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 – have announced the decision to further reduce the number of stocked lake trout released annually into Lake Champlain waters. They said this decision was prompted by the continued increase in natural reproduction and the documentation of multiple age classes of wild fish. [Read more…] about As Lake Champlain Lake Trout Rebound, Stocking Reduced
Lake Champlain
Battlefield to Stage: The Lives of John Burgoyne
The new book From the Battlefield to the Stage: The Many Lives of General John Burgoyne (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023) by Norman S. Poser provides a rounded biography, covering not only the Saratoga campaign but also elements of General John Burgoyne’s eventful life that have never been adequately explored. [Read more…] about Battlefield to Stage: The Lives of John Burgoyne
The Anniversary of the State of Vermont
On March 4th, the State of Vermont celebrated its 232nd birthday. March 4th, 1791 is the formal start of what we now know of as Vermont: the 14th state in the union, with a continuity that has withstood the last two centuries. But the idea of Vermont had its own torturous birth in 1777, the result of land grants from the colonies of New Hampshire and New York, and those settlers making those lands their own. [Read more…] about The Anniversary of the State of Vermont
Burbot: New York’s Misunderstood Cod Cousin
In the midst of winter, the ice-covered lakes of the Northeast seem quiet. It may, however, be a bit noisy below the ice. Winter into early spring is the spawning season for burbot, when males produce sounds to attract mates. [Read more…] about Burbot: New York’s Misunderstood Cod Cousin
Comments Sought on Lake Champlain Watershed Plan
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced the release of the draft Watershed Implementation Plan that creates a detailed path forward to reduce phosphorus that impairs Lake Champlain and contributes to harmful algal blooms (HABs). [Read more…] about Comments Sought on Lake Champlain Watershed Plan
Three Ice Fishermen Die After Falling Through Champlain Ice
The 43rd Annual Islands Ice Fishing Derby on Lake Champlain was cancelled Saturday morning, February 11th, following warm weather that led to dangerously thin ice resulting in the deaths of three anglers.
Just as the derby was kicking off, the Grand Isle County Sheriff’s Department issued a request that it be cancelled immediately due to poor ice conditions. “All ice anglers are asked to get off the ice,” event organizers posted to Facebook at 8 am. [Read more…] about Three Ice Fishermen Die After Falling Through Champlain Ice
Smugglers & The Law: Prohibition In Northern New York
Dennis Warren left his job as a coal shoveler on the New York Central Railroad in Albany to ship out to the First World War. His transport ship had a close call with a German submarine on the way over, but got there in time to take part in what one of the bloodiest military campaigns in American history.
For Americans after the war, the Argonne would mean what Normandy meant just 25 years later – sacrifice. Sadly, that sacrifice in the Argonne Forest was never repaid to Dennis Warren, who met the death of a smuggler – running from an officious and invasive law on a treacherous mountain road near Port Henry on Lake Champlain.
According to the newsman who reported his death at the age of 29, “Canadian Ale was spread across the road.” [Read more…] about Smugglers & The Law: Prohibition In Northern New York
Taddeus Kosciusko: A Hero of Two Worlds (& The Name On That Bridge)
Since it opened to traffic on April 11, 1960, millions of vehicles traveling the I-87 Northway have passed over the Mohawk River on what they think are called on “The Twin Bridges.” That bridge however, is really named for a Polish-American hero of the American Revolution – Taddeus Kosciusko. [Read more…] about Taddeus Kosciusko: A Hero of Two Worlds (& The Name On That Bridge)
Lake Champlain Ice Fishing Creel Survey Planned
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has 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. [Read more…] about Lake Champlain Ice Fishing Creel Survey Planned
Henry Knox, Phillip Schuyler and Lake Champlain’s Cannon in Boston
One of the iconic stories of the American Revolution is the laborious trek of a contingent of newly-minted patriots, led by Henry Knox, lugging cannon from the fort at Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga to Dorchester Heights, forcing the British to abandon Boston, an important early victory is our long fight for freedom.
Few may realize that important decisions while the expedition was in Saratoga County were key to the success of the mission. [Read more…] about Henry Knox, Phillip Schuyler and Lake Champlain’s Cannon in Boston