Lakes and Ponds Program Update by Jenny Austin, Program Manager
Spring greetings from DEC’s Lakes and Ponds Program! After a long winter, our lakes are beginning to stir from their frozen stillness. While things may have appeared quiet on the surface, there was a great deal happening beneath the ice. Winter plays a vital role in the nutrient cycle, and many animals, microbes, and algae remain active despite the cold.
Our Lakes and Ponds team has been just as active during the colder months. Winter is a busy time for entering and analyzing data, writing reports and grant proposals, advancing rulemaking, organizing resources, and setting priorities for the season ahead. Now, a little over a year into my role as program manager, I’ve gained a deeper understanding of the breadth of our work and am beginning to look more intentionally toward our future goals.
At the heart of everything we do are the people who make it possible. Our team—along with the many partners and volunteers we collaborate with—is made up of dedicated, passionate individuals who truly care about protecting our lakes. If you are one of those partners or volunteers, thank you. With a staff of just 15, our impact depends heavily on your contributions, from collecting critical data to implementing best practices that protect and restore lake health.
Before sharing updates on our work, I want to acknowledge an issue that has been front and center for our program: wakesports. Over the past few years, our team has devoted significant time to rulemaking and public engagement on this topic. It has become a polarizing issue in many communities, often framed as a simple divide between opposing sides. In reality, it’s far more complex.
From my experience working on this issue over the past year and a half, I believe that most people—regardless of where they stand—share common values: healthy lakes, public safety, respect for neighbors, protection of wildlife, and a balance of recreational uses. Achieving these shared goals will require collaboration, not division. Too often, progress stalls when perspectives harden into opposition and discussions become entrenched. I believe Vermonters can take a different path.
The connection between people and the natural landscape here is remarkable. It’s evident not just in the scenery, but in how deeply communities engage with their environment—whether hiking, skiing, fishing, boating, or simply enjoying time outdoors. This shared connection is a powerful foundation for building effective lake management strategies.
Successful rules depend not only on enforcement, but also on clarity, practicality, and the ability to influence behavior. In Vermont, where enforcement capacity is limited, strong community values play an especially important role. Most people follow rules not out of fear of penalties, but because they believe it’s the right thing to do. Building on this culture—through approaches like community-based social marketing—can be highly effective in encouraging behaviors that protect our lakes.
Looking ahead, my vision is for lake users to develop an even deeper understanding of what keeps lakes healthy—and what puts them at risk. When people recognize the impacts of their actions, they are far more likely to take steps to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species or to operate their boats safely and responsibly. Rules are essential, but they are most effective when supported by a shared sense of responsibility and pride.
Even after any new rules are finalized, our work will be far from over. Outreach and education will be just as critical as the rules themselves. We will need continued support from FOVLAP communities to raise awareness and help bring people back together around the values we all share.
With that, I’d like to highlight some recent achievements and updates from our team. While these efforts are always evolving, the following provides a snapshot of the work we’re engaged in.
Team Updates: Ryan Walquist stepped down from his role as Monitoring and Assessment Supervisor in October 2025 to explore new career paths. We’re excited to share that Peter Isles—our own esteemed limnologist and aquatic ecologist—stepped into this role starting March 22.
Peter brings a unique and impressive background to the position. He worked several years in art and art restoration before completing his Master’s degree at Columbia University in wetland biogeochemistry. He went on to earn his Ph.D. focused on the combined impacts of climate change and human activities on water quality and cyanobacteria blooms in Lake Champlain. Following his Ph.D work, Peter conducted postdoctoral research in northern Sweden on large-scale changes in lakes, and later spent three years in Switzerland studying cyanobacteria bloom forecasting and developing new monitoring technologies. Since joining DEC’s Lakes and Ponds Program in 2021, he has led both the Lake Champlain Long-Term Monitoring Project and the Cyanobacteria Monitoring Project. We’re thrilled to have Pete lead the Lakes monitoring team and serve as the go-to-expert on all things lake science!
Laura Dlugolecki was also promoted last summer to a new role as our Policy and Outreach Coordinator. While she continues to support the Regulatory and Restoration team with a smaller permitting area (Addison, Chittenden, and Lamoille counties), she now focuses her work on program-wide rulemaking, policy development, and outreach initiatives.
Laura’s former regions—Rutland and Bennington counties—were passed to Olin Reed, who transitioned to the Regulatory and Restoration group from the Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) section. Olin continues to lead Aquatic Nuisance Control (ANC) permitting, which still involves close coordination with the AIS team. To help fill gaps created by this transition, we’ve brought on higher-level temporary staff to support AIS-related work.
More broadly, roles and responsibilities within the Lakes Program evolved to be somewhat siloed across sections over the years. This winter, we took steps to better integrate our work by establishing several cross-functional teams focused on key areas: Policy and Rulemaking, Outreach, Data Management, and Resources. We also created one for Aquatic Plant Monitoring, because each section interacts with this work through a different lens and we recognized a need for better coordination across the Program.
We’ve already seen strong progress from these teams and look forward to expanding collaboration with partners and stakeholders like you. In particular, our Policy and Rulemaking, Outreach, and Data Management teams would benefit greatly from coordination with FOVLAP members!
Policy and Rulemaking: Beyond the current revisions to the Use of Public Waters Rules and wakesports regulations, this group will be focused on advancing three interrelated priorities: reclassification, antidegradation, and updates to our Water Quality Standards.
The Senate bill S.223 – Water Quality, Lake Classification, and Antidegradation Study Group has passed the Senate and is now being considered in the House. The study group’s charge is to review the current statutory and regulatory requirements and frameworks related to water classification and antidegradation, and to recommend changes to better protect the ecological integrity of the State’s lakes and ponds, adequately address current and potential threats to the water, and provide greater regulatory certainty. FOVLAP remains an essential partner in this effort.
Outreach: There are some serious positive vibes coming from our Outreach team. Most notably, we are excited to bring back our Out of the Blue newsletter. First launched in 1991, the publication evolved over the years before being discontinued in 2012 due to staffing and workload constraints. Its return marks an important step in strengthening communication and engagement. (Sign up to receive the newsletter below.
Additional team efforts include updating core outreach materials and evergreen press releases, as well as reorganizing our webpages. We look forward to working closely with FOVLAP on these initiatives.
Data Management: This team is focused primarily on improving access to and usability of our data, both internally within our Department and externally with partners and the public. Current goals include standardizing platforms for collection/storage between programs, increasing functionality to export data (e.g. for multiple sites for a particular parameter, timeframe, or map extent), and use power BI dashboards or similar so we and the public can easily create reports and displays from our data.
Resources: With ever increasing workloads and limited resources, this group helps coordinate inventories and needs for trucks, boats, sampling equipment, office supplies, and other random things we need to get all the work done!
In addition to the above new cross-functional team projects, I’ve compiled the following individual program achievements and updates.
Use of Public Waters Rulemaking: As of the first week of April, our team has finished reviewing, organizing, and responding to the more than 1,500 public comments received. In the second week of April, we plan to finalize the additional proposed revisions in response to specific public comments and brief leadership before submitting our final package by the April 13th deadline for the May 7th Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (LCAR). If the committee approves the new rules, they will potentially go into effect 15 days after approval, which should be just in time for the boating season. Our team is planning to be as prepared as possible with a press release, outreach, temporary signage, and other important elements for implementation. FOVLAP will be an important partner in the effort to get the word out within our lake communities.
Spring Monitoring: Lakes targeted for the 49th year of spring turnover sampling are those in the Otter Creek, Little Otter Creek, Lewis Creek, Northern Lake Champlain and Deerfield-Connecticut basins. We will focus on lakes not monitored by the Lay Monitoring Program that might qualify as A1 low nutrient lakes or lakes that may not meet the Vermont Water Quality Standards Nutrient Criteria. Additional attention will be given to lakes that may have increasing or high total chloride levels from road salt or increasing total phosphorus trends.
Sentinel lakes will be monitored to understand how water quality is changing on Vermont’s least disturbed lakes to better help us understand the changes we see on all lakes in the state. We will also be targeting some of the acid impaired lakes in the state.
Lay Monitoring Program: Led by Mark Mitchell, the Lay Monitoring Program continues to be powered by an incredible network of volunteers like you. In 2025, volunteers helped sample over 80 lakes for water clarity, phosphorus, chlorophyll-a (algae/cyanobacteria), and caffeine.
In 2026, the program plans to monitor 85 inland lakes and eight Lake Champlain bays, along with tributary sites at 12 inland lakes to inform Lake Watershed Action Plans. Thank you to all who contribute to this vital program!
Lake Wise Program: Lake Wise is a free, nonregulatory technical assistance program that helps lakeshore landowners manage their property in a way that supports lake health. In 2025, 192 Lake Wise Assessments were performed statewide and 78 Lake Wise awards were given.
Great Averill Lake achieved Lake Wise Gold status—awarded when 15% of properties around a lake earn individual Lake Wise awards. Lake Wise will kick off its 2026 season in the second half of May. To sign up for a free evaluation, email alison.marchione@vermont.gov.
Lake Watershed Action Plans: A Lake Watershed Action Plan (LWAP) is an assessment and planning tool that is used to identify the greatest threats to a specific lake ecosystem and proposes mitigation projects to reduce those threats. Typical threats include impacts on water quality and wildlife habitat from different land uses along the shoreline and within the watershed. Each Vermont lake has different land use patterns (shoreline development, agriculture, road networks, forestry, etc.) within its watershed. A LWAP can help clarify how these land uses are impacting water resources and identify priority projects for addressing water quality concerns.
This Spring, DEC will be contracting work for two more LWAPs: one at Shelburn Pond in Shelburn, VT and one for the four lakes along the Black River in Ludlow – Lake Rescue, Amherst Lake, Echo Lake, and Lake Pauline. Wrapping up this spring are the Averill Lakes LWAP and the Miles Pond LWAP. The next step for these and all completed LWAPs will be to move the prioritized projects forward for funding, design, and implementation.
Cyanobacteria Monitoring: It still seems a way off, but preparations for the cyanobacteria monitoring season are underway. Every year, volunteers around the state help to keep an eye on the health of our lakes by submitting visual reports of cyanobacteria conditions.
If you are interested in joining as a monitor on your lake, there is a recruitment webform at our cyanobacteria website here (click on the link for the cyanobacteria recruitment flyer), and there will be several online trainings in April and May. Even if you aren’t interested in regular monitoring, we encourage anyone to submit reports of any blooms that they see to the Vermont Department of Health Cyanobacteria Tracker here. Please familiarize yourself with what cyanobacteria blooms look like using resources on these websites. Blooms can pop up in unexpected places, and it is good to learn to recognize them so that you can avoid them and stay safe on the water.
2026 Aquatic Nuisance Control Grant-in-Aid Program: The Lakes and Ponds Aquatic Invasive Species and DEC Business Office teams received 67 project proposals requesting a total of $1,973,621—far exceeding the $752,168 available for funding. Of these, 35 Greeter Project proposals requested $884,544, with $475,000 ultimately awarded. An additional 26 Management Project proposals sought $1,021,586, of which $200,000 was funded. Four Scientific Surveys totaling $67,491 were proposed and all were fully funded.
Aquatic Invasive Species Watercraft Inspection and Decontamination Program Improvements: We’ve been working with stakeholders—including FOVLAP—on a comprehensive review of the watercraft inspection and decontamination program. This process began in November 2024 and is now nearing completion, with a final report expected to guide future program improvements. Continued engagement is anticipated, particularly around decontamination methods for ballasted vessels.
Vermont Public Access Greeter Trainings: The AIS program staff are in the planning stages for the required trainings for all returning and new Greeters for the 2026 Field Season. Last year’s return to require in-person new Greeter training will continue as the program was well-received, especially all the hands-on opportunities that provided confidence and support for newcomers. The in-person trainings will continue with role-playing exercises, and more in-depth, hands-on inspection trainings where each participant will be required to inspect a boat. The AIS program will also continue to provide one online training for Greeter Coordinators and returning Greeters. If people can’t make this, they can also attend the in-person trainings in the morning, and we will do our best to provide any new information first.
The “Train the Trainer” pilot program will continue to provide the ability for Greeter Coordinators/experienced Greeters to train newcomers after the statewide trainings have been completed. The in-person trainings will be extended for 90 minutes for those who have experience as a Greeter for at least five years and are interested in receiving additional one-on-one training so that they can train their program’s new Greeters. Greeter Coordinators (or experienced Greeters) who would like to train new Greeters are required to take the full-day in-person training and will receive a certificate to confirm their participation. Train the Trainers who took advantage of this program in 2025, are asked to attend again in 2026 to ensure consistent statewide training and messaging.
Vermont Invasive Patroller Trainings: Coordinating and scheduling for the VIP trainings are still ongoing. Please check the Vermont Invasive Patroller webpage for the schedule once it is posted.
‘Out of the Blue’ Newsletter
Sign up to receive ‘Out of the Blue’, the Lakes & Ponds Program Newsletter, here.
