Alright, so I was out at Burlington on a sunny day, and it was like 79 degrees, which was a nice change from all the rain we’d been getting. People were hitting the beach, biking on the path, you know, the usual stuff. But then there was Julie Silverman, doing her thing at the mouth of the Winooski River, checking out what was getting dumped into Lake Champlain. She had her pink bucket, gloves, trash bags, and this “crazy-awesome” trash picker.
Silverman, who’s the Conservation Law Foundation’s senior lakekeeper, is all about keeping an eye on Lake Champlain. She’s like the lake’s best friend, making sure it stays clean and healthy. And let me tell you, it’s not an easy job. Everything from oil, gasoline, litter, pesticides, to pet waste ends up in that lake. And Lake Champlain is like a magnet for all the junk flowing downstream from the land around it.
The lake is huge, stretching for 120 miles between New York and Québec, with a crazy high ratio of land draining into it. It’s like 19-to-1, which is a lot compared to other lakes. And with 587 miles of shoreline and tons of towns in its watershed, keeping Lake Champlain clean is no walk in the park. But Silverman, with her pink bucket and awesome trash picker, is out there doing her best to make sure the lake gets the TLC it needs.
