Of Lake And Legacy: Lake Champlain’s Self-Sustaining Lake Trout Return After Five Decades Of Conservation
After more than half a century of concerted conservation efforts, the Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative has officially declared a milestone in the lake’s environmental restoration. Through a combination of invasive species control and the long-term stocking of captive-raised fish, Lake Champlain is now home to what scientists believe is a self-sustaining and harvestable population of wild lake trout. This historic achievement, announced at the Cooperative’s annual meeting on April 10, 2025, marks a rare moment in fisheries management when experts can finally declare a project successful and self-perpetuating.
Ellen Marsden, a fisheries scientist from the University of Vermont and one of the region’s foremost authorities on lake trout, emphasized the significance of the breakthrough. “It’s kind of dismaying how rarely we get to declare ‘job done,’ because often there are things we can’t overcome like habitat damage or invasive species,” Marsden remarked. “This is one of those quite rare events. It was rapid and obviously successful.”
The Cooperative, composed of partners from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, announced it would suspend future stocking of lake trout after one final stocking effort this spring. Going forward, management efforts will focus on population monitoring and establishing contingency plans that include benchmarks for reintroducing stocking if signs of population decline emerge.
Despite the celebration, fisheries managers acknowledge that they are entering unfamiliar territory. “It’s a new and exciting situation for us to be in,” said Rob Fiorentino, fisheries supervisor for DEC Region 5. “There’s nothing really written for us to work off.” As noted by Adirondack Explorer, this move places the Cooperative in uncharted waters, as no previous successful model exists to guide them in managing a fully self-sustaining inland lake trout fishery.
The success story of Lake Champlain’s lake trout recovery dates back to 1972, when stocking efforts first began in response to declining native fish populations. However, the real turning point came nearly two decades later, with the implementation of aggressive sea lamprey control measures. The sea lamprey, a parasitic species native to the Atlantic Ocean, had invaded the lake’s ecosystem and posed a severe threat to native fish. Without natural predators to keep their numbers in check, the lamprey population exploded, feeding on lake trout and other species by latching onto them and draining their bodily fluids, often fatally.
The Cooperative’s lamprey control program employed a multi-pronged strategy to combat this threat. Measures included the installation of physical barriers in streams and rivers that feed into Lake Champlain, the use of targeted lampricides to eliminate lamprey larvae before they mature, and the trapping and removal of adult lampreys before they could reproduce. These efforts paid off dramatically. In 2006, the lamprey wounding rate on lake trout reached a staggering 99 wounds per 100 fish. By 2022, that number had plummeted to just 23 wounds per 100 fish—meeting the Cooperative’s target rate of 25 and holding steady for the past two years.
The ongoing success of lamprey control not only supports the lake trout population but also benefits the restoration of other native fish species and bolsters the lake’s recreational fishing industry. According to economic assessments, every $1 invested in sea lamprey control returns $3.50 to the local economy. The lake’s commercial fishing industry alone generates over $450 million annually, providing livelihoods for thousands and supporting tourism and recreation industries across Vermont and New York.
Wendi Weber, regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Northeast Region, expressed pride in the collaborative achievement. “The Service is proud to be a partner in this cooperative and of our contributions towards improving conditions to restore this native species in Lake Champlain,” Weber stated. “It’s exciting to see the return on investments in the sea lamprey program, by rebuilding an important recreational fishery and supporting the regional economy.”
As the Cooperative prepares to navigate this next chapter, the focus will shift from artificial support through stocking to long-term sustainability driven by natural reproduction. Scientists and fisheries managers will closely monitor lake trout population dynamics, spawning success, and predator-prey relationships to ensure that this achievement endures for generations to come.
While challenges remain—such as the need for ongoing lamprey control and the uncertainty of long-term ecological shifts—Lake Champlain’s success story stands as a testament to what can be achieved when science, policy, and community commitment align. It also offers hope that similar restoration efforts might one day succeed in other ecosystems facing comparable challenges.
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