Letter from the Director

With the world still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and a revitalized human and civil rights movement surging across the United States, this summer has been marked by turmoil and unrest. The Lake Champlain Basin and the LCBP are not immune to these issues; they affect us all. These events have affected the work of the LCBP and our partners in many ways, and we are taking active steps to support our colleagues and communities here in the Basin as we tackle these challenges together. 

The LCBP was formed to coordinate the management of the Lake Champlain watershed and use our resources to support research, outreach, and grants to communities to achieve common goals for the Basin. The goal of the 1990 Lake Champlain Special Designation Act (Public Law 101-596), which designated Lake Champlain as a resource of national significance, was to “bring together people with diverse interests in the Lake to create a comprehensive pollution prevention, control, and restoration plan for protecting the future of the Lake Champlain Basin.”

As a science-based, non-advocacy organization, it is with this mandate in mind, “bring together people with diverse interests in the Lake” that I have directed LCBP staff to look closely at our program’s work to ensure that we are as inclusive as possible in meeting the intent of our authorizing legislation. This includes access to clean water and recreation opportunities for everyone. Toward that end, LCBP staff are:

• Evaluating the membership of our advisory committees—scientific and technical, education and outreach, heritage and recreation, and citizen representation—to ensure that the collective expertise that guides our activities includes the voices of underserved and diverse communities. 
• Reviewing key outreach materials—in print and digital forms – to identify translation needs so that messages about public health issues including cyanobacteria blooms, beach closures, and fish consumption advisories are accessible to non-English speaking members of our communities.  
• Reviewing our grant programs to ensure that underserved communities are eligible and aware of those opportunities and that their proposals addressing lake and heritage area-related issues are competitive.
• Engaging in conversations with our partners around the Basin to discuss how to support groups that focus on diversity and inclusion and help them push important lake messages to their members.  
• Participating in training related to unconscious bias and looking for additional training opportunities on a regular basis going forward. 

This work is not intended to be a project assigned to LCBP staff to work on over the summer; this work will be engrained in our approach to managing the Basin going forward. 

We continued our commitment to supporting a collaborative watershed protection effort when the Lake Champlain Steering Committee authorized the LCBP to redirect $150,000 in mid-April to support watershed groups that were suffering financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The LCBP values the hard, boots-on-the-ground work that our watershed group partners complete in all corners of the Basin. The tree plantings, invasive species control, mapping and project planning, community outreach, and more is work that no single organization could hope to accomplish effectively in a basin as large as ours. These Emergency Organizational Support grants for up to $5,000 are helping 14 groups remain viable and continue their important watershed work.

This work is possible because of the substantial support that Lake Champlain and the LCBP have received from our Congressional delegation over the past several decades. More outcomes of this support are reflected in this e-newsletter and more substantially in our 2019 Report of Activities. I encourage you to look through this detailed report at the myriad projects that are being implemented across the Basin and the Champlain Valley National Heritage Area.

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us!  While some LCBP are working at the Grand Isle office and at our Resource Room in ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, email or phone is still the best way to reach us. 

Please be sure to get out and enjoy the Lake this summer!  I know I will!

Eric Howe, Director

Lake Champlain Basin Program

Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership

LCBP Welcomes New Staff

The LCBP welcomed Mae Kate Campbell to its staff as Technical Associate in January 2020. Mae Kate is excited to be working on watershed science and contributing to water quality improvement across the Basin. She is earning an M.S. in geology at the University of Vermont and holds a B.A. in geology from Oberlin College. Mae Kate is interested in how an understanding of human-landscape interactions can help us solve environmental problems. She has completed research projects studying how tile drains affect erosion, and on understanding erosion in Cuba. Mae Kate lives in Burlington. She loves getting outdoors and hosting homemade pizza nights for her friends.

Hannah Weiss started as an Education and Outreach Steward with the LCBP in May. Hannah studied Environmental Science and Geology as an undergraduate at the University of Vermont and is currently finishing an M.S. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont focusing on a local climate change adaptation. As she has moved through academia, Hannah has realized that good science means very little if it is inaccessible to the public, and her interest has shifted to science communication. She is excited to explore remote and virtual education in the world of COVID-19 through her work with the LCBP. When not working, she’s watering her garden or gaining elevation in search of the alpine zone.

LCBP Awards Nearly $3 Million to Local Groups and Municipalities

A local implementation grant will support the continued presence of boat launch stewards on Missisquoi Bay in Quebec. Photo: OBVBM

The LCBP awarded $2,933,352 in local implementation grants to communities and organizations in New York, Québec, and Vermont this spring. The 106 grants awarded across six categories will support the groups’ efforts to improve water quality and ecosystems in the Lake Champlain watershed.

Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Vice Chair of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, whose support was essential in securing the funds for the grants, said: “I’m proud to see so many towns, cities and watershed groups stepping up to protect Lake Champlain, and I’m pleased that their work can be supported with these federal investments. It’s rewarding to know that my work to bring resources to the Lake Champlain Basin Program is making a difference, when I see so many important projects moving forward, with even more each year. This will always be a high priority for me each year on the Appropriations Committee.”

Read more  

CLEAN DRAIN DRY! Boat Launch Stewards Intercept More Fishhook waterflea

Thousands of fishhook and spiny waterfleas coat a fishing line in June 2020, giving the appearance of a long worm. Photo: LCBP

Boaters returning from Lake Champlain are again seeing large quantities of invasive fishhook waterflea fouling their fishing lines. First identified in Lake Champlain in 2018, masses of fishhook waterfleas began to appear in June this year, as observed by trained Lake Champlain boat launch stewards.

During our 14th season, ten LCBP stewards are assisting boaters in actions they can take to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species while they are launching and retrieving their vessels.

Read more

International Joint Commission Work Continues

Shoreline erosion in Isle La Motte, VT after historic flooding in spring 2011. Photo: LCBP

The International Lake Champlain-Richelieu River Study Board released the report The Causes and Impacts of Past Floods in the Lake Champlain/Richelieu River. The findings provide details about measures to mitigate the impacts of future flooding in the basin. The Study Board is expected to make recommendations on those measures to the Canadian and U.S. governments in 2022. Public meetings scheduled for March to review the Study Board’s work have been postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The LCBP supports the IJC flood study by providing administrative support and coordination of technical workshops, data acquisition, and public outreach. The LCBP also supports the work of the U.S. outreach coordination for the study with IJC funding. 

Read more about the Lake Champlain-Richelieu River Study

The IJC also released the final version of Nutrient Loading and Impacts in Lake Champlain – Missisquoi Bay and Lake Memphremagog as part of the Missisquoi Bay Water Quality project. The report includes recommendations to the Canadian and U.S. governments on steps to reduce harmful algal blooms.

Learn more about nutrient loading and impacts in Lakes Champlain and Memphremagog

Education and Outreach Highlights

Healthy Soils-Raise the Blade

Work on the Healthy Soils campaign continues in the summer of 2020. Want to help? Please set your lawn mower blade to 3” or higher and leave your clippings on your lawn. These small steps will help grass grow longer roots, reduce runoff, and help your grass to survive drought better. Many businesses and the cities of South Burlington, VT and Plattsburgh, NY have demonstrated strong support for the campaign this summer. Check out the recently updated Lawn to Lake website.

TMDL Outreach Media Series

The LCBP has developed animations and videos that describe the Lake Champlain phosphorus Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and spotlights the work that people and organizations are doing to help achieve the goals of this pollution diet for the Lake.

Three animations describe why too much phosphorus in the Lake is a problem, what the TMDL is, and what citizens can do to help achieve its goals. Eleven videos document the work being done by farmers, road crews, municipalities, and others to reduce the amount of phosphorus that reaches the Lake.

Later this year, the LCBP will develop cleanwaterwork.com website to share these materials and provide additional information about the TMDLs, including resources from the LCBP and its partners and links to the full documents

This media series was produced in partnership with Peregrine Productions and Devin Renca Design. 

Lake Champlain Resource Room Reopens

After being closed for more than three months, the Lake Champlain Basin Program Resource Room at ECHO, Leahy Center for Lake Champlain has reopened, following ECHO’s new hours and COVID-19 safety protocols. Throughout the closure, Resource Room staff worked remotely and were available to answer questions and provide lake and watershed education.   

LCBP Resource Room staff also developed new online resources, available on the LCBP website. The new Online Education Resources webpage includes links to organizations around Lake Champlain and beyond that offer an amazing variety of virtual learning adventures. Our updated list of Volunteer and Citizen Science Opportunities now features projects that can be done at home or completed online. 

Teachers, students, and families are strongly encouraged to reach out for educational support. We can set up interviews by phone, answer questions by email, and provide resources for learners of all ages. Please contact the LCBP Resource Room by email at resourceroom@lcbp.org or leave a voicemail at 802-864-1848 x109. We look forward to hearing from you!

AIS Message to Sail in Burlington Bay

The LCBP has been working with a local artist to produce a sail that will get out a visually striking aquatic invasive species spread prevention message. The sail, which features black-and-white renderings of common invasive species in Lake Champlain, will be rigged on one of the Community Sailing Center’s boats late this summer. 

Video Production Workshops

In response to interest by watershed organizations and other local partners to produce video outreach content during the COVID-19 Pandemic, the LCBP worked with Peregrine Productions to host a series of workshops to present best practices for video production. The workshops included an introductory session in which Vince Franke of Peregrine presented tips, tricks, and recommendations on equipment, planning, and filming and editing techniques. Follow-up Q&A workshops provided participants an opportunity to get feedback on their own video projects.

View the introductory workshop session

Video Content Keeps on Rolling

Two new videos hit the LCBP website this month. The latest installment of the Diving In series highlights work by local organizations and volunteers to improve public access to rivers in the Basin. “Celebrating Salmon,” is a follow up to the Bringing Back Salmon series that documents the Lake Champlain Salmon Festival, a community celebration in Richmond, VT that capped the International Year of the Salmon events in the Basin.

Watch River Access and Stewardship: Protecting the Things We Love

Watch Celebrating Salmon

Outreach Stewards Out and About

The LCBP’s Outreach Stewards—Hannah Weiss and Sue Hagar—will be staffing events on a limited basis this summer. In Vermont, Hannah is exploring opportunities to provide outreach in conjunction with the outdoor State of the Lake exhibits at ECHO on the Burlington waterfront. Sue continues to network in NY communities as well and has been representing LCBP at CWICNY meetings in New York.

CVNHP Grants Awarded

A suite of twenty-two new projects in the Champlain Valley will help protect and promote the region’s long and rich history. Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership (CVNHP) grants will highlight and showcase this history, conserve museum collections, and support internships in museums and libraries. More than $200,000 in grants have been awarded to organizations in Vermont, New York and Québec for projects in 2020 and 2021.

Read more

CVNHP Launches New Website

The CVNHP launched a new website this summer. The site features new and revised content highlighting the cultural heritage and recreational opportunities in the Champlain Valley, including annual programming around the CVNHP’s interpretive themes. It also provides resources for applying for CVNHP grants and a catalog of past projects supported by grants. The site hosts several regional initiatives, including Lake Champlain Bikeways, the Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve, and the Champlain Valley Wine Trail. The CVNHP will also roll out its own e-newsletter in the coming months. 

Sign up to receive the new CVNHP e-newsletter

Local Implementation Grant Highlights

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:

Aquatic Invasive Species Steward

The Upper Saranac Lake Watershed Stewardship Program hired an Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Steward to work at two NYSDEC Public Boat launches - Upper Saranac Lake at Back Bay and Fish Creek Public Campground - during the 2019 summer season. The Steward is part of the USLF integrated AIS spread prevention program that seeks to reduce or prevent the spread of AIS from entering and departing the USL watershed. Between the two launches there were a total of 202 days of stewardship coverage, 4,179 watercraft inspections, and education about AIS ecology and spread prevention measures was provided to 8,229 visitors. The AIS decontamination unit, positioned at the Back Bay launch, was used to conduct 175 high-risk watercraft decontaminations. 

Grant Category: Aquatic Invasive Species Spread Prevention

Foster Brook Culvert Replacement 

The Lake George Association (LGA) worked with partners to replace an undersized culvert on Foster Brook under Goldey Road in Huletts Landing, NY. The new culvert will help eliminate the firehose effect created by the smaller culvert and allow the brook to flow more naturally. The wider bottomless culvert, along with stream stabilization work, helps to minimize erosion and allows the stream to become more stable, which significantly reduces phosphorus loading entering Lake George and allows for aquatic organism passage. Other project partners included the Helen V. Froehlich Foundation, the Town of Dresden highway department, Trout Unlimited, US Fish and Wildlife, the Ausable River Association (AsRA), North Woods Engineering, and the local landowners. The construction work was completed by Ellsworth and Sons. 

Grant Category: Enhanced Best Management Practices

Invasive Plant Management Initiative

The Lincoln Pond Association worked to increase Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) spread prevention awareness in the Lincoln Pond community and in local schools. They developed a comprehensive lake management plan based on an accurate and detailed survey of aquatic plant distributions. An educational outreach component encourages local residents, young people, lake visitors, and regional water body users to take personal responsibility for preventing the spread of AIS. Four outdoor literature boxes were installed at boat access points along the shores of Lincoln Pond, and more than 1,600 pieces of literature were distributed to the community. The initiative also included bringing in a speaker from the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program to speak to students and supporting a school field trip to the ECHO Center in Burlington, Vermont. 

Grant Category: Aquatic Invasive Species Spread Prevention

Stormwater Education Video Series for landowners 

The Northwest Regional Planning Commission created an educational video series to increase community awareness about the impacts that stormwater runoff has on both urban and rural landscapes. The videos provide background information, step-by-step exercises, and tools that landowners can use to assess their own properties as a first step to identify and implement solutions to a larger problem. The videos are Vermont-based, created in collaboration with Northwest Access Television, and available for free online. 

Grant Category: Education and Outreach

View the videos

Clockwise from top left: A watershed steward decontaminating watercraft on Upper Saranac Lake; the new Foster Brook culvert under construction; Lincoln Pond AIS survey; NRPC stormwater introduction video. Images: Adirondack Watershed Institute, Lake George Association, Lincoln Pond Association, Northwest Regional Planning Commission.

Technical Project Highlights

Newtrient Assessment Tools for Tile Drainage Phosphorus Loading

LCBP partnered with Stone Environmental on a study that investigated the efficacy of best management practices to reduce phosphorus loads from tile-drained agricultural fields. This work builds on previous efforts that monitored nutrients leaving tile-drained fields in Franklin and Addison Counties. The project also considers the benefits of innovative manure management strategies, such as dissolved air floatation and evaporation, which could improve farmers’ ability to apply manure when and where it is needed.

Read the LCBP Technical Report

Farm Phosphorus Reduction Planner Tool 

Stone Environmental completed the second phase of the Farm Phosphorus Reduction Planner (Farm-PREP) tool implementation. This tool allows farmers in the Lake Champlain Basin to enter field and management information into a web-based tool and uses this information to model a suite of best management practices that will achieve phosphorus reduction goals of the 2016 EPA TMDL. In this second phase, Stone made several improvements based on farmer feedback, and held training sessions to teach partners how to use this exciting tool.

Read the LCBP Technical Report

New Projects

LCBP has awarded grants for eight new technical projects that will address priorities outlined in Opportunities for Action. These projects include funding for the use of environmental DNA to help map and protect the current habitat of native trout and salmon in the New York portion of the Basin, a research project to better understand nutrient loading and export dynamics in the Lake during the winter months, and the development of a screening tool for dams in the New York portion of the Basin to identify priorities for dam removal based on ecosystem benefit and safety concerns.

New Water Quality Projects in Missisquoi Bay and Lake Carmi are Underway 

In partnership with Stone Environmental and the University of Vermont, LCBP will begin investigating the distribution of phosphorus in sediments of Missisquoi Bay and will determine possible strategies to mitigate the effects of internal phosphorus loading into the bay. In addition, Northwest Regional Planning Commission (NRPC) will begin a project that will document the condition of private and park roads in the Lake Carmi watershed. NRPC will then determine best management practices for these roads in order to reduce phosphorus loading and better maintain these roads into the future to reduce phosphorus and sediment loading to Lake Carmi.

Upcoming Events

LCBP Grant Writing Workshops

Fall 2020

Details will be announced on the LCBP website this summer.

Remote Wastewater Operator Training

Fall 2020

NEIWPCC is now offering live, remote training sessions—in two- or three- hour mini-classes—where wastewater operators in New England and New York can receive training contact hours. TCHs approved in ME, MA, NH, and VT (approval pending in NY). Visit NEIWPCC’s training calendar for more information.

Publications

NEIWPCC 2019 Report Recalls a Pre-COVID Year

NEIWPCC’s 2019 Annual Report  showcases NEIWPCC’s new branding and presents highlights from the year for their five areas of work and impact.

Read the NEIWPCC Annual Report

NALMS LakeLine Summer Issue Free to Public

The North American Lake Management Society has made the Summer 2020 issue of its journal LakeLine free and available to the public. The issue is intended to serve as a general primer on lakes for the many lake and watershed residents and associations across the landscape who help to safeguard the integrity of surface waters. The range of articles provides background on lakes and empowers lake stewards in their efforts. LakeLine is typically a member benefit, but NALMS thought that the content of this issue was important enough to open it up and share it with whichever groups and individuals wanted to learn more about lakes and lake and watershed groups.

Read LakeLine