Welcome to the Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (FWCO). Our office was established through provisions in the Lake Champlain Special Designation Act of 1990 and through the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Lake Champlain Basin Program Act of 2002. We protect, restore and manage fish and wildlife, and their habitats in the Lake Champlain, Connecticut River and Hudson River watersheds, and across Vermont.

• We restore healthy habitats in rivers, wetlands and upland areas for fish and wildlife.
• We help local farmers improve their lands for both wildlife, water quality and sustainable agriculture.
• We also improve aquatic connectivity by removing dams, ensuring passage at others, and upgrading culverts and bridges to ensure passage and improve resiliency to future floods.
• We strategically assess and control the spread of parasitic sea lamprey, to prevent its devastating effects on native fishes.
• We assess fish populations, conduct research and work with hatcheries to evaluate the effectiveness of stocking and other conservation actions to restore land-locked Atlantic salmon and other priority fish species.

Our goals are to improve the health of our lakes, rivers and watersheds, and to increase the diversity, distribution and abundance of ecologically and economically important fish and wildlife.

All of our work is conducted through partnerships with others including the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department (VFWD), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, universities, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), recreational anglers, farmers and other landowners and many other partners.

We facilitate the Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative with the VFWD and NYSDEC, Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources and we are key partners in the Lake Champlain Basin Program. We work closely – as part of the Western New England Complex – with these three national fish hatcheries in western New England, helping to restore native fish in Lake Champlain, the Great Lakes and the northeastern United States:

Berkshire National Fish Hatchery

Dwight D. Eisenhower National Fish Hatchery

White River National Fish Hatchery

We also work with the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge to conserve and restore habitat on refuge lands and in the Missisquoi River watershed.