With all the pollution that takes place on this planet it's hard to believe that something so close to home, such as Lake Champlain, could potentially be unsafe for recreational use. However Lake Champlain's future is not looking very bright. Yes, Lake Champlain, the one we let our children play in, the one we let our pets swim in, the one a lot of us are in walking distance to. Lake Champlain has been victim to excessive amounts of phosphorous being dumped into it. There needs to be change and quick. There is a frightening amount of sources contributing to the potential decline of Lake Champlain, some being invasive plants and fish, human and animal waste, storm water runoff, dairy farming, waste water treatment facilities and many more. This information raises many questions like, how does this affect me? What can an individual do to help? The main problem with Lake Champlain is the amount of phosphorous going into the lake. Phosphorous is a necessity for the survival of both plants and wildlife in the lake, however too much phosphorous causes unwanted plant growth and leads to the creation of algae blooms. Algae blooms are large mats of algae on the top of the lake. These blooms are very harmful to the ecosystem. The blooms block sunlight from reaching the bottom of the lake thus all the plants underneath the algae bloom are unable to grow and they die off. This then affects the population of the fish that eat those plants and thus offsetting the population of other fish. Another factor that affects the population of wildlife in the lake is invasive plants. Invasive plants include plants such as Water Chestnut, Eurasian Watermilfoil, Japanese Knotweed, Purple Loosestrife and Didymo. A Sea lamprey is a good example of invasive species. They have a large impact on fish population by feeding on the fluids of fish. Sea Lamprey tend to be found on Salmon, Lake Trout, Steelhead Trout. It's less common for them to be found on Northern Pik