Federal Agencies Work Group Opportunities for Federal Action: Managing Fish and Wildlife

Restore and maintain a healthy and diverse community of fish and wildlife for the people of the Lake Champlain Basin.

KEY FEDERAL ACTIONS

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The Service has several programs in the Lake Champlain Basin working directly on fish and wildlife management and restoration, including fish hatchery production. The Federal hatcheries raise approximately 170,000 landlocked Atlantic salmon annually for Lake Champlain and its tributaries. In addition to its hatchery production, the Service is instrumental in cooperative efforts to provide passage beyond dams for migratory fish, control parasitic sea lamprey, and monitor predatory and forage fish populations to support a multi-million dollar recreational fishery and the restoration of native species in the Lake Champlain Basin.

The 6,642-acre Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge, located on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain near the Canadian border, provides habitat for a multitude of migratory birds and other wildlife. The Refuge is active in efforts to restore populations of declining and state-listed threatened or endangered species in the watershed. Efforts to restore species such as ospreys, black terns, eastern spiny soft shell turtles, and others have been underway for many years and will continue. Missisquoi is well known for hosting one of the largest great blue heron nesting colonies in the Lake Champlain Basin. It annually provides crucial resting and feeding habitat for tens of thousands of ducks and geese during fall migrations. Additionally, Missisquoi Refuge is participating in a research program to determine the cause and remedy for the widespread deformed frog situation.

USFWS Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge hosts one of the largest great blue heron nesting colonies in the Lake Champlain Basin.

Throughout the Lake Champlain Basin, the Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program annually completes 30–40 habitat restoration projects in cooperation with landowners and Federal and state agency partners. These projects restore and protect approximately 20 miles of riparian habitat, as much as a mile of in-stream habitat, up to 500 acres of wetlands, and over 50 acres of uplands. Where opportunities exist and funding allows, the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program also restores habitats impacted by invasive species such as purple loosestrife and water chestnut.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Department of State

SEA GRANT Several Federal agencies are working to control impacts from sea lamprey on the Lake's native fish.

As part of the Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative, the USFWS participates in a multifaceted approach to controlling sea lamprey populations in Lake Champlain by installing barriers to spawning migrations, trapping migrating adults, and applying target-specific pesticides, known as lampricides. Sea lamprey control is an integral component of the USFWS’s commitment toward restoring landlocked Atlantic salmon and other native species to the Lake Champlain Basin. The control program also receives significant support through the Department of State-funded Great Lakes Fishery Commission. The $4 million program for sea lamprey control in Lake Champlain is key to protecting a recreational fishery that contributes over $200 million in annual expenditures to the local economy.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Through the LCSG research initiative, NOAA supports research on fisheries and wildlife in the basin. The current research initiative ($350,000 for 2005–2007) includes applied research on modeling and management of double-crested cormorants in Lake Champlain, improving management strategies to control sea lamprey populations in the basin, and quantify downstream effects of lampricide treatment on macroinvertebrate populations. Further, work has been done to determine population structure and dynamics of rainbow smelt, which is under threat from alewife, a newly arrived aquatic invasive species.

U.S. Geological Survey

The Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit supports a variety of research in the Lake Champlain basin that provides important information for managing fish and wildlife. Recent examples include the following studies: Diet, movement, and dispersal patterns of Double-crested Cormorants (2001–2006); Landscape effects on population dynamics in birds (2001–2005); Management practices for grassland birds in forage crops (2001–2006); Population Dynamics of the Indiana Bat in the Champlain Valley (2003–2006); Investigating potential alternative control methods for sea lamprey (2004–2008); Using hydoacoustics to determine spatial distributions and relations of rainbow smelt and alewife (2007–2009); and Distribution and abundance of mudpuppies in selected Lake Champlain tributaries (2007–2009).

OTHER FEDERAL ACTIONS

Lake Champlain Sea Grant was a partner in the Great Lakes Fisheries Leadership Curriculum and Institute initiatives. This regional extension effort provided local leaders with an understanding of opportunities for increasing public understanding and participation in the management of Great Lakes and Lake Champlain fisheries. Two CD format publications from this project (Lake Champlain Fisheries Habitat and Aquatic Nuisance Species) have been published by LCSG. Sea Grant staff have recently worked with the City of Plattsburgh and other stakeholders to address several issues associated with major bass fishing tournaments on Lake Champlain. Sea Grant provided (upon request) a review of potential bass tournament impacts, and steps that could be taken to mitigate negative impacts. Continued interest in bass tournaments on the lake suggests that research and extension opportunities will exist into the future.

The Environmental Protection Agency is involved in National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews to ensure minimum impact on the environment from construction, logging, highway, and other projects.