Ticonderoga, NY– Fort Ticonderoga, surrounded by magnificent autumn backdrops of the Adirondacks and Green Mountains, will present the Annual Heritage, Harvest, & Horse Festival on Saturday, September 30, 2023. A full day of autumn fun will be set amidst the fall flowers of King’s Garden, a heritage apple orchard, and the beautiful landscape of the mountains and Lake Champlain. » Continue Reading.
Every year, the Town of Essex on Lake Champlain, comes together on the first Saturday of August and celebrates our community with a town-wide yard sale and street party. Come join the fun and see what makes Essex special.
Browse and enjoy refreshments at local shops like The Pink Pig, The Barn Door Tavern (look for their special Essex Day Beer Garden!), The Essex Ice Cream Cafe, and The Neighborhood Nest.
We’ll also have food trucks, vendors, and live music from Too Tall String Band and Marie Marie and more!
Saranac Lake, NY — Visitors to Lake Champlain will soon be able to learn about the ecological and cultural diversity of the lake and its surrounding area through music and sound. The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) has been awarded a $40,000 grant to support an interpretive music project that celebrates regional biodiversity and human diversity while engaging American and Canadian audiences in a shared artistic experience of the Champlain Basin.
News of a reduction to planned lake trout stocking levels in Lake Champlain is another positive sign of the growing strength of the lake’s wild-reproducing populations.
Fisheries managers announced plans to halve the number of lake trout stocked into the lake this fall, cutting the number to 41,000.
University of Vermont fisheries biologist Ellen Marsden and researchers in her lab in recent years have documented evidence that about 10 years ago, lake trout first introduced decades earlier finally started to spawn fish that “recruited” out of the first year of life and into the juvenile stage. Those fish have now grown into reproductive maturity and are continuing to thrive.
“This isn’t just a flash in the pan,” Marsden said.
On March 15, the Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative – a working group of fisheries professionals from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – announced the decision to further reduce the number of stocked lake trout released annually. This decision was prompted by the continued increase in natural reproduction and the documentation of multiple age classes of wild fish.
A stocking program was established in the 1950s to restore lake trout in Lake Champlain following the loss of native populations due to water quality and habitat changes. Although the lake was stocked with 82,000 fin clipped fish annually, there is little evidence of successful natural reproduction during the first 60 years of this program.
On December 15, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos announced the annual ice fishing creel survey will resume for its third year on the New York waters of Lake Champlain from January through March 2023.
“Anglers are important partners when it comes to the management of the Lake Champlain fishery,” said Commissioner Seggos. “By participating in programs like the ice fishing creel survey, anglers provide us with information that ultimately benefits both our environment and the future of quality fishing in New York State.”
Fifty years ago this week, federal lawmakers overrode a presidential veto to enact the Clean Water Act, a landmark law for the nation’s water quality.
The iconic image of the Cuyahoga River on fire in Ohio spurred congressional action and ushered in a half century of major river restorations across the nation. The goals outlined in the act included restoring the country’s water to a “fishable and swimmable” state.
The law imposed new permitting requirements on polluting industries and sewage treatment plants, but it failed to address diffuse pollution from storm and agricultural runoff, the largest source of pollution in many parts of the country. The standards adopted under the law in many places are now decades old or unable to address emerging problems.
Essex Initiatives is pleased to announce the 43rd annual Essex Day celebration is happening this Saturday, August 6 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Main Street in historic Essex, NY on Lake Champlain.
This family-friendly event is sure to have something to offer everyone. Attendees are welcome to enjoy live music from James Coleman, Too Tall String Band, and Marie Marie, peruse the shops on Main Street, participate in family-friendly games, and explore more than 40 unique vendors from surrounding towns.
The event also features food trucks, a town-wide yard sale as well as a book sale, watercolor class, photography class, and much more.
All are invited to gather together on the beautiful Lake Champlain waterfront in Port Henry, NY to celebrate Lake Champlain’s lake monster with legendary fun for the 37th annual Champ Day: The Lake Champlain Monster Festival. The free, crowd-pleasing event features special guests such as Penelope the Clown, Cardboard Boat Races, a CryptoCave Meet & Greet, a Champ Lure Contest, Creative Cove for Kids, Vendor Marketplace, food, and much more.
PAUL SMITHS (July 21, 2022) –Officials at Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI) announced it was recently awarded two research grants from the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP). The first grant will help scientists and policy makers understand the extent of road salt pollution in Lake Champlain. The second grant will support AWI scientists to assess the effectiveness of recent stormwater upgrades in Lake Placid to improve water quality in Mirror Lake.
The Carillon has returned to Fort Ticonderoga, with boat tours taking place Tuesday through Sunday from May 27 to mid-October. The 75-minute narrated boat cruises cover some of the most archaeologically rich waters in North America while surrounded by breathtaking lake views, commanding mountains, and the majestic fort.
From shipwrecks to a massive bridge that the Americans built in 1776, Lake Champlain holds defining stories of America’s past. Fort Ticonderoga’s layers of history carry right from the land onto the water. Carillon boat tours help ignite visitors’ imaginations as they explore this internationally strategic lake.
The 60-foot boat is available for daily tours, field trips, sunset cruises, and private charters. A selection of regional beer and cider, wine, soft drinks, water, and snacks are available for purchase on board. Tickets for the boat cruise are available HERE or can be purchased on-site during a visit on a first-come basis.
Boat tours are available rain or shine. Fort Ticonderoga members that are interested in taking a boat cruise, please call 518-585-2821 Monday through Friday, or 518-585-2650 Saturday and Sunday for assistance.
Fort Ticonderoga is located at 102 Fort Ti Road in Ticonderoga, NY.
Photo at top: The Carillon, Archaeological Tour of Lake Champlain 2017. Photo provided by Fort Ticonderoga, Almanack archive photo.
Another week gone by at the Crown Point Banding Station, and we survived the big storms that rolled through yesterday afternoon (May 16.) We pulled the nets, and took the canopies off their structures (as possible 60 MPH winds were predicted, and these sun shelters are only rated for no more than 15 MPH.) We sat in our vehicles as the storms passed mostly to the north and south, but there were a couple that went right overhead and dumped rain on us. To the north we heard that quarter-inch hail had accumulated to an inch on the ground.
I’m writing this from the Ticonderoga Public Library as I’m at the Crown Point Banding Station for two weeks banding birds. We’ve had nets up for four days and banded several birds but very few warblers, including two species of Warbler Palm and Yellow Warbler. Some Yellow Rumped Warblers have been seen in the area, but we have caught none.
Just how big is Quebec’s “green battery” of hydropower? When you add up the surface area of utility giant Hydro-Quebec’s dozens of dammed reservoirs, they are bigger than the Adirondack Park’s six million acres. One impoundment is four times the size of Lake Champlain. Another is 55 times the size of Lake George.
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Final days banding birds at the Crown Point Banding Station, approx. 750 birds banded
The Crown Point Banding Station closed its doors on Saturday, May 20, with a good crew taking down tents, canopies, [a] weather station, and nets in short order by 11 a.m. The rain that was predicted went around us and the strong winds also didn’t come while we were picking up. Tom Barber had the nets up (and a few birds already bagged) when I got up at 5:30 a.m. He had picked six June bugs from the nets while putting them up and I found just one in the nets I put up. As I came out of the tent he said, “The Gray Catbirds are biting this morning and that was the first bird, I picked out of the main net lane.” He said, “I got a new bird for the year, a Brown-Headed Cowbird out of the North net.”
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