Assessing the Management and Impact of Private Road Crossings in the Lake Champlain Basin

Luke Briccetti, SUNY Plattsburgh, (2025). Assessing the Management and Impact of Private Road Crossings in the Lake Champlain Basin. Technical Report # 108, Grand Isle, VT. Lake Champlain Basin Program.

This project focused on locating and assessing the impact of privately owned road-stream crossings across
the Lake Champlain Basin, as well as on understanding the factors influencing behavior and decision making of landowners around road crossing best management practices (BMPs) – with the goal of
reducing threats to aquatic connectivity, water quality, and hazard risk to infrastructure. Over 1,500
crossings were identified and digitized using high-resolution LiDAR. A subset of these crossings were
then assessed for aquatic passage, fish community, and stream habitat impacts. Lastly, landowners were
surveyed and interviewed to better understand their perspectives on crossing BMPs, which were then
synthesized and distributed in community outreach events and to the academic community.