LEAHY CENTER FOR LAKE CHAMPLAIN

Patrick and Marcelle Leahy

The Patrick and Marcelle Leahy Center for Lake Champlain is a 2.2 acre campus at One College Street on the Burlington waterfront recognizing Senator Patrick Leahy's lifelong dedication to the stewardship of the Lake Champlain Basin.

The Leahy Center is home to the:

• ECHO lake aquarium and science center
• Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory as a Waterfront location of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources of the University of Vermont
• Lake Champlain Basin Program Resource Room
• LakeNet international lake conservation exchange in coordination with Saint Michael's College
• Lake Champlain Sea Grant Watershed Alliance
  
• Lake Champlain Navy Memorial
• UVM's Melosira and visiting research vessels

As part of its waterfront revitalization, the City of Burlington sought Senator Leahy's assistance in relocating the Naval Reserve Center from the One College Street site. His efforts proved successful and Burlington is now realizing its dream of using the heart of its waterfront for research, education and outreach to promote the stewardship of Lake Champlain.

Senator Leahy has remained a partner in all of these efforts, securing over half of the funding for ECHO as well as helping the University complete funding for the Rubenstein Lab. Elsewhere on the Burlington waterfront, Senator Leahy is responsible for the new U.S. Coast Guard Station and the reconstruction of the breakwater guarding the harbor.

He has been the guiding force behind the Lake Champlain Basin Program for well over a decade from his senior position on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee:

• obtaining over $70 million for Lake clean-up efforts
• amending NOAA's National Sea Grant Program to include Lake Champlain
• expanding the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Lake Champlain operations
• encouraging several other federal agencies to enhance their efforts in the Basin, including the U. S. Geological Survey and the USDA Natural Resource and Conservation Service