A dozen volunteers learned how to care for South Cariboo lakes last week at a Lake Keepers workshop hosted at the Fawn Lake Resort.
Held from Oct. 16 to 17, the course was organized by the Fishing Highway Tourist Association. Irene Meili, the president of the association, was one of the dozen volunteers who attended the workshops. She said the purpose of the workshop was to teach people to care for the health of local lakes the region's tourism relies upon.
"It's imperative for us to see and record changes that are going to happen due to climate change, wildfire, other threats, also human cost - as in humans using the lake," Meili explained. "The province's funds are very limited when it comes to that, so we thought we should step up."
The Lake Keepers Course was taught by Norm Zirnhelt, a registered professional biologist and principal consultant with Cariboo Environmental Quality Consulting. Zirnhelt taught his students the fundamentals of lake water measurement, first in a classroom session on Wednesday followed by a field demonstration on Thursday.
"We went through some of the fundamentals of lake science, and then we went through some fundamentals of instrumentation for taking dissolved oxygen and temperature readings, as well as how to take samples out of the lake for analysis," Zirnhelt said.
On Thursday the volunteers took to the waters of Fawn Lake in boats with water-measuring equipment, stopping either at the deepest end of Fawn Lake, or at a floating dock located at the centre of the lake. There they learned how to utilize monitoring equipment such as a secchi disc, which is a black and white disc owered into the water to measure water transparency. Once the disc is no longer visible a lake keeper will be able to determine the rough transparency of the water.
Zirnhelt decided to lead the workshop because there are a lot of people who are concerned about the health of local lakes. He said by teaching these volunteers how to monitor the health of their lakes, they'll be able to protect them from algal blooms and other phenomena.
"They want to do something about trying to be proactive about managing them and protecting them, but in order to do that, we need to collect data, and our purpose is to really help them, give them the training and the support they need so that they can collect valid data," Zirnhelt explained.
"Even if there's environmental changes, like logging, you might be able to see effects of lakes from that as well," added Jennifer Sprecher, a director with the Fishing Highway Tourist Association's board of directors.
Meili said the turnout was great for the workshop. She noted that those who conducted the workshop will now begin monitoring several local lakes including Sheridan Lake, Horse Lake, Hathaway Lake, Sulphurous Lake, Deka Lake, Fawn Lake, Bridge Lake, Lac des Roches, Little Lac des Roches and Phinetta Lake.
"I sent out the invitation to all our members, and I think within three days, the workshop was full, which is 12 people max that we could have - and we have more people who'd be interested in doing the same thing in the spring," stated Meili
Funding for this inaugural workshop came from a donation made by the Lone Butte Fish and Wildlife Association, a grant from the BC Lake Stewardship Society and funds raised by the Fishing Highway Tourist Association itself, Meili said. She encourages anyone who lives on a lake or frequents one of the South Cariboo's lakes to consider becoming a lake keeper themselves. The association hopes to host another workshop in the future and Meili encourages anyone interested in taking part to contact her at president@fishinghighway24.com.
"Those lakes are our livelihoods and picking up on changes/issues is critical, especially during the busy times in summer," Meili said. "This is the 'inaugural workshop' in our area, but we hope that volunteers from within the South Cariboo will come forward and run similar workshops in the future."
