LAKE CHAMPLAIN, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The lake trout population has been restored in Lake Champlain, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) announced on Tuesday. The restoration is the result of a decades-long fish stocking program.

Lake Champlain’s native lake trout were extirpated by the late 1800s. In 1972, NYSDEC, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formed a cooperative to try to restore its population.

However, although the cooperative was restocking the lake with hatchery-raised juvenile trout, they realized by 1985 that they would not be able to fully restore the fish population without controlling the sea lamprey, an invasive parasitic species that preys on the trout. In 1990, officials launched a control program to reduce sea lamprey numbers through chemical treatments, trapping, physical barriers and other methods.

“The sea lamprey control program is not attempting to eliminate the sea lamprey from Lake Champlain, but rather to reduce the impacts of sea lamprey on the lake’s fishery and restore balance to the ecosystem,” NYSDEC notes on its sea lamprey webpage.

After more than five decades of efforts to restore the lake trout population in Lake Champlain, the latest survey conducted by officials suggested that the lake trout population is now self-sustaining and no longer needs to be supplemented with hatchery-reared fish, NYSDEC said. As a result, the cooperative made the decision on April 10 that stocking can end after this spring.

“Bringing back Lake Champlain’s native lake trout to the point where they no longer depend on stocking is an incredible conservation success,” Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department Interim Commissioner Andrea Shortsleeve said. “This would not have been possible without strong partnerships — scientists and conservation groups from across the region support our decision to stop stocking and focus on maintaining good numbers of wild trout.”

The cooperative will continue to control the sea lamprey population not only to sustain lake trout numbers but also to help to restore other native fish species. For every $1 invested into the sea lamprey control program, $3.50 is returned to the local economy, NYSDEC reported. Recreational fishing in Lake Champlain already generates about $474 million in economic activity each year, the department said.

“It’s exciting to see the return on investments in the sea lamprey program, by rebuilding an important recreational fishery and supporting the regional economy,” said Wendi Weber, regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Northeast Region.

The cooperative reportedly plans to stock trout once more this spring and then continue assessing the population’s health. Officials will also prepare a plan in case the population appears to start declining once again.

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