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Why You Might Want to Help Save Vermont’s Oligotrophic Lakes

Kellie Merrell

Aquatic Ecologist

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Hello everyone, I thought I’d start by giving you a little background about me. I have had the privilege of monitoring Vermont’s inland lakes and ponds for compliance with the Clean Water Act since 2001. Before that I worked for the US Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development in Narragansett, Rhode Island monitoring estuaries from Maine to Virginia as part of the Mid-Atlantic Integrated Assessment, a precursor to EPA’s National Coastal Assessment. I also worked in Environmental Consulting in Scituate, Massachusetts. Before that I did my master’s degree studying the effects of turbulence intensity on the world’s most beautiful freshwater aquatic plant, Vallisneria americana, at Horn Point Laboratory in Cambridge Maryland. I have served on the Passumpsic Valley Land Trust Board of Directors, Danville Planning Commission and Danville Select Board. I currently serve as the past-president of the North American Lake Management Society. In my free time, I enjoy skijoring out my back door in Danville Vermont and gunkholing with my small sailboat in lakes across the Northern Forest of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

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Why You Might Want to Help Save Vermont’s Oligotrophic Lakes

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Raj and Jamwal 2020

Trophic Condition of Lakes

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Raj and Jamwal 2020

Trophē, meaning ‘nourishment’

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https://icl-growingsolutions.com/agriculture/categories/phosphorus-based-fertilizers/

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/science/global-warming-glacial-lakes.html

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Raj and Jamwal 2020

Trophic Condition of Lakes

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/science/global-warming-glacial-lakes.html

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Raj and Jamwal 2020

Trophic Condition of Lakes

LAKE

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Raj and Jamwal 2020

Trophic Condition of Lakes

LAKE

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Raj and Jamwal 2020

Eutrophication Happens Naturally Over 1,000s of years!

LAKE

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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378017311032

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12 March 2023

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NATURALLY VEGETATED LAKESHORE LOT

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CURRENT DEVELOPMENT OF LOT

18 Xs the sediment

7 Xs the phosphorus

5 Xs the runoff

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73%

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19%

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7%

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2007 vs 2012 NLA Vermont Overdraw

Vermont Spring TP Trends

Vermont Summer Lay Monitoring TP Trends

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2007 vs 2012 NLA Vermont Overdraw

Vermont Summer Lay Monitoring TP Trends

Vermont Spring TP Trends

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Vermont Spring TP Trends

2007 vs 2012 NLA Vermont Overdraw

Vermont Summer Lay Monitoring TP Trends

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Vermont Summer Lay Monitoring TP Trends

Vermont Spring TP Trends

2007 vs 2012 NLA Vermont Overdraw

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Again, I need to emphasize how unique this is people. I serve on both the EPA’s National Lake Assessment Steering Committee and the North American Lake Management Society’s Executive Committee and Board and I can tell you this isn’t happening in other places. The rest of the country is focusing on restoring the lakes they’ve lost to eutrophication. Trying to restore their eutrophic and hypereutrophic lakes. That’s 73% of the nation’s lakes. Only 7% of the nation’s lakes remain oligotrophic. There is no effort under way to save them, but here in Vermont, we can save those under our watch. Unlike other states, Vermont has invested money into the monitoring that has told us we are losing our oligotrophic lakes, into next generation lake assessments that help identify the primary stressors to the lake and invested in lake watershed action plans.

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Thank You!

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Resources – Vermont Lake Score Card

https://anrweb.vt.gov/DEC/IWIS/ReportViewer2.aspx?Report=LakesScorecardLinksTable&ViewParms=True

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Resources – Next Generation Lake Assessments

https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/lakes-ponds/monitor/lake-assessment/next-generation-lake-assessment-reports#:~:text=The%20Next%20Generation%20Lake%20Assessment,period%20during%20the%20summer%20months.

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Resources – Next Generation Lake Assessments

https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/lakes-ponds/monitor/lake-assessment/next-generation-lake-assessment-reports#:~:text=The%20Next%20Generation%20Lake%20Assessment,period%20during%20the%20summer%20months.

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Resources – Next Generation Lake Assessments

https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/lakes-ponds/monitor/lake-assessment/next-generation-lake-assessment-reports#:~:text=The%20Next%20Generation%20Lake%20Assessment,period%20during%20the%20summer%20months.

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Resources – Next Generation Lake Assessments

https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/lakes-ponds/monitor/lake-assessment/next-generation-lake-assessment-reports#:~:text=The%20Next%20Generation%20Lake%20Assessment,period%20during%20the%20summer%20months.

15 min tutorial

1 hour tutorial

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Resources – Hi Resolution Land Cover Summaries

https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/lakes-ponds/aboutlakes/lake-land-cover-maps

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Resources – Hi Resolution Land Cover Summaries

https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/lakes-ponds/aboutlakes/lake-land-cover-maps

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Resources – Hi Resolution Land Cover Summaries

https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/lakes-ponds/aboutlakes/lake-land-cover-maps

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Resources – Hi Resolution Land Cover Summaries

https://dec.vermont.gov/watershed/lakes-ponds/aboutlakes/lake-land-cover-maps

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Thank You!

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