• Limited and clumped distribution, restricted almost entirely to Lake Champlain

• Status of species vary from rare and declining (e.g., Black-crowned Night-Heron) to locally abundant and increasing (e.g., Double-crested Cormorant)

• Existing practices range from active reduction of cormorant and gull numbers to annually intensive efforts to stabilize Vermont’s management-dependent Common Terns.

• Management is complex; decreases in some species may increase others and vice versa (e.g., one nearly-extirpated species, Black-crowned Night-Heron, is a known predator limiting the state-Endangered tern population).

• Future management decisions must be guided by careful, coordinated, repeated population and habitat monitoring. A lake-wide plan would best accomplish this.

• Species at the edge of their range (Cattle Egret, Caspian Tern) may not warrant targeted management.

• Control the spread of invasive exotic species (Water Chestnut, Eurasian milfoil, Zebra mussels).

• Protect nest islands from terrestrial exotics and human disturbance.