A lake trout in spawning colors – credit, FWS, public domainThrough a combination of invasive species control and stocking with captive-raised fish, it’s now believed that a self-sustaining and harvestable population of lake trout has returned to Lake Champlain.Following this historic success, a decision has been made to suspend the stocking of the New York lake, believing wild-born, wild-grown trout will be able to survive and spawn to adulthood without human assistance.The decision was announced by the Lake Champlain Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative—a working group from the three state and federal agencies—at its annual meeting on April 10th, 2025, and represents the culmination of 50 years of conservation work.“It’s kind of dismaying how rarely we get to declare ‘job done,’ because often there are things we can’t overcome like habitat damage or invasive species,” Ellen Marsden, a University of Vermont fisheries scientist and the region’s leading lake trout expert, said Tuesday. “This is one of those quite rare events. It was rapid and obviously successful.”The cooperative will stock trout once more this spring, then continue to assess the health of the population and prepare a plan that includes benchmarks for reinstituting stocking if wild lake trout numbers appear to be declining.Adirondack Explorer wrote of the decision...
