Spotlight on Stewardship: Lake Windermere Ambassadors
The Lake Windermere Ambassadors (LWA) are a group of dedicated individuals, committed to bringing the lake and surrounding community together for the benefit of all. The society strongly promotes community involvement and they offer many opportunities for the public to engage in stewardship activities surrounding Lake Windermere. Lake Windermere is located in the Columbia Valley of British Columbia, Canada.
LWA began monitoring water quality on Lake Windermere in 2011 and their program has only expanded since then. They conduct extensive monitoring of their lake taking weekly measurements of turbidity, pH, specific conductivity, phosphorus, Secchi depth, and total depth and conducting temperature and dissolved oxygen profiles. They also monitor Abel Creek, a tributary inflow into Lake Windermere, to measure water quantity. They are currently working to expand this program to develop a greater understanding of how much water moves through the system.
In addition to water quality monitoring, the LWA also monitor for aquatic macro invertebrates, waterfowl, and aquatic plants. All of this monitoring is accomplished with the help of community volunteers. Not only do the volunteers lend a hand, but they learn about water quality testing techniques and the current ecological status of the lake.
The LWA conduct outreach through various projects and develop important resources on lake health, lake monitoring protocols, in addition to providing other resources through the extensive library on their website. They have developed several guides to help promote the stewardship of Lake Windermere including a Winter Stewardship Guide and a Green Boating Guide. Their community outreach also engages the younger generation through summer camps and school programs. They offer free programming through local parks and schools that include hands on sessions testing water quality, catching macro-invertebrates, and lake clean ups, along with in class lessons on watersheds, pollution, water monitoring and more.
Their stewardship does not stop at the then end of the summer, they are active all year round, collecting water samples and performing surveys by boat in the summer, and community events in the winter to bring attention to the importance of winter water stewardship. They engage in Shoreline Clean Ups throughout the year and provide tours of the watershed and workshops covering Nuisance Nutrients. LWA also participate in online forums and webinars such as the Boating on BC Lakes forum that they co-hosted alongside Living Lakes Canada and the BCLSS in April of this year.
This year brings a combination of ongoing projects and new opportunities that LWA will address to continually promote a healthy watershed for years to come. We are excited to see all the amazing initiatives that they put forward and we are very grateful for their ongoing leadership in the realm of lake stewardship. To learn more about their ongoing projects and to access their resources, you can visit their website here. To keep up to date on their activities and opportunities to get involved, you can follow them on Facebook or Instagram.
Article by Marie McCallum
