The 2021 Report of Activities highlights LCBP projects that were in progress or concluded between October 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021. It includes a comprehensive listing of external contracts managed by LCBP, and key LCBP tasks implemented by staff during this time period. The LCBP received federal funding in FY 2021 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, and the National Park Service and the International Joint Commission.

Field application of fertilizer and manure on dairy farms is considered an important source of nutrients, especially phosphorus, entering Lake Champlain and contributing to water quality problems (NY-VT Strategic Core Group, 1992). Because of the major role of dairy farming in the Lake Champlain Basin, management of manure plays a critical role in determining the amount of phosphorus available for delivery to surface waters in agricultural runoff. In a sampling of nine farms in the St. Albans Bay RCWP during 1987-1989, 71 % of the phosphorus and 80% of the nitrogen applied to fields was from manure with the remainder applied as fertilizer (Jokela, 1991). Almost two­thirds of the manure phosphorus and nitrogen was applied to cornland.

At the present time, Extension and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) recommend spring application of manure on corn with same-day incorporation to provide most efficient utilization of manure nutrients and to minimize surface and ground water quality impacts. However, because of limited manure storage and other practical circumstances on many farms, significant amounts of manure are applied in the fall and much is not incorporated the same day. Application of slurry manure with equipment that injects below the surface would result in immediate incorporation without tillage, thus largely preventing loss of manure phosphorus and nitrogen in surface runoff and loss of N by volatilization of ammonia. It would also allow application of manure as a sidedressed application into the growing crop, giving farmers another window of application on cornland before the post-harvest period in the fall. Sidedressing supplies nitrogen at the optimum time for efficient N uptake by the crop and would minimize nitrate leaching. It would also make possible the use of the Pre-sidedress Nitrate Test (PSNT) as a tool to adjust manure N rates to crop need. Nutrient loss in runoff would likely be very low because of immediate incorporation and because of the low probability of runoff events at that time of year compared to fall and early spring.

The overall purpose of this project was to demonstrate alternative manure application techniques to improve management of phosphorus and nitrogen from manure and commercial sources on silage corn, and to evaluate the effects of these techniques on corn yields and nutrient losses via surface runoff and leaching.

In May 1992 Lake Champlain Maritime Museum and Middlebury College imaged a six square kilometer section of southern Lake Champlain with a high resolution, dual frequency side-scan sonar system. These side-scan sonar profiles were used to identify the sediment bedforms and submerged cultural artifacts present south of Larabee’s Point to Chipman Point. Several bottom morphologies including sediment waves, lineations, sediment furrows, and linear groups of pockmarks were recorded and mapped.

Most of the sediment waves are found in conjunction with the cultural artifacts beneath Lake Champlain’s ·surface that disturb the bottom current, creating sediment waves. These waves are classified into two distinct groups by their size, orientation, and asymmetry. The height of the waves ranged from several centimeters to 0.5 meters, and the wavelength varied from 1 to 12 meters. The two groups had orientations of 65° and 175°. Around the inside bends of the lake surrounding Buoys 37 and 38, fields of sediment furrows have developed . They are approximately 15 to 50 cm deep, 2 meters wide, up to 600 meters long, and have an average spacing of 10 to 20 meters. Furrows are evidence of either a strong, stable bottom current in those regions or an strong, episodic current that erodes the bottom sediment The pockmarks are .located along a linear trend on the eastern slope of the lake, north of Mt. Independence. This northeast trend could be related to a subsurface fault that facilitates the upwelling of biogenic gas or groundwater into the lake.

From the orientations of the sediment bedforms, the direction of the bottom currents in the study area were documented. The bottom current in this southern section of Lake Champlain behaves much like a river, flowing to the north, following the local bathymetry and topography. However, both sediment waves and furrows suggest possible bi-directional currents, as well as episodic events that are characterized by an increase in current speed. The cause of these stronger, bi-directional currents is unknown, but we are speculating that it is either related to the seiche, or the dynamics of the water where it flows around a bend in the lake, or a combination of the two processes.

Sediment bedforms are generated at the sediment water interface by the interaction of bottom water flow and bottom topography. Bedforms can be found in rivers, lakes and oceans. The dynamics of these sediment bedforms have been widely studied (Allen, 1985) such that it is possible to determine the direction and to some extent the magnitude of the bottom currents that formed them. Further information about sedimentation processes can be gleaned from analyzing sediments from these features.

A survey was conducted at the southern end of Lake Champlain; from Larabee’s Point ferry crossing to Chipman Point. This survey was designed to locate cultural artifacts. Since submerged cultural artifacts represent obstructions to bottom water flow, they can be the cause of some sediment bedforms. Erosion and deposition processes which create sediment bedforms, might also have an effect on the management and preservation of submerged cultural resources in Lake Champlain. We utilized side-scan sonar, precision depth recorders, a magnetometer and sediment coring in identifying the orientation and location of all cultural artifacts and sediment bedforms. From our analysis, we inferred the average bottom water flow direction in this study region, discuss the nature and formation of the sediment bedforms, and assess the effects of erosion and deposition on the observed cultural artifacts.

Improving Cultural Resource Protection on Agricultural Lands: A Vermont Example
The Archaeology on the Farms Project of 1991-1993 was a multidimensional effort to record, evaluate, interpret and preserve cultural resources on farms in Addison County, western Vermont. Archaeological resources were the primary focus, although consideration and protection of standing historic structures was also included. Conceived and directed by Giovanna Peebles, State Archaeologist, and funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Lake Champlain Basin Program, the project worked with a variety of organizations on cultural resource protection issues. The effort focused on the Soil Conservation Service’s (SCS) Middlebury Field Office, examining patterns of SCS earth-moving projects, their effects on cultural resources, and the development of a best-practices approach to cultural resource protection during SCS projects.