Recently, I went biking around northern Lake Champlain. Even though I spend almost every day on the lake, I’d never realized just how large it is—or how polluted its waters are, largely from runoff from nearby farms. One of the educational WAVES activities we do with our campers is called Common Water. It’s an exercise that demonstrates how fresh water is a limited resource and how the large farms and factories around us use a lot of water and impacts our environment. A few weeks ago, one of our WAVES lunchtime speakers explained how phosphorus and watersheds interact. The phosphorus from chemical fertilizers runs off the farms and pollutes the lake by causing excessive algae growth. This growth was clearly visible in northern Lake Champlain where the water is shallower (and thus warmer from the sun) and in closer proximity to a higher concentration of farms. As I looked into the lake, I saw a heron wading through algae trying to find a fish. After catching its snack, the heron had algae hanging off its beak. There was so much algae in some places that it washed up on the beach, where it then rotted and baked in the sun. On one of these beaches I saw a family of ducks searching for food. They were standing in a layer of dead algae that was floating next to the shore. These scenes frustrated me, since spending time on the water is something I value deeply in my life. But I feel slightly better knowing that every student who takes a summer camp at the Community Sailing Center learns to appreciate the lake and will then teach their family, friends, and one day, maybe even their kids, how important a clean Lake Champlain is for all of us.
-Chris
