Lake Champlain
Essex Junction, VT 05452-3151
Plan Your Visit
Our stations are field-based offices. Visits are generally pre-arranged with staff. Please reach out to the station to arrange a visit.
Other Facilities in the Complex
We work closely - as part of the Vermont-Massachusetts Complex - with four national fish hatcheries, an aquatic resource center and another fish and wildlife conservation office in Vermont and Massachusetts, helping to restore native fish in the Lake Champlain and Connecticut River watersheds, the Great Lakes and the northeastern United States:
We also work with the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge to conserve and restore habitat on refuge lands and in the Missisquoi River watershed.
Services
We work with others in Vermont and New York to protect and restore fish and wildlife, and their habitats throughout the Lake Champlain, Connecticut River, and Hudson River watersheds. Our goals are to improve the health of our lakes and rivers, and to increase the distribution and abundance of ecologically and economically important fish and wildlife.
- We restore the health of our rivers, wetlands, and upland areas for fish and wildlife.
- We help local farmers improve their lands for wildlife, water quality, and sustainable agriculture.
- We help restore aquatic connectivity to our rivers and their tributaries. And we help build roads that are resilient to flooding.
- We assess parasitic sea lamprey populations and strategically control the spread of the invasive species to prevent its devastating effect on native fish.
- 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.
About
The Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (FWCO) is part of a national network dedicated to conserving aquatic resources by restoring native species and monitoring invasive ones. They work through extensive partnerships with state agencies in Vermont and New York, as well as federal and international organizations. Established by legislation in 1990 and 2002, the office facilitates the Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative to enhance fish populations for the American people.