В Вермонте популяция нырковых чаек выросла с 15 до 115 пар благодаря усилиям по сохранению

On Hinesburg’s Lake Iroquois, loons reflect Vermont’s conservation comeback HINESBURG, Vt. (WCAX) - Loons have become a North American icon and a face of conservation success, and on Lake Iroquois in Hinesburg, a growing family of chicks is part of a statewide trend. Most misty summer mornings, Lisa Angstman can be found kayaking on Lake Iroquois on a special mission. “I’ve always loved loons,” Angstman said. She’s a volunteer watching over a loon nesting raft. It’s empty now, but just a few months ago, it was the first place two baby loons called home. Now, they’re off with their parents elsewhere on the lake. Rafts like these have been deployed in lakes around the state since the ’80s, offering the migratory aquatic birds protection from people, predators, and flooding. “If we didn’t have the raft, they probably wouldn’t be able to be successful,” Angstman said. But successful they are. “It’s a result of sustained care, sustained commitment,” said Rosalind Renfrew with Vermont Fish and Wildlife, who has worked on Vermont’s loon conservation since the ’90s. She said when she started there were about 15 nesting pairs. Last year there were 115. “It’s really rare that you can say that about a species, that significant of a comeback,” Renfrew said. Efforts like the nesting rafts, education, and banning of lead sinker sales have allowed the population to make strides. So much so, that next season, vounteers will no longer use the rafts on a handful of lakes to see if loons can make do. “It’s really a good measure of success when you can kind of back off from intensive management, in at least some places, and let the loons take on their natural course,” Renfrew said. Despite conservationists stepping back, Renfrew said loons will likely always be under our watchful eye. “We want to maintain a really hefty population, and I think that will require some management into the future to some degree. It’s a matter of what degree,” Renfrew said. For the loons of Lake Iroquois, Angstman will be sprucing up this raft, getting it ready to go back in the water as soon as the ice thaws next spring. “Pretty much as soon as they get here, they start looking for a nesting spot,” Angstman said. Copyright 2026 WCAX. All rights reserved.