ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, formerly the Lake Champlain Basin Science Center, is located on the Burlington waterfront in northern Vermont. It is home to more than 70 species of fish, amphibians, invertebrates, and reptiles, major traveling exhibitions, and the multimedia Awesome Forces Theatre. The name ECHO represents the mission of the organization which is to “educate and delight” people of all ages about the Ecology, Culture, History and Opportunities for stewardship of the Lake Champlain Basin.
Located at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, ECHO has been open to public since 2003, offering daily animal encounters and hands-on activities that are educational and family-friendly. The Patrick and Marcelle Leahy Center for Lake Champlain is a 2.2-acre (8,900 m2) campus recognizing Senator Patrick Leahy's dedication to the stewardship of the Lake Champlain Basin. The Leahy Center is also home to the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, Lake Champlain Basin Program Resource Room, and Lake Champlain Navy Memorial.
The Leahy Center for Lake Champlain is Vermont’s first LEED certified Green Building. It is the only lake aquarium in the United States with this certification. With this designation, ECHO is the third certified building in New England and joins a group of fewer than 70 LEED certified buildings in the United States.
Famous quotes containing the words echo, lake, aquarium, science and/or center:
“Grace! ‘tis a charming Sound,
Harmonious to my Ear!
Heav’n with the Echo shall resound,
And all the Earth shall hear.”
—Philip Doddridge (1702–1751)
“These beginnings of commerce on a lake in the wilderness are very interesting,—these larger white birds that come to keep company with the gulls.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“one is in a shoe factory cursing the machine,
one is at the aquarium tending a seal,
one is dull at the wheel of her Ford,
one is at the toll gate collecting,
one is tying the cord of a calf in Arizona,
one is straddling a cello in Russia....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“There are two kinds of truth; the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art.... Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“Death is someone you see very clearly with eyes in the center of your heart: eyes that see not by reacting to light, but by reacting to a kind of a chill from within the marrow of your own life.”
—Thomas Merton (1915–1968)