The University of Vermont Watershed Alliance is an extension program that partners with Lake Champlain Sea Grant to provide innovative, hands-on watershed education for K-12 students in Vermont. Over the past 16 years Watershed Alliance has employed 43 Watershed Educators, undergraduate and graduate students, from colleges within the Lake Champlain Basin.

Each semester the number of applicants increases, students are eager to get hands on experience with water quality monitoring and environmental education. Lake Champlain Sea Grant surveyed Watershed Educator Alumni who reported having gained and continuing to use presentation and communication skills, classroom management and environmental education skills, and water quality monitoring and citizen science in professional and academic endeavors they pursued post-internship.

Recent research demonstrates that chloride concentrations are increasing in Lake Champlain. While the lake’s current chloride concentration is low compared to other urban lakes studied, lakes such as Lake Champlain are more difficult to remediate due to large contributing areas. Thus, proactive steps to help minimize continued salt accumulation in surface waters are essential before conditions impact survival of aquatic life or drinking water quality for the more than 145,000 people who rely on Lake Champlain for their drinking water each day. Lake Champlain Sea Grant and partners hosted the first Lake Champlain Basin Watershed Deicing Conference in September 2017. This event brought together 100 practitioners from municipalities, private contractors, and natural resource agencies to share known impacts of chloride on surface waters, and best practices.

Land erosion, nutrient loads and flow alteration have directly impacted water quality in local streams and in Lake Champlain. Lake Champlain Sea Grant assists “Ahead of the Storm,” a tri-town collaborative within three adjacent watershed regions, by helping design stormwater runoff mitigation plans, disseminating information about site assessment and design processes, and providing speakers for community education workshops. Members of “Ahead of the Storm” include stakeholders from municipalities, public and private property owners, local watershed groups, educational, civic and faith institutions, and State and County government.