Lake Champlain Committee
Late February 2020 E-News
Calling All Kids – Enter Our World Water Day Contest!
Know a K through 12 student, teacher or homeschooler in the Lake Champlain Basin? In honor of World Water Day, LCC and Champlain Basin Education Initiative (CBEI) partners are hosting our annual cool contest to celebrate water. It’s a great way for educators to integrate art and science with their students. Students may write, create artwork, take photos, or make videos to explore these themes: Celebrate Water, Spread the Word, Citizen Science & Civic Action, and Act Locally Think Globally.
Send Your Paddling Pics Our Way
LCC seeks boating pictures to enhance our 2020 edition of the Paddlers’ Trail guidebook. If you ventured out on the water with a camera, please consider sharing some photos with us. We are looking for images of human-powered adventures on Lake Champlain and any discoveries made along the way. Scenes of paddling with friends (all wearing PFDs of course), packing your gear, fishing from your boat, and other visual reflections of water outings are welcome.
Submit your pictures via our online form keeping in mind the guidelines below.
Fix a Leak Week ― March 16-22, 2020
If your faucet drips or your toilet runs it can waste over 10,000 gallons a year ― the amount of water in a typical backyard swimming pool. More than one trillion gallons of water are lost annually in the U.S. due to easy-to-fix household leaks. Read more…
Lake Look
What’s Up With SUP — Single-Use Plastics?
On the beaches of Lake Champlain and in the branches of shoreline vegetation plastic bags flap in the breeze. These conspicuous “flags” are one of the many forms of plastic water pollution. Images of a plastic straw jammed up the nostril of a sea turtle, plastic bottles suspended in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and plastic-packed guts of fish and birds appear in our news feeds.
Clean Lake Tip
Handling Household Hazardous Waste
If you look at items kept in basements, under sinks, and in the dark recesses of the garage, the odds are good that some of them contain harmful ingredients.
NATURE NOTE
Lake Champlain’s Snow Globe
While the sun shines on Montpelier, it could be dumping snow 50 miles southwest in Cornwall, VT. Apart from major snowstorms, namely Nor’easters and “Alberta Clippers,” the formation of lake-effect snow over Lake Champlain is one of the many weather patterns that turns the Champlain Valley into a winter wonderland. Lake-effect snows occur under conditions where the presence of a lake is required. This weather phenomenon is also common on other large lakes such as the Finger Lakes of New York and the Great Lakes. Whether the snow makes you jump for joy or want to escape to warmer realms, it’s a staple of the winter experience in Vermont and New York.
Water News from Near and Far
Could Lake Champlain Freeze in 2020? Here’s What the Experts Say
The freeze over of Lake Champlain is a celebrated event. Due to warming winter temperatures, the lake does not ice over as often as it did 20 years ago, making this phenomenon special.
Bring Your Own Bag New York ― #BYOBagNY
The plastic bag ban in New York State begins Sunday, March 1, 2020! Whether floating on a local waterway or stuck in a tree, plastic bags are a too common sight and blight on the landscape and in the water.
Reporter Debrief: Vermont’s Split Water Regulation System Sows Confusion, Pollution
The Lake Champlain Committee (LCC) is no stranger to defending Vermont’s clean water laws. In December 2019, LCC was part of a coalition of environmental organizations that issued a press release on the unlawful emergency exemptions for farm manure spreading that result in pollution discharges into nearby waters.
A Fish of Legend: New England’s Arctic Char
Arctic char, closely related to lake and brook trout, are a relic of the last Ice Age. When glaciers in New England receded between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, the char colonized areas of inland New England.
Bricks Alive! Scientists Create Living Concrete
Photosynthetic bacteria, gelatin, and concrete are the building blocks of a new type of material: living concrete! Researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder, funded by the Department of Defense, formed the new substance.
Adapting to Rising Seas, Schools Move to the Rafters and Cats Swim
As the seas rise higher, low lying islands and coastal areas are continually threatened by floods. Batasan, an island in the Philippines, is no exception. In 2013, a major earthquake (7.2 magnitude) hit the island, causing it to collapse downward. Pelagia Villarmia, an 80-year-old resident of the island, reflects on the reality of her situation: “I will be gone before Batasan is gone,” she said. “But Batasan will also disappear.”
New Address or Email?
Are you a snowbird or a seasonal resident? Did you recently move or change your email address? If yes, please email us with your new contact information so we can update our files. If you’re a part-time resident of the Lake Champlain watershed let us know your general dates of arrival and departure so we mail to the right address at the right time and keep you connected to lake issues and our work year-round.
Lake Champlain Committee Board of Directors
Gary Kjelleren – Chair (South Hero, VT), Sandy Montgomery – Treasurer (Montreal, QC), Alan Booth (Plattsburgh, NY), Cliff Landesman (Brooklyn, NY), Jess Phelps (Northfield, VT), Ann Ruzow Holland (Willsboro, NY), Hank Slauson (Shelburne, VT), Chuck Woessner (Grand Isle, VT).
Lake Champlain Committee Advisory Council
Lisa Borre (Annapolis, MD), Megan Epler Wood (Burlington, VT), Steven Kellogg (Essex, NY), Peter S. Paine Jr. (Willsboro, NY), Bob Paquin (Shelburne, VT), Mary Watzin (NC).
Staff & Support
Lori Fisher, Executive Director
Alexa Hachigian, Field Associate/Office Manager
Lauren Sopher, Director of Science and Water Programs
Jared Carpenter, Water Protection Advocate
Grace Jia, ECO AmeriCorps Education and Outreach Coordinator
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