ECHO at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain

The shore of Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont appears to sparkle, but below the blue lies a harsh truth: the lake suffers a variety of ailments chiefly due to agricultural run-off and pollution from Vermont, New York and Canada.

It comes as no surprise that Lake Champlain's biodiversity and water quality are increasingly threatened.  

Argosy Foundation's partnership with ECHO at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain aims to help educate the public about the challenges facing the lake – an endeavor that ECHO Development Manager Trevor Nesbit hails as innovative and cutting-edge. “Our work inspires individual responsibility by encouraging residents to ask the question, ‘How can I improve the quality of the lake?'” he says.

Argosy's support of ECHO in 2005 included a $70,000 gift to help implement Voices for the Lake as well as the Watershed Weather Reporter exhibit – two efforts that have equipped Burlington community members with tools to better care for Lake Champlain. 

Voices for the Lake

Thanks to Argosy's partnership, ECHO has spearheaded Voices for the Lake, an unprecedented collaboration of 33 organizations, ranging from the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department to the Conservation Law Foundation. 

“ECHO has a staff of sixteen; we can't do or know everything. We need partners so that we can tackle these subjects and challenges together,” Trevor Nesbit explains. “Thanks to Voices for the Lake, we have pulled together experts, from nonprofits to government entities, so that we can engage people in fruitful conversation and raise awareness.”

The Voices for the Lake collaboration kick-started in June 2005 with a two-day festival and symposium that addressed the Lake Champlain Basin Program's newly unveiled “State of the Lake Report.” Every two years, this government-funded agency evaluates the lake and compiles a list of most common questions for lake-users. For instance: Is the lake safe for swimming? Is the health of the lake improving?

According to Trevor, ECHO became a vibrant place for the community to dialogue about the report and how it impacted their lives. Over 1,000 scientists, teachers, students, families, farmers, camp owners, tourists, boaters, hunters, trappers and anglers came together and participated in 24 interactive “eco-booths” and a series of roundtable discussions. Notably, these roundtables enabled the public to vote on the best ways to tackle Lake Champlain's challenges using a high-tech Personal Response System that displayed results instantaneously. 

The first Voices for the Lake gathering exceeded all expectations. “People really rallied around ECHO,” Trevor says – to the point that ECHO realized the value of continuing such dialogue beyond the one weekend. 

Voices for the Lake has expanded to include a school program that gathers students in a town-hall setting where they can role-play as decision-makers – such as developers and town managers – and direct the future of the lake, all while learning to take responsibility for their actions. 

“We are using ECHO as a model where people of all ages can gather and learn,” Trevor says, acknowledging Argosy's support as a tremendous leverage for exposure and other funds in the community. “Argosy challenges us to think broadly. It inspires us to break new ground.”

Broadcasting from the basin

Argosy Foundation's partnership has created a second permanent addition to ECHO: the Watershed Weather Reporter exhibit, which employs a television camera, teleprompter and green-screen technology so participants can create their own weather broadcasts.

“Weather connects us all, so the weather studio has been a big hit since it opened in April 2005, providing people with everyday science education tools,” Trevor says. “Argosy helped us take the first step. Once Argosy was involved, it helped ECHO deepen our relationship with partner WPTZ NewsChannel 5, who has given both in-kind support and expertise to get the program running.”

The weather studio affords an up-close look at current weather conditions and their effect on Lake Champlain. As part of the program, the US Geological Survey installed a lake stage complete with satellite transmitter so that participants can research and include information – like lake temperature and water level – in their broadcasts. According to Trevor, this component provides an important exterior experience to complement the interior experience of the studio.

After broadcasters complete their weather reports, they learn how to edit them – and they are able to add a commercial or public service announcement that further enhances their knowledge of Lake Champlain. The finished product is theirs to take home. 

ECHO's partnerships with WPTZ NewsChannel 5, the US Geological Survey and others have established a program so popular that of ECHO's 130,000 visitors in 2005, 61% reported in a survey having participated in the weather station. “The studio is a great showcase for how we have aggressively used Argosy's support to leverage other partners,” says Trevor. 

But, more importantly, he adds, “Argosy's deep involvement and ability to think holistically – about issues, partnerships, communications, funding – have helped us get through challenges and become this unique place.”