom (WEC) program this spring. The program provides teachers with inspiration, knowledge, and skills to teach watershed science. The course, offered by the Champlain Basin Education Initiative (CBEI), helps educators frame engaging lessons around water quality and place-based learning. The knowledge gained by the teachers will reach about 1,400 students over the course of three years. A new WEC program will begin in July 2020.

 

 



CVNHP Prepares for Centennial of Women’s Suffrage

Inez Milholland, who is buried in Lewis, New York, leads a 1913 suffrage parade in New York City. Photo: Library of Congress.

In 2020, the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. The Lake Champlain Basin Program awarded seven projects totaling more than $84,000 that will focus on the struggles leading up to the 19th Amendment and the remarkable women of the Champlain Valley. The celebration will include lectures, education programs, new interpretation at historic sites, pageants, rallies, reenactments, and a special tour of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s replica canal schooner Lois McClure.



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Local Implementation Grant Results

The LCBP has awarded more than $10 million through 1,300 small grants to local organizations since 1992. These grants support pollution prevention, habitat restoration, and other projects to improve the water quality and health of the Lake Champlain ecosystem. A sample of recently completed projects include:

 

Shelburne Community School Rain Garden
The Lewis Creek Association finalized design plans and constructed a rain garden on the campus of Shelburne Community School. Located on the entrance island at the front of the school, the bioretention area treats runoff from school property before it enters McCabe’s Brook and Shelburne Bay. It is one of fourteen “Ahead of the Storm” flood resiliency and pollution prevention practices being implemented throughout the LaPlatte watershed region. The project also serves as a demonstration site for citizens and other municipalities. Teachers integrated stormwater infrastructure design into fifth-grade classroom lessons.
Grant Category: Pollution Prevention and Habitat Conservation

 

Discovering the Ausable: An Aquatic Stewardship Program
The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) and Ausable River Association (AsRA) partnered to provide an immersive experience for high school students in aquatic ecology, hands-on science, and stewardship while camping, paddling, and learning about responsible recreation. Students camped at the ADK’s Heart Lake Program Center outside of Lake Placid, NY for five days while learning about watersheds and conducting chemical, physical, and biological tests on lakes and other water bodies within the Ausable River watershed. They also learned about aquatic invasive species and organized a cleanup at the mouth of the Ausable River at Lake Champlain.
Grant Category: Education and Outreach

 

Lake Hortonia Milfoil Management
The Lake Hortonia Property Owners Association (LHPOA) is harvesting invasive Eurasian watermilfoil on two acres near the public boat launch on Lake Hortonia this summer. As part of a multi-pronged approach that aims to minimize the use of chemical herbicides, LHPOA is using diver-assisted suction harvesting to remove the invasive plant. LCBP funded LHPOA efforts to suction harvest a portion of this area in 2018 in an effort that reduced Eurasian watermilfoil coverage by 83% in the target area. This summer’s work will clear any remaining clusters of Eurasian watermilfoil left from 2018 and an additional area closer to the main body of the lake to further minimize the spread of this invasive plant to other lakes from the operations at the boat launch.
Grant Category: Aquatic Invasive Species Management

 

Plattsburgh Talks, Treks and Tasks
Friends of the Saranac River Trail is developing educational materials and hosting a series of downtown Plattsburgh walking tours. The walks focus on the areas of the trail around the Durkee Street and Saranac Street bridges, which are scheduled to be upgraded with pedestrian access in 2019. In May, the group led a Jane’s Walk tour that included a stop at the Plattsburgh Flume, which diverted water from the Saranac River to power local mills. Like Jane’s Walks that take place in hundreds of cities around the world, the Friends outing is a community building event that encourages people to share stories about their neighborhoods, discover unseen aspects of their communities, and connect with their neighbors. A June trek provided participants with an inside look at the Water Resource Recovery Facility near the Plattsburgh waterfront.
Grant Category: Education and Outreach

 

Promoting Septic System Improvements
The Assembly Point Water Quality Coalition developed an initiative to inventory septic systems on Assembly Point on Lake George in the town of Queensbury, NY and provide educational materials to town officials and the public. The effort included photographic documentation of underwater algae; sample collection and analysis for cyanobacteria; development of a database of property and septic system records, and production of an informational brochure describing a new law that requires septic inspection when property is transferred. While cyanobacteria blooms have not been observed, analyses showed the presence of cyanobacteria in most samples and other indicators of excess nutrient inputs. Results were presented to the Town of Queensbury and the Lake George Park Commission.
Grant Category: Pollution Prevention and Habitat Conservation

 

Clockwise from top left: planting a rain garden at Shelburne Community School; sampling macro-invertebrates in the Ausable River; suction harvesting on Lake Hortonia; a Jane’s Walk in Plattsburgh. Images: Lewis Creek Association; Adirondack Mountain Club, Lake Hortonia Property Owner’s Association; Friends of the Saranac River Trail.

 

Search our grants database to learn about other projects supported by the LCBP



Research and Implementation Projects

Each year, the LCBP funds several research projects that help to improve the understanding and inform management of the watershed. These projects include scientific research, best management demonstration projects, education and outreach efforts, and other initiatives that are key to implementing Opportunities for Action and improving the Lake Champlain ecosystem.

 

Lake Champlain Tributary Loading
The LCBP published the technical report entitled Concentration, load, and trend estimates for nutrients, chloride, and total suspended solids in Lake Champlain tributaries, 1990 – 2017. LCBP Technical Coordinator Matthew Vaughan conducted the analysis and developed the report, which examines trends in the delivery of key pollutants to Lake Champlain from its major tributaries since 1990. The analysis is based on data collected by the Lake Champlain Long-term Monitoring Program and the U.S. Geological Survey. The analysis found that the Winooski and Missisquoi Rivers each contributed roughly 100 to 300 metric tons of phosphorus to the lake each year. The analysis also revealed that there were no long- or short-term trends in total phosphorus loading in 10 out of the 18 tributaries studied. However, Lewis and Little Otter Creeks showed long-term increases in phosphorus loading. In addition, long-term increases in chloride load were observed in all but two tributaries: the LaPlatte and Pike Rivers.
Read the full report

 

Otter Creek discharges sediment into Lake Champlain during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. Photo: LCBP.



LCBP Events & Activities

Upcoming Events

Salmon Festival
October 5, 2019, Richmond, VT
Come celebrate the return of the Atlantic salmon to the Lake Champlain basin with a day of fun activities, demonstrations, and exhibits.
Learn more

 

North American Lake Management Society 39th International Symposium
November 11-15, 2019, Burlington, VT
Co-hosted by the LCBP and Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation. Held each fall, the NALMS International Symposium is the premier lake management event in Canada and the US where members and other professionals come together for technical presentations, hands-on workshops, field trips and discussions on managing lakes and reservoirs.
Learn more and register for the conference



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Blue Spacer About The ProgramThe Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) works in partnership with government agencies from New York, Vermont, and Quebec, private organizations, local communities, and individuals to coordinate and fund efforts which benefit the Lake Champlain Basin’s water quality, fisheries, wetlands, wildlife, recreation, and cultural resources. Learn more or view our Management Plan. Blue Spacer 2 Other SitesOpportunities for Action
State of the Lake
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