Category Archives: News

News and events around the Lake Champlain Valley of northern New York and Vermont and southern Quebec

Lake Champlain Transportation Announces Fare Increase for Ferries

 

Lake Champlain Transportation: Fare Increase for Ferries

Lake Champlain Transportation Announces Fare Increase for Ferries

 

 

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Lake Champlain Transportation Company (L.C.T.) announced fare increases for ferries crossing Lake Champlain at Charlotte, VT – Essex, NY and Grand Isle, VT – Cumberland Head, NY. The new rates will go into effect on  April 3rd.

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Lake Champlain Transportation Announces Fare Increase for Ferries

The last rate increase for the crossings at Charlotte/Essex and Grand Isle/Cumberland Head was in 2008.

The 30% commuter discount remains in effect.

The new rates will be as follows and do not include the fuel surcharge:

 

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Vehicle & Driver <19′ Long……………………………….$10.00

Adult Passenger……………………………………………..$4.00

Senior (65+) Passenger………………………..…………..$3.50

Child 6-12 Passenger……………………………………….$1.75

Vehicle & Driver > 19′ Long

Over 19′ to 27……………………….…………………….. $15.75

Over 27′ to 36’………………………………………………$21.75

Over 36′ to 45’………………………………………………$28.00

Over 45′ to 54’………………………………………………$33.75

Over 54′ to 63’………………………………………………$41.25

Over 63′ to 72’………………………………………………$49.50

Over 72′, add……………………………………………..….$1.30

Motorcycle & Driver………………………………………….$6.50

Adult Bicycle…………………..………………………………$5.00

Child Bicycle…………………..………………………………$2.75

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www.ferries.com for schedule information.

 

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Government Shutdown Affects Lake Champlain

How The Government Shutdown Affects Lake Champlain

The recent federal government shutdown has affected millions across the country, and the impact is being felt on Lake Champlain as well. Here are some of the impacts:

Government Shutdown Affects Lake ChamplainThe EPA’s (Environmental Protection Agency) new phosphorus reduction budget for Lake Champlain – TMDL or Total Maximum Daily Load. (See “Cleaner Water” article) was scheduled to be released in draft form later this month, but it’s not clear that they’ll be able to do it because of the shutdown. The draft plan will likely call for additional regulations on roads, stormwater permits, agricultural lands, and floodplain development, but authority for new regulations and funding for incentives has to be approved by the Vermont legislature, which doesn’t reconvene until January. The longer the draft plan is delayed, the less time the legislature will have to review and absorb requirements set forth in it.

Fall is the time for developing budget priorities for the state and federal government. The Lake Champlain Basin Program Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) identifies priority projects for funding. However, a half-dozen members of that body are federal employees who are furloughed and unable to participate in the process during the shutdown. The absence of their valuable knowledge and experience severely limits the TAC’s ability to outline the most critical immediate next steps in managing the lake.

Although Vermont’s duck hunting season began on October 9, one of the more popular hunting locations on Lake Champlain may not be open to the public this year. The Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge in Franklin County Vermont has been closed as a result of the shutdown. No hunting or fishing is allowed in the refuge during the shutdown, and the Visitor Center has been shuttered.

Read the Lake Champlain Committee’s analysis of how the government shutdown affects Lake Champlain here…

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Related Articles:

Butternut Hill Natural Area: Nature Snapshot

New Nature Snapshot

From Butternut Hill Natural Area

Butternut Hill Natural Area: Snapshot

Have you visited Butternut Hill Natural Area, our newest conserved public area in North Hero, VT, yet?  If not, here’s a great excuse!

 

Our newest Nature Snapshot series focuses on Butternut Hill Natural Area.  These snapshots demonstrate the diversity of wildlife that rely on floodplain forest habitats.

 

Check out the snapshots here, and then hike the trail to see if you can spot any of the featured animals.

 

Updated 4/3/13

 

Water Flows Downhill

March 12th – At dusk today I left my home with my camera and the puppy to see what was happening with the water.  Spring thaw was in full swing and it had been raining most of the day and I had to head out to the Rock River to get some water samples for our study that we have been conducting for the past 3 years.  It was still raining when I left the house.  I started up the hill from my house in St. Albans toward High Street.  Right away I saw water sheeting across the road and down the other side moving debris, leaves and other items.  I then headed up towards Prospect Street.  Friends of Northern Lake Champlain and the City of St. Albans have grant from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters to look at storm water solutions for Prospect Street.  After what I saw tonight, I am really glad this is an area that has been identified by Paul Madden and Julie Moore and the City of St. Albans to fix.

Water Flows Downhill

Water Flows Downhill - Lake Champlain Life

A river from Hard’Ack draining across the Cassavant’s lawn across Prospect street and down to the Lake.

The water was gushing down off Hard’Ack between the Casavant’s and Cioffi’s House and forming a stream.  I wondered to myself if that stream always appears in the spring or if this was a first.  Funny what you don’t notice if it is not your job to notice.  It got me thinking about how water runs downhill.   If you have a house or use a car and drive on the roads or even if you live in a valley.  Water somehow has to flow by you or your property or the roads you drive on to get to the basin.  The basin we live in is Lake Champlain and that basin is in trouble and that basin is our responsibility.  We all need to be part of the solution.  Again, I started thinking about how many people may not even see or notice this if it is not their job or if they do not see or visit the Lake.  I am not sure I realized what kind of trouble the lake was in until we started spending time down there at our summer camp.  I hear stories about how the Bay Park in St. Albans used to attract hundreds of people 50 years ago.  You would be lucky to find 10 people on a beautiful summer day in July.  So what’s happened and why are so few people noticing?This blog is my exploration of these questions and more.  It will be an informal blog with ideas, discussions, thoughts, and what I’m working on with Friends of Northern Lake Champlain.  I hope that this sparks ways that you might be able to join us in this work.  I know tonight when I was driving from St. Albans through Sheldon and then into Highgate to the Rock River, I felt overwhelmed by the brown water flowing down hill.

Water Flows Downhill - Lake Champlain Life

Rock River – running through and over our land.How can we solve this – can we solve this?  The change in land management on farms, increased impervious surfaces in town, and even in rural areas, has increased the amount of runoff and with that runoff come pollution and some of that pollution that drains off of our lands and winds up in the lake.  This what is causing some of the most detrimental health problems in Lake Champlain!  Driving around tonight is what has inspired me to start to write this blog.  Maybe I can help be other people’s eyes and conscience about water and explain what I see and observe.  The Friends of Northern Lake Champlain (FNLC) is a local non-profit organization dedicated to reducing the amount of run-off in our watershed.  We have been working with farmers, government agencies, citizens and municipalities for the past 11 years on practices that will help to reduce run-off from the land.  For more information on this project and how you can get involved in our organization and support our mission, please contact Denise Smith, Executive Director at denisefnlc@gmail.com.  Lake Champlain reflects you, reflects us all.  Our reflection looks better in clean water.  Make it happen. 

This post was originally published by the Friends of Northern Lake Champlain

Easement Protects Over 1,300 Acres In Essex County

Easement Protects Over 1,300 Acres In Essex County

This Article originally appeared in the Adirondack Almanack

Easement Protects Over 1,300 Acres In Essex CountyThe Open Space Institute has announced that a private landowner has donated a conservation easement that will protect a nearly 1,400-acre forest in the northeast corner of the Adirondack Park. The property borders the western shore of Butternut Pond and is bisected by several brooks, most of which feed into Auger Lake, which in turn empties into the Ausable River and eventually into Lake Champlain.

The parcel, a largely wooded Essex County tract owned by the Johanson family, buffers state lands, including Pokamoonshine Mountain, and sits within the viewshed of the historic firetower on the summit of Pokamoonshine, a popular destination for rock climbers, hikers and cross-country skiers.

In 2009, the Johanson family donated a conservation easement encumbering approximately 1,400 acres of land in the Essex County town of Chesterfield. This latest donation protects adjacent lands also owned for decades by the family. Both donations were made to the Open Space Conservancy, OSI’s land acquisition affiliate.

Eric Johanson began traveling to the Adirondacks with his parents in the late 1940s. He purchased a 175-acre tract in the area when he was 19 years old, then acquired other contiguous parcels over time to create a sanctuary he called Baldface Mountain Preserve.

According to a statement to the press by OSI. The conservation easement permits the future subdivision and modest single-family residential or limited commercial (i.e. bed and breakfast) development of two lots, and will otherwise restrict development and subdivision. It will permit passive recreational use and sustainable forestry in accordance with a forest management plan that is acceptable to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The Johanson family retains ownership of the land and may pass it on or even sell the land, although any future owners must adhere to the terms of the easement.

Just three weeks ago, OSI acquired the historic Marion River Carry in the central Adirondacks.