2021 LCC Weekly Emails to Cyanobacteria Monitors

Cyanobacteria monitoring officially began this week for the 2021 season! It’s been wonderful to connect with new and returning monitors through email, phone, our virtual training sessions, and in-person visits. If you haven’t attended a 2021 monitor training session yet (we’re hosting another training on 7/1 from 2:00 – 5:00 PM), please sign up here. We are excited to have such a great crew of community scientists assessing water conditions!

It’s been great to see more monitoring reports flowing in during this week of much needed rain! Big thanks to everyone who has been checking conditions or gearing up to monitor. We have another monitor training session scheduled for Thursday 7/8/21 from 9:00 AM – Noon. If you haven’t attended one yet, please sign up here.

While most monitors continued to report generally safe conditions this week, we had bloom reports from some regions of Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog. You’ll find further details about this week’s reporting results via the links below. (Click on them to get to the information you want if you’re using a computer to view this email, scroll down through the email if you’re using a cell phone or Ipad.)

Hats off to everyone who has reported in this week! You collectively filed a total of 246 reports and kept Lake Champlain Committee (LCC) and the VT Dept. of Health (VDH) staff very busy vetting your assessments! Blooms showed up at a host of locations throughout the week triggering beach closings and daily reporting for a number of monitors. Thanks for your dedicated efforts to check and report frequently.

Another busy week of monitoring with variable conditions up and down Lake Champlain. While most monitors reported generally safe conditions at Lake Champlain and inland waterway monitoring sites, low and high alert blooms were in evidence too. Lake Champlain’s St. Albans Bay, Inland Sea, Malletts Bay, Main Lake North, Main Lake Central, and Main Lake South, along with Indian Brook Reservoir and Lake Carmi, all experienced cyanobacteria blooms. Some public beach locations ping ponged back and forth between opening and closing throughout the week. The Week 5 compilation of results includes reports through 2:15 PM on Friday, July 23. For those of you experiencing blooms at your sites, please file daily reports through the time the blooms dissipate if at all possible. That additional reporting helps us track how cyanobacteria respond over time and keeps people updated on conditions.

Happily water conditions improved significantly this week! Roughly 85% of the Lake Champlain reports and 94% of inland waterway reports showed generally safe conditions. Cyanobacteria sitings were restricted to Lake Champlain’s St. Albans Bay, Inland Sea, and Main Lake Central, along with Lake Carmi and Muckross Pond. The Week 6 compilation of results includes reports through 2:00 PM on Friday, July 30.

We had many clear water reports early in the week but conditions changed as the temperatures rose and the air stilled later in the week. A bloom took off in St. Albans Bay, and alert conditions were witnessed elsewhere on Lake Champlain, Lake Carmi, and Lake Memphremagog. Big thanks to everyone who is reporting regularly, and a special shout out to monitors checking on multiple sites and reporting daily. Your dedication and thoroughness have built this monitoring program into one of the most comprehensive community science cyanobacteria monitoring programs in North America. Yay team!

Monitors kept us busy again this week with 136 Lake Champlain reports and 43 from inland waterways. Kudos to everyone who is sending in weekly reports and making daily observations during blooms. Blooms occurred in the Lake Champlain’s Inland Sea, Main Lake North, Malletts Bay, and St. Albans Bay as well as Indian Brook Reservoir and Lake Carmi as of this writing. 

Happy Friday! Lots of green dots populated the cyanobacteria tracker this week and reports of clear water, non-filamentous green algae, and iron bacteria dominated over cyanobacteria in most areas. However, we did have cyanobacteria bloom reports from Lake Carmi and Lake Morey as well as Lake Champlain’s Inland Sea and high alert conditions at several St. Albans Bay sites as of today (8/20/21). Please keep a watchful eye on the water today as temperatures rise.

Monitors filed over 240 reports this past week as blooms popped up or persisted in numerous locations on Lake Champlain and several inland waterbodies. Lake Champlain’s Inland Sea, Main Lake Central, Main Lake South, Missisquoi Bay, South Lake, and St. Albans Bay all experienced blooms as did Chittenden Reservoir, Lake Carmi, Lake Iroquois, Lake Memphremagog, and Shelburne Pond. Thanks to everyone who has been filing reports this season—whether of clear water or high alert blooms.

Windy, cooler weather helped improve water quality conditions during this eleventh week of monitoring. While generally safe conditions prevailed at most locations cyanobacteria was reported at Lake Champlain’s Inland Sea, Missisquoi Bay, and St. Albans Bay as well as Lake Carmi and Lake Memphremagog.

Generally safe conditions prevailed at most locations again this week but cyanobacteria was reported at Lake Champlain’s Main Lake Central, Main Lake South, Missisquoi Bay, St. Albans Bay, and South Lake and at Lake Carmi and Lake Memphremagog.

Although generally safe conditions dominated the cyanobacteria tracker again this week we received reports of cyanobacteria from all Lake Champlain regions except the South Lake and Malletts Bay. Monitors also logged in bloom reports for some sites on Lake Carmi and Lake Memphremagog. Click here for details on this week’s reporting and here to learn more about the band of cyanobacteria hugging Isle La Motte’s west shore on 9/16/21 and the standout monitor that chronicled the conditions.

Fewer reports are flowing in as we move into fall, park staff leave posts, and seasonal residents close up camps. However, late season blooms are not uncommon so please keep checking conditions and filing reports regardless of whether or not you see clear water or cyanobacteria blooms.

Thank you monitors for getting to the fifteenth week of the 2021 monitoring season! Yay team! We are grateful for all you do and your dedication during this long season. We deeply appreciate the efforts of all monitors—whether you’ve had to wrap up for the year—or are able to continue through the end of October.

Thank you to all monitors who are still reporting during this sixteenth week of the season! Many of you filed multiple reports this week in order to capture daily conditions while blooms persisted. We are deeply grateful for your diligent efforts.

Another busy week! Bloom reports kept us hopping through the weekend so we’re sending the compilation of week 17 monitoring results out on a Sunday. Thanks to everyone who has reported this season—whether it’s of clear water conditions or high alert blooms. It’s the commitment of monitors assessing and reporting on conditions throughout the long season that makes our program one of the most comprehensive in the country. We’re very proud of all of you!

While color is fading on the hillsides, it unfortunately is still showing up in the water. October 20 was a particularly busy day for cyanobacteria sightings with blooms reported at a scattering of locations up and down Lake Champlain. Scroll through this email to view pictures of the conditions witnessed at Arnold Bay, Burlington Beaches, Island sites, St. Albans Bay, and Lake Memphremagog during this 18^th week of monitoring. You’ll also find some visuals and details about duckweed, water samples rimmed with cyanobacteria, and your usual Reporting Information.

Thank you for your continued efforts during this 19^th week of monitoring! We will close out the 2021 cyanobacteria monitoring season on November 7 but the cyanobacteria tracker and reporting forms will be available for several more weeks so please continue to report any blooms you witness. The Lake Champlain Committee (LCC) will send out our end of monitoring season email after November 7 in order to fully compile results from the final week.

In sun and rain, heat and cold, monitors collectively filed over 2,700 reports during the 2021 season. In the links and photographs below you’ll find our last weekly report compilation for 2021; see a late season bloom at Arnold’s Bay; learn what a difference a day can make; view water samples of cyanobacteria and clear water conditions; witness beach beauty, autumn glow at Isle LaMotte, late season lake beauty, and a Lake Memphremagog sunset; and catch the LCC Team raising a glass as we close out the 2021 monitoring season.