Creating and Implementing a Lake Watershed Action Plan

Lake Iroquois

WhyWhWhy Create a Lake Watershed Action Plan?  A Lake Watershed Action Plan (LWAP) is a planning tool for a specific lake used to identify threats to water quality and/or wildlife habitat from land uses along the shoreline and within the watershed.  Completed plans include a prioritized list of projects intended to reduce these risks.

This series of webpages addresses all aspects of creating and implementing LWAPs. Through its own efforts and in partnership with water sampling volunteers, the Vermont Department of Lakes and Ponds has accumulated decades of water quality data on many of Vermont’s lakes.

For most of these monitored lakes, the water quality is in decline as indicated by increasing total phosphorus (P) concentration.

FOVLAP and the Vermont DEC, Watershed Management Division, Lakes and Ponds Program held the following special events to discuss Lake Watershed Action Plans. The webinar held on February 20th, 2024, informs lake associations about how to create and use these plans to preserve their lakes. Click link to view a recording and to see the speakers’ presentations: Vermont Lake Watershed Action Plans

The next webinar held on November 21st, 2024, discusses why lake associations said YES to Lake Watershed Action Plans. This was webinar #1 in a series on Clean Water Projects. Click link to view a recording of the webinar and to see the speakers’ presentations: Lake Watershed Action Plans – Why Lake Associations Said ‘YES!’

Effects of Runoff and Phosphorous on Water Quality

P is a limiting nutrient in Vermont’s lakes, meaning that its concentration is what determines the biomass of what lives in the lake – mainly aquatic plants and algae. More P means more plant growth, more decaying plant muck in the lake bottom, more algae, and more turbid water.

Higher P also increases the risk of harmful algae blooms that can restrict the use of a lake, ruin the lake’s aesthetics, and jeopardize lakeshore property values.  

Many long-time residents have observed these impacts.

 

Water quality trendlines from decades of sampling for total phosphorus after spring turnover.  Red, green, and blue lines represent individual lakes that were eutrophic, mesotrophic, and oligotrophic in 1980.  The black lines indicate the average trend of each of these groups.  While most eutrophic lakes improved during this period, lakes in the other categories degraded significantly. (From reference in footnote)

¹ Leslie Matthews, Kellie Merrell, and Perry Thomas, 2018, Is Vermont Losing Its Oligotrophic Lakes?, NALMS Lakeline Summer, p. 16.

Assessing Your Lake’s Water Quality

Vermont’s lakes are public property and the State of Vermont has the responsibility to restore lakes that become impaired.  Water quality criteria are used to determine impairment.  Hence, the State gathers and maintains water quality data for most of the larger lakes through several programs.

State scientists gather some of this data through occasional measurements of spring total phosphorus concentration.  For many lakes they also perform periodic vertical profile measurements of temperature, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll-a.  Next generation lake assessments, that involve a large number of water quality measurements over several days on a particular lake, provide a snapshot of water quality conditions and are available for a growing number of lakes.  Note that terms in italics are defined and interpreted in a table at the end of this page.

Much of the long-term data comes from partnerships with volunteer samplers and state-funded laboratory analysis.  In the Lay Monitoring Program, volunteers from lakes in this program gather water samples and record secchi depths, and state employees pick up these samples and take them to the VAEL lab in Randolph, where they are analyzed for total phosphorus and chlorophyll-a.  Some lakes are also part of the LaRosa Partnership Program, with a similar partnership involving volunteer sampling of lake tributaries and state-funded analysis at VAEL.

The data is managed by the Watershed Management Division of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.  There are several convenient links available to query this database for a particular lake.  An instructional video is available that describes how to use this data.

A good place to start is the Lay Monitoring Program page.

Scroll down to view an alphabetical listing of lakes, each with links to view data in the categories listed above.  If your lake is listed, click on |Lake Score Card – Trends and Status|. 

This page shows the lake and its watershed boundary.  The 4 quadrants of the circle on the left are color-coded to indicate the status of various lake stressors.  To learn more about this scoring, click on the link in the lower left.

To view trends in various water quality parameters, click on |Water Quality Data| tab just above the circle.  This will display spring total phosphorus, secchi depth, summer average total phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a trends as shown below;

Above each plot is a statistical assessment of whether a trend is stable, significant, or highly significant.  For Lake Caspian, both the spring and summer total phosphorus concentrations are increasing significantly.

If you return to the Lay Monitoring Program page, you can compare a lake’s water quality with other lakes by clicking on the comparison links.  For example, to compare the ‘24 value of summer phosphorus in Lake Dunmore to other Vermont lakes, click on |Phosphorus Comparison| under Lake Dunmore.  Lake Dunmore is represented by the green bar in the graph below.  Similar comparisons are available for Secchi depth and Chlorophyll-a.

If your lake is not among those listed alphabetically on the Lay Monitoring page, try the Report Viewer.  This brings you to a large table listing all of Vermont’s lakes and showing what information is available for a given lake. When data is available, the table contains links to view that data.  Possible types of data include Lake Scorecard, Depth Chart, Lake Land Use, Plant List, Fish List, and Next Generation Lake Assessment.  Many larger lakes have data available in all of these categories.

Clicking on Next Generation Lake Assessment opens a detailed assessment of the lake environment including water quality at different depths, an evaluation of shoreline development, water quality in the lake’s tributaries, and a comparison of the lake habitat with other Vermont lakes.  This can help clarify sources of excess nutrients, internal P loading, and other indicators of lake health.

On January 23rd, 2025, FOVLAP and the Vermont DEC, Watershed Management Division, Lakes and Ponds Program held a special event to discuss how to assess your lake’s water quality data. This was webinar #2 in a series on Clean Water Projects. Click link to view a recording of the webinar and to see Mark Mitchell’s presentation: How To Assess Your Lake’s Water Quality Data with Mark Mitchell

Collaborating With Partners to Develop a Lake Watershed Action Plan

In nearly all cases as of Feb-25, Vermont Lake Associations have joined with Natural Resources Conservation Districts, other watershed groups, and municipalities to seek funding to develop the LWAPs for their lakes.  The table below shows the partners involved for the lakes listed.

Stakeholders often included multiple lake associations and multiple municipalities.  The table also lists the environmental consultants hired to create the plans and the funding sources. With the exception of one plan, self-funded by a lake association, the NRCDs took the lead in seeking grant funding from various grantors around the state to pay the consultants. The map to the left shows the NRCD district boundaries.

NRCDs promote conservation by partnering with landowners, state agencies, and other organizations – like lake associations. They offer solutions and resources for environmental concerns, focusing on water quality, landscape protection, and agricultural best practices. They connect people to relevant programs, in this case the Vermont Clean Water Initiative, offering planning, coordination, grant writing and administrative support.

The Watershed Action Plans are all publicly available here.  Also available is a document providing guidance to the consultants on what to include in the plans.

On March 6th, 2025, FOVLAP held a special event to discuss how to create a Watershed Action Plan for your lake with help from partners and collaborators. This was webinar #3 in a series on Clean Water Projects. Click link to view a recording of the webinar and to see the presentations: Creating A Watershed Action Plan Together: Partnerships & Collaborations

Project Selection and Landowner Buy-In

Projects identified in LWAPs are prioritized by state-accepted criteria that vary somewhat from plan to plan as the process has evolved.  More weight is assigned to projects that result in high phosphorus reductions and low values of $/lb of phosphorus removed, as these address the primary goal of the Clean Water Initiative.  Projects that are located on public lands or on private land with a willing landowner are also scored highly because getting landowner support can be a roadblock.   Once projects are prioritized, but before the plan is finalized, stakeholders choose a few of the highly rated projects and the consultant completes a conceptual design and cost estimate for these projects.  These designs become part of the final LWAP.

After the plan is complete, the next step is to apply for funding to implement chosen projects.  It is a good idea to check with the Tactical Basin Planner when choosing projects and deciding where to apply for funding. The Basin Planners will register the chosen projects into a statewide Watershed Project Database (WPD).  Some funders require a WPD ID# from this database in grant applications.

With support from the other partners, the NRCD generally makes this application to a granting organization. Criteria similar to those in the LWAP project prioritization are used to make grant award decisions in a competitive process with a limited pool of funding for each round of grants.  Funding opportunities are posted on the websites for the Lake Champlain Basin Program and Watershed United Vermont.

It is often hard to predict landowner support.  And obtaining this support can take time, particularly when several properties are involved in a single project, when properties are owned by trusts or multiple family members, or when several public agencies need to approve.   Landowner support should be ascertained prior to serious consideration of a project.  Even if support is indicated initially, many landowners reasonably expect to be able to withhold full support until initial or perhaps even final designs are complete.

Stormwater improvements need periodic maintenance to ensure they provide the desired benefits for their design life.  As part of the final design, the project consultant creates a “Maintenance and Operation Plan”.  Before contractors can implement a project, landowners are asked to sign an Access License Agreement. This agreement defines maintenance roles and  responsibilities and grants maintenance organizations access to the property for periodic inspection and maintenance. These are legal documents that give pause to some property owners.  This is another good reason to make property owners aware of this requirement prior to submitting a funding application for design or implementation of a project.

On May 1st, 2025, FOVLAP held a special event to discuss how to get landowner support for Watershed Action Plan projects. This was webinar #4 in a series on Clean Water Projects. Click link to view a recording of the webinar and to see the presentations: Making It Happen: Selecting Feasible Projects with Landowner Support

Permitting and Design

The LWAP will identify a broad range of projects, some on lakefront property, some on municipal and private roads, others on nearby trails or along major lake tributaries.  Some will be on private property and others may be on public land.  In many cases, interventions are regulated through a permitting process.

Once a concept design is available, it can be sent to relevant state regulators to determine if permits are needed.  While technical discussions with regulators are typically handled by the engineering contractor or the NRCD leading the project, it is good for the lake association to be aware of the need for various permits early on, since acknowledgement of such need is often required in the grant application, and because permitting can impact the design and the scheduling of the work.  The list below shows permits and reviews that often apply to LWAP projects.  Exemptions and other details can be found by reading the statute or exploring the links.

Lake Encroachment – Projects encroaching on public waters (from mean water level towards the lake) such as docks, walls, boathouses, bridges, water intakes, cables, dredging, or fill requires a permit. (29 V.S.A. Chapter 11)

Shoreline Protection – Changes to land use within 250 feet of a lake’s mean water level (also known as the Protected Shoreland Area), such as any new development, redevelopment, or vegetation removal, may require a permit. (10 V.S.A Chapter 49A, § 1441–1449)

Stream Alteration – Required for movement, excavation, or fills involving 10 or more cubic yards annually in any perennial stream. (10 V.S.A. Chapter 41)

Wetland Rules – Required for activities such as filling, draining, ditching, building or altering structures, clearing vegetation in wetlands and in buffer zones surrounding wetlands.(10 V.S.A. Chapter 37)

Rare, threatened and endangered species – Usually involves pre-permitting email review of projects, typically by a Fish and Wildlife  biologist, to determine potential impacts to rare, threatened and endangered species that may be closeby. (10 V.S.A. Chapter 123)

Historical preservation – Native American villages were located on lakeshores and there is some knowledge of locations.  The Vermont Division of Historical Preservation does a review of concept or preliminary designs to determine if further desk work or archaeological fieldwork is needed prior to a determination of no impact.  Archaeological fieldwork adds costs and time to implementation. (22 V.S.A. § 723(10))

Municipal and private roads – For municipal road and associated culvert projects, work with municipal road officials to prioritize for implementation.  For private roads and culverts, pre- and post- implementation erosion assessments may be required to bring up to standards defined in the Municipal Road General Permit (MRGP).(10 V.S.A. § 1264(c)(6))

Engineering consultants consider permitting as part of the design process.  In many cases, they send concept designs to a regulator and receive a determination that no permit is needed.  In other cases, regulators may ask for additional details before making a decision.  If a permit is needed, the consultant will make the application.

On Thursday, October 30, 2025 at 12pm – 1pm, we will host a remote meeting via zoom on the Design and Permitting Process of Clean Water Projects. For more info and to register, click here:  Project Design & Permitting for Clean Water Projects

A part of a final design created by Fitzgerald Environmental for a stormwater improvement to a boat launch on Lake Dunmore.

Once permitting constraints on design are determined and stakeholder input on preliminary design has been obtained, consultants can begin final designs.  Lake associations can help by working with the NRCD as a liaison with the lake community and/or the municipalities, making them aware of the project and the progress towards completion, and reminding folks of the benefits to lake health and other co-benefits of the projects.

As part of the final design, consultants will also indicate how projects are to be maintained following completion.  This may include watering and weeding for native plantings, ensuring adherence to “no-mow” designations, clearing of storm-related debris from drainage ditches and trench drains, and restoring a crown to a road grade..  These maintenance plans are included in the Access License Agreements mentioned above.

Another deliverable in the final design is a cost estimate to complete the process.  This is obviously critical for grant applications that cover project implementation.  It is also helpful in assessing contractor bids.  Final designs also include expected benefits to water quality, using metrics that are usually required deliverables in the final report for the project.

Project Implementation

Implementation Issues

1. Vendor selection
   1. Bidders list
   2. Procurement requirements
   3. Pre-bid meetings with consultant
   4. Clearly defined roles
   5. Subcontractor approval
2. Scheduling
   1. Seasonal constraints
   2. Funding constraints
   3. Permitting constraints
   4. Informing those impacted
3. Oversight
   1. Consultant signoff
4. Cost overruns
5. Other deliverables
   1. Before/during/after photos
   2. Signage
6. Dealing with complaints