ADIRONDACK COUNCIL
TO HONOR LAKE CHAMPLAIN BASIN PROGRAM
AT SPLIT ROCK POINT LIGHTHOUSE IN ESSEX ON THURSDAY, AUGUST 3
LCBP Sponsors and Oversees Vital Research and Environmental
Programs
In One of Adirondack Park's Largest and Most Diverse Watersheds
For more information:
John F. Sheehan
518-432-1770 (ofc)
518-441-1340 (cell)
518-456-4512 (home)
Released: Tuesday, August 1, 2006
ESSEX, N.Y. - The Adirondack
Council will honor the work of the Lake Champlain Basin Program
at the Council's annual summer gathering at the Split Rock Point
lighthouse in Essex on Thursday, August 3, from 6 to 8 p.m.
The lighthouse is on the farm owned by Council Trustee Gary Heurich.
Bill Howland, Basin Program Manager from Grand Isle, Vermont,
will be on hand at the celebration to receive a token of the
Council's appreciation.
"The Lake Champlain Basin Program combines the efforts of
the United States and Canada, the states of New York and Vermont,
the Province of Quebec and every local government in between
in restoring and protecting the environmental health of Lake
Champlain and the lands and waters that surround it," said
Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. "The
program provides the funding and support needed to monitor water
quality, fight invasive species, protect the rivers and streams
that flow into the lake and enhance a broad range of wildlife
habitat.
"All of the basin program's data is made available to the
public on its website and through a series of outstanding publications,"
Houseal explained. "The program is doing a great job of
keeping the lake's environmental welfare in the forefront of
public attention. From our perspective as environmental advocates,
the basin program fulfills an important public need. They may
be based in Vermont, but their good works stretch far beyond
the eastern shore.
"The environmental problems facing the Lake Champlain watershed
could have been avoided if New York, Vermont and Canada had pooled
resources and worked together on a protection plan a century
ago," Houseal said. "The basin program is proof that
we have learned from the past and we are charting a better, healthier
course for the future."
The Lake Champlain watershed covers the northeastern one-third
of the nearly 10,000-square mile Adirondack Park. The watershed
includes Lake George and the mountains that surround it, as well
as most of the Park's northeastern rivers. It starts thousands
of feet above sea level in the headwaters of the Saranac River,
near Saranac Lake, bottoms out nearly 300 feet below sea level
at the lake bottom, and reaches east and upward into and beyond
the Green Mountains of Vermont. It extends north into Quebec,
almost 200 miles from its southern end near Glens Falls, NY.
Fifty-six percent of the basin is in Vermont, 37 percent is in
New York and 7 percent is in Quebec, according to the basin program
atlas. It is home to 541,000 Americans and 30,000 Quebecois.
Nearly 200,000 people rely upon it for drinking water. It has
587 miles of shoreline and hosts 54 public beaches.
The basin includes some of the tallest mountains in the Northeast,
some of the wildest public forests, wild rivers, large and small
lakes and vast stretches of open farmland.
The Lake Champlain Basin Program is administered by several federal
and state agencies, including the US Environmental Protection
Agency, the Quebec Ministry of the Environment, NYS Department
of Environmental Conservation, the Vermont Agency of Natural
Resources and the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control
Commission.
The Adirondack Council's mission is to ensure the ecological
integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park. Founded
in 1975, the Council is a privately funded not-for-profit organization
with 18,000 members in all 50 United States. The Council carries
out its missions through research, education, advocacy and legal
action.
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