About Us

Friends of Northern Lake Champlain is a citizens’ organization dedicated to the rehabilitation and protection of northern Lake Champlain, and all of the waters that flow into it.  Lake Champlain is a magnificent natural/social/economic resource, and we can’t allow it to continue in its degraded state.

The formal history of Friends of Northern Lake Champlain began when Friends of Missisquoi Bay (FMB) was incorporated in Vermont in August 2004, and then became a 501 c3 tax-exempt non-profit in February of 2007.

Local citizens and businesses were alarmed by water quality that was variable, but too often poor.  Some years the algae blooms would be a terrible problem, other years there would be no sign of the algae blooms and in other years it was middling, but that’s sure not good.  Frustrations mounted.

The organization was formed so that local citizens and businesses could be more active in efforts to clean up Missisquoi Bay and northern Lake Champlain. The group came together as a hard-working, all-volunteer organization, but was unable to marshal the focus or consistency necessary to make headway against the complex problems that trouble the northern Lake. In September 2006 FMB hired Paul Madden to be its first executive director. This enabled FMB to jump forward with the work to clean up Missisquoi Bay and northern Lake Champlain.

In June 2009 the name was changed from Friends of Missisquoi Bay to Friends of Northern Lake Champlain. From the early days of the organization the Board of Directors realized that in order to clean up Missisquoi Bay there would be little success if the focus was exclusively on the local problem.  The organization worked to benefit the whole northern Lake, working with many allies in the effort to clean up the water in all of the watersheds of the Northern Lake, including Quebec. So it was a natural progression that the name be changed to Friends of Northern Lake Champlain.

Our route to improving water quality in the northern Lake is by means of improving land practices in the watershed. We work with farmers, the public, government agencies, businesses, the media, scientists, municipal officials and other environmental organizations.

Elsewhere on the website you will find more information about the accomplishments, current actions and priorities of Friends of Northern Lake Champlain.