Resources

This open-access peer-reviewed article describes research funded by Lake Champlain Sea Grant to develop a sequencing-based microsatellite panel for lake trout capable of resolving both population-and kin-level relationships among populations including Lake Champlain and Lake Seneca strains.

In this research webinar, we are joined by Kate Longfield, MS student in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. Longfield interviewed a random sample of eighteen dairy, livestock, crop, and vegetable farmers from within Vermont’s Lake Champlain Basin. The study investigated farmers’ attitudes towards the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), Farm Service Agency (FSA), and Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets (VAAFM), as well as the agencies' conservation programs. The study also compared the farmers’ agency trust ratings to their attitudes towards government conservation programs, to determine whether farmers with higher trust in government agencies would be more likely to feel positively towards government conservation programs.

The use of deicing materials (road salt) in Vermont has increased in the past decades. Chemical constituents associated with deicing materials can potentially pose a risk to drinking water quality. While deicing materials applied to roads represent a distributed, ephemeral source of salts, deicing material storage facilities are a potential year-round source of materials that can impact drinking water wells. This talk describes a 2022 study that included the development of a geospatial database of deicing storage facilities in the Vermont portion of the Lake Champlain basin and an evaluation of the potential for drinking water impacts in vulnerable communities.

In this webinar, Mark Mitchell of Lake Champlain Sea Grant and the Vermont Department of Conservation discusses the history and the future of the Vermont Lay Lakes Monitoring Program.

This research webinar goes over Matt Futia and Ellen Marsden's Lake Champlain Sea Grant funded research that studies lake trout populations and the dynamics of wild lake trout in Lake Champlain.

This research webinar presented by Erin Eggleston in December 2023 explores the seasonal variation in microbial patterns and cyanobacteria in Lake Champlain. Preliminary data show interesting microbial and viral populations trends by season, as well as functional influence of viruses on carbon metabolism in summer CHABs.

Tune into our last Spring 2023 research webinar with Ithaca college's Eric Leibensperger. Eric summarizes the Lake Champlain data buoy observations throughout the last seven years and discusses what these data mean for the lake.

In this talk, we introduce decision-support tools for evaluating the multiple, and sometimes incompatible, objectives of different decision-makers for management of floodplains. These tools, developed with Sea Grant support, aim to balance stakeholder objectives and refine the rankings of restoration projects developed under Vermont’s Functioning Floodplain Initiative. Because phosphorus attenuation is a critical objective amongst most stakeholders to meet clean water goals for Lake Champlain, research on the capacity of connected floodplains to capture flood-borne phosphorus is also described. These tools were designed to support a systems-based management approach that best meets multiple stakeholder objectives to promote consensus decision making and cost-effective implementation of nature-based solutions.

This research webinar with University of Vermont Graduate Student Destini Acosta examines her research with Spiny Softshell nesting habitat on the shores of Lake Champlain and outlines potential management decisions to conserve habitat for this species.

This storymap explains what residential stormwater management is, why it's important, and how to get involved in the Lake Champlain basin. It also outlines our residential stormwater certification program, BLUE BTV.