Vermont
Vermont DEC Seeks Lake Ice Observations from the Public
You can report lake ice observations using the DEC’s online reporting form
DEC scientist collecting water samples on Molly’s Falls Reservoir in Marshfield shortly after lake ice-out in early spring. (Courtesy photo)
MONTPELIER, Vt. — As Vermonters patiently wait for spring temperatures, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) invites the public to report when Vermont’s lakes and ponds lose their ice cover. Also known as the “ice-out date,” this date marks when lakes or ponds become ice-free from shore to shore. Tracking ice-out dates helps DEC scientists decide when to begin seasonal water quality sampling efforts.
“By reporting ice-out dates, Vermonters can help us better understand how climate change impacts our lakes and ponds,” said DEC Commissioner Jason Batchelder. “Using long-term records of lake ice, our scientists can learn about and track statewide and regional climate trends.”
When ice covers lakes, the water below separates into layers based on temperature and density. When the surface ice fully melts in the spring, the heavy cold water sinks and the water column fully mixes. Water samples collected at this time of mixing show the baseline amount of phosphorus a lake will have available to fuel algae and aquatic plant growth during the spring and summer.
“Since 1977, we have collected information on the spring water quality of lakes larger than 10 acres in size,” says Mark Mitchell, a limnologist with DEC and Lake Champlain Sea Grant. “Over those 47 years, we have seen trends of earlier lake ice-out dates across Vermont and New England, which can be a sign of climate change.”
You can report lake ice observations using the DEC’s online reporting form.
Many lake communities around the state also hold ice-out contests, usually in the form of a raffle where the winners can receive prizes or cash. Some of the more famous and long-running ice-out contest sites include Joe’s Pond in Danville, Lake Iroquois in Hinesburg, and Lake Memphremagog. These contests are an engaging way for lake associations and communities to encourage folks to observe lakes and ponds throughout the year.
To find spring water quality information, view the Vermont Lake Score Card. For more information, visit the DEC Lakes and Ponds Program.
The Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for protecting Vermont’s natural resources and safeguarding human health for the benefit of this and future generations. Visit dec.vermont.gov and follow the Department of Environmental Conservation on Facebook and Instagram.
–Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation
BRIDGEWATER CORNERS, Vt. (WCAX) – A Vermont brewery is living up to its name to help celebrate the outdoors.
Long Trail Brewing Company is unveiling its “Reallllly Long Trail Ale Pack” in honor of National Trails Day this weekend. They believe it will be the largest single-unit commercially available beer package in the country.
The design for the packaging is 273 centimeters long, reflecting the 273-mile Long Trail that cuts through the length of Vermont. It also holds 168 beers and needs three people just to carry it. The brewery’s Jordan Kellem hopes it can encourage people to, as they say, “Take a Hike!”
“We’ve been brewing beer for a long time, and it’s increasingly more difficult to stand out. And at the end of the day, we have to remind ourselves we’re in the beer industry and it’s a fun industry to be a part of, so we want to have some fun and do what we do,” Kellem said.
They’re also giving back with $15,000 in donations to local trail systems across the state.
National Trails Day is Saturday, June 7.
Copyright 2026 WCAX. All rights reserved.
Kids shouted, stilt-walkers strode and paper-mache puppets swayed above the crowd as a procession snaked through downtown Burlington last week.
What for? Trout.
Sustainability Academy students and their supporters marched across the city to the beat of bucket drummers May 29 for the second annual Trout Parade, a showcase of their conservation efforts for the state’s official cold-water fish.
Their chants and hoisted fish-shaped cutouts served as a send-off to brook trout raised by students as part of a schoolwide science project.
“The Trout Parade was really just our students lining up to say goodbye as we loaded them onto the bus to be released,” said Kestrel Plump, a sustainability coach at the academy.
For about five months this year, the school lobby became a hatchery as students cultivated fish from eggs supplied by regional conservation group Trout Unlimited.
Interim Principal Antony Dennis said the trout would be released in the Huntington River the next day, May 30.
“This is the second year that it’s been this big that we actually got to a point where it went off campus,” Dennis said. “It used to be a small event.”
The parade began for students outside the school as residents set out from The Flynn to join them and continue together to Battery Park.
The school has conducted the project for roughly five years, but this was only its second time partnering with The Flynn and Vermont puppeteers Janice Walrafen and Erik Gillard, or Erok.
The kids thought the jumbo puppets were magical, Walrafen said. “The same with the masks. You put on a mask, and then all of a sudden you get to be transformed as something other than your little self,” she said. “You get to be part of something bigger.”
Onlookers, bicyclists and pedestrians stopped and recorded the spectacle with their phones.
If they had any question about its object, answers came by way of lilting treble chants.
“Tell me what it’s all about!” a parade leader called out over a megaphone.
“Trout!” a chorus of kids chimed back.
They followed their leader in reciting: “We love the trout, but we must let them out!”
The parade concluded with a pageant accompanied by a harpist. The students were sent off with ice cream given out by retired University of Vermont faculty member Patrick Malone.
Asked if students get attached to the aspiring fish or just see them as blobs in a science project, Plump, the school sustainability coach, let a group of girls answer.
“The first one,” one of them said.
And were they happy to see their piscine pals released?
“Quite,” another responded.
Corey Arwood is the Burlington Free Press city reporter and can be reached by email at clarwood@gannett.com.
Vermont
Debate over ICE masking bill complicates, for a moment, end of session in the Vermont House – VTDigger
We’re outta here
That’s all, folks.
The Vermont Legislature adjourned for the year, and for the 2025-26 biennium, Friday night. Senators finished up their work just before 6 p.m., and the House followed suit two hours later. I’m not complaining about the time. I was happy, in fact, to be on the road home with a sliver of daylight left.
The House took longer to finish in part because its adjournment got tangled up in a bill, ultimately doomed, that as originally proposed would have barred federal officers such as ICE agents from wearing masks.
The bill, S.208, emerged from a joint House and Senate conference committee Thursday. In order for the latest version of the legislation to be taken up on the floor so soon after, though, the House needed to suspend its rules. Such a procedural move needs three-quarters approval. And while rules suspensions are common late in the session, when it came to taking up S.208 “for immediate consideration,” that was not the case.
House lawmakers voted 81-51 in favor of expediting the bill’s timeline, falling 18 short of the 99 needed to meet the threshold to cast aside the chamber’s rules.
After that, the House took up and passed, with no debate, this year’s budget bill, H.951. Then, House Speaker Jill Krowinski, in her last floor session holding the gavel, brought up the last thing lawmakers had to approve for the year: a resolution formally dictating the terms of adjournment.
But some lawmakers weren’t ready to be done with S.208. Rep. Brian Cina, P/D-Burlington, stood and asked for a roll call vote on the adjournment resolution itself, “due to the important impact of S.208 on our open democracy.”
His comments mirrored those of several senators earlier in the night who had lamented on the chamber floor how the bill was falling by the wayside. The Senate also adjourned without taking any floor action on the compromise version of S.208.
Ultimately, 15 other House members joined Cina voting against the adjournment resolution in a vote of 114-16. After it was approved, the rest of the formalities of adjournment played out, including a requisite speech from Gov. Phil Scott.
“I’m going to try and make this brief,” the governor said at the outset of his remarks. “I guarantee it’ll take less time than it did to roll call the adjournment address.”
Beyond debate over S.208, adjournment in both chambers was marked by emotional farewell remarks from Krowinski, D-Burlington, and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth, D/P-Chittenden Central, both of whom aren’t seeking reelection.
Krowinski said her favorite memories from her 14 years in the House have been “the quieter moments most Vermonters never witness,” such as “members helping one another through difficult days, offering support regardless of politics and members coming together to support a colleague through a rough time.”
Baruth at times teared up as he recounted his 16 years in the Senate. And the English professor closed his speech with a nod to some of his favorite literature.
“It will hurt not to find my seat when the bell rings next session,” Baruth said. “But even Frodo Baggins — and you know that ‘The Lord of the Rings’ means everything to me — even Frodo Baggins knew when it was time to follow Bilbo to the Grey Havens.”
OK, our turn now
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VTDigger reporters fanned out this session to bring you the news from Montpelier. Clockwise from top left, Shaun Robinson, Ethan Weinstein, Charlotte Oliver and Corey McDonald. File photos by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerBefore we go, some thanks are in order.
Putting together an originally-reported newsletter every day of the session — on top of the traditional news stories our readers expect — is no easy task. While you’re used to seeing my byline, and that of our fearless Statehouse Bureau Chief, Ethan Weinstein, there are a host of others who make this work possible.
Several other VTDigger reporters took the lead on issues of Final Reading this year, including Charlotte Oliver, Olivia Gieger, Theo Wells-Spackman and Corey McDonald. Meanwhile, ace photographer Glenn Russell captured many of the moments — like this one — that defined this year’s session.
Chad Lorenz, contributing editor on the politics desk, and Ruth Hare, VTDigger’s managing editor, brought their decades of experience and watchful eyes to each day’s newsletter. Noel Clark, VTDigger’s digital editor, and Night Editor Nathan Allen turned the plain text of a Google Doc into the email that landed in your inbox every night. Taylor Haynes, the newsroom’s audience and product director, made sure that email looked as good as it did.
And of course, we’re grateful to all of you — almost 8,000 subscribers — who turned to this newsletter, and do so year after year, to stay on top of the news under the Golden Dome.
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Reliable information matters. So does helping young readers discover the power of reading. Today you can support both with one donation. Pretty cool!
— VTD editors
While we’re gone
Even though the legislative session lasts just five months, our coverage of state government and politics is year-round. Your tips and pitches help us find the stories readers care about and that need to be brought to light. So don’t be a stranger, even if it’s just a little harder to reach us than flagging us down in the Statehouse hallways.
Reach me at srobinson@vtdigger.org and Ethan at eweinstein@vtdigger.org. You can send a secure tip on our website here, and find other reporters’ contact information here.
Until next year!
— Shaun Robinson
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