Lake Champlain Sea Grant Thanks Senator Leahy for his Commitment to Lake Champlain

Dear Senator Leahy,

Your support for Vermont and for Lake Champlain is legendary. We want to especially thank you for your efforts—over years—to steer funding to the NOAA National Sea Grant College Program, which initially allowed us to establish the Lake Champlain Sea Grant program in 2000. Your continued support has allowed us to grow the Lake Champlain Sea Grant from a small project to a prestigious Sea Grant Institute with a budget of nearly $1.5 million annually. These funds allow us to support dozens of research faculty and graduate students at UVM and other Vermont institutions.

Each year our programs provide education and training opportunities for 100s of adults and 1000s of K-12 students. The information we produce is factual, impartial, and useful. Through your efforts we have been able to effectively operationalize our mission to use and develop knowledge to help communities make decisions that benefit the environment and the economy of Lake Champlain and its basin. You’ve laid a foundation that will allow us to continue to pursue this mission into the foreseeable future.

Thank you for all that you have done for Lake Champlain and for Lake Champlain Sea Grant. We look forward to serving the communities of the Lake Champlain basin, as you intended, well into the future.

With deep gratitude,

Staff of the Lake Champlain Sea Grant:

William (Breck) Bowden, Anne Jefferson, Kris Stepenuck, Tim Mihuc, Gary Deziel, Ashley Eaton, Shari Halik, Marisa Immordino, Carolyn Koestner, Aude Lochet, Anna Marchessault, Caroline Mckelvey, Mark Mitchell, Linda Patterson, Jillian Sarazen, Jeffrey Schloss, Nate Trachte, Stephanie Tyski, Julianna White, Theodore Willis, and Cassandra Wolfanger