A Natural and Human History of Lake Champlain

Winslow, M. (2016). A Natural and Human History of Lake Champlain. Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, 17(4), 19.

Lake Champlain is a glacially carved water body in the St. Lawrence River drainage. The lake sits in the low point of a valley between the Adirondack Mountains of New York and the Green Mountains of Vermont. The border between New York and Vermont follows the deepest part of the lake. A small portion of the lake resides in Quebec. Land use in the basin is 64.3% forest, 16% agriculture, and 5.6% developed land with the remainder being wetlands and open water. Relatively flat, fertile lands extend to the east between the lake and the Green Mountains. This area has the highest concentration of agricultural lands.  To the west, the Adirondacks are much closer to the lakes shore. As a result, the Vermont portion of the basin has a higher population density and more farmland than does the New York portion. Lake Champlain is within the Laurentian Mixed Forest Ecoregion. As such, it shares a similar climate, topography, forest type, and soil type with the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Valley, central and western New York, and northern Pennsylvania. Precipitation ranges from 760 to 1020 mm; snowfall averages 1,020 to 1,520 mm in the Champlain Valley. Mean annual temperature ranges from 39 to 45 °F (4 to 7 °C). The growing season generally lasts about 160 days. The Lake Champlain drainage basin to lake volume ratio (19:1) is quite high for a glacially carved lake. It is reasonable to expect areas of Lake Champlain with higher watershed to lake area ratios to have greater issues with cyanobacteria and other plant growth. Larger watersheds generate more nutrient pollution. The ratio of a lake’s drainage area to its surface area is positively correlated to external inputs of nutrients, thus to increasing primary productivity. Missisquoi Bay and the South Lake have the highest watershed to lake area ratios.