Our friends at the ECHO Lake Aquarium & Science Center are asking members of the Lake Champlain and Vermont communities to take some time completing their new survey . This survey is an opportunity to share your thoughts and ideas about Lake Champlain and tell them a little about how you spend your time and how you use social media.

Burlington Boatyard is one many local lake stewards (LCI, LCSC, Outdoors Magazine to name a few) that understand the essential role social media plays in promoting environmental and ecological awareness in both our local lake community and other watersheds around the country. We ask that you take a moment to provide your insight, opinions, thoughts and concerns with ECHO via this survey, and appreciate your continued support for all of us who strive to make positive impacts on Lake Champlain and beyond.

For those passionate about Lake Champlain and the issues surrounding its well being, we suggest you visit the Voices For The Lake Blog. The VFL project, spearheaded by Bridget Butler and our friends over at the ECHO Center in Burlington, utilize social media technology to foster stewardship and awareness throughout the lake community. This fresh approach taken by the folks at ECHO blends the “old with the new” by tackling timeless issues of conservation and preservation through their use of YouTube, RSS Feeds and Twitter.

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On November 13, the University of Vermont Wakeboard Club held a showing of the video, The Truth at Brennan’s, a local pub and bistro located at UVM in the Davis Center. The Truth showcases the remarkably talented Liquid Force Wakeboarding Team as they display their extraordinary abilities out on the water. Liquid Force is a company dedicated to bringing wakeboarding, wakeskating, and wakesurfing into the spotlight in the world of professional sports.

There was a great showing for this premier, as many students came out to support their peers in the club. Burlington Boatyard, a local online company devoted to connecting the Vermont marine community, made an appearance and showed their support for the cause. Guy Mitrano, CEO of Burlington Boatyard and UVM alumnus (’06), spoke with students and voiced ways in which they could assist and become a member of the up-and-coming UVM Wakeboard Club. He also manned the sponsor table, giving away free, floating key chains and displaying the BBY-UVM Wakeboard Club video produced this fall. This was one of BBY’s first actions taken in being the group’s initial major sponsor, and was produced this fall.

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This weekend, BBY’s Guy Mitrano and Nick Cifuentes completed Episode 2 of the new Burlington Boatyard Lakeside Podcast series.
 
This episode covers the recent news regarding BBY working together as the first official sponsor of the UVM Wakeboard Club, and club president Nicole Ullian phoned in for an interview with the guys.
 
Also, a section that each podcast will feature, is the latest news going on in and around the Vermont and Lake Champlain community. This week, Guy informed everyone of the Turtle Beach Clean Up, recent Lamprey Treatment happenings, and the release of the Lake Champlain Fish Management Plan that discusses future plans to manage fish populations in Champlain.
 
Finally, listeners will be filled in on some of the Salmon fishing reports and ‘end of season’ trips out on Willsboro and Converse Bay by local anglers from the Lake Champlain Fishing Forum, started by Scott Johnson of Swanton.
 
We hope you all enjoy this info packed production and please feel free to contact BBY with questions, comments, suggestions or if you or your business wish to be a part of this valuable communication tool within the community!
 
- The Burlington Boatyard Crew 

Check Out Our Podcast: Episode 2

Burlington Boatyard, in keeping with our theme of incorporating many media channels into our business model, has just completed our very first podcast and it is currently up and running.

This initial release is a sit-down with Guy Mitrano and Nick Cifuentes, CEO and CTO of Burlington Boatyard, and serves two purposes, the first being as an introduction to what podcasts are, and how they will be used in our business approach. Secondly, the two discuss the history, goals and mission of BBY, what we’ve been up to for the past few months, the guests and topics we will cover, and overall, just a chance to connect more personally with our users.

This production will be in many podcast directories shortly…but for starters, try this link – as we are now uploading it to the many hundreds of podcast directories, and will soon be available on iTunes as well!

Podcast

- The Burlington Boatyard Crew

Guy Mitrano’s Burlington Boatyard Blog post highlighting a recent Wall Street Journal article on Yo-Yoing on the North Atlantic focuses attention on lead contamination here. Yo-Yoing, or using heavy sinkers placed in live baits for striped bass and other bottom feeding fish is not only bad for the environment, it’s a bad reflection on anglers. It happened on Lake Champlain folks, but on a smaller and less intentional scale. Vermont’s program to “Get The Lead Out” was the beginning of an effort by wildlife officials to minimize lead contamination on Lake Champlain. In Vermont it is now illegal to fish with lead sinkers weighing less than one-half ounce. New York has banned the sale of lead sinkers smaller than one ounce. There are not many cases of Yo-Yoing on Lake Champlain that fisheries managers know of, but lead sinkers were a problem for wildlife, especially loons and other waterfowl. It’s up to anglers to refresh their stocks of sinkers with the various options now available like tin or tungsten weights. The old sinkers can be recycled.

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Recently, Burlington Boatyard came across an interesting web community forming on the Internet called Outdoor Freaks. Willie Urish, founder of the website, chatted with our team to discuss his growing outdoor community website.

BBY:
What exactly is OutdoorFreaks.net?         

Willie:
OutdoorFreaks.net is an outdoor community for sportsmen and women all across the country.  Through our dynamic website, we provide outdoor news and information to outdoor enthusiasts.  Our Forum section is a great place to ask and learn about anything outdoors.  Our real-time activities include youth hunts, fishing trips, camping trips and cookouts to spread the word about the great outdoors and give back to Mother Nature.

BBY:
Who are the founders of OutdoorFreaks.net and how did the idea come about?

Willie:
I have posted on hunting and fishing message boards for a few years, and loved the idea of connecting with people who loved hunting and fishing across the country.  All of these message boards were just a part of a bigger organization and I felt like they never gave the message board members the credit they deserved.  I felt like if there was a community that really drove the actual website and its members, it would create a huge amount of value for people who love the outdoors.  I made some calls and got some feedback, all was very helpful and positive-move forward with this.  I called a good friend, a super web designer, and got to work!

BBY:
How do you see OutdoorFreaks.net impacting the outdoorsmen & women across the country? 

Willie:
Our goal at Outdoor Freaks is to create a “hub” of outdoor knowledge on our website and grow to be a respected community nationwide.  Our mission is “To provide America’s outdoor enthusiasts with a community of outdoorsmen and women that preserves and promotes outdoor activities through ethical teamwork.”  Success to OF would be to continually grow and promote hunting and fishing through our real-time events and online community.

BBY:
What is your impression of BBY?

Willie:
When I first learned about Burlington Boatyard, I was intrigued. Businesses that are unique interest me and BBY was different; not like the cookie cutter businesses that are so common today.  When I spoke with Guy Mitrano, I learned more about their mission and how everything came about.  It became apparent that Guy and I had a lot in common, and that BBY and OF could potentially help each other.  BBY clearly puts people first and is committed to helping out the Burlington area boaters, it is not hard to see why BBY has an extremely bright future!

Check out “5 Minutes With BBY” where Willie Urish, founder of OutdoorFreaks.net talks with Guy Mitrano about Burlington Boatyard.