By Steve Hubrecht
[email protected]
The Lake Windermere Ambassadors have completed their 2020 annual report. The report outlines that despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the nonprofit group was still able to continue much of the work and program it does.
“While filling in as acting program coordinator during the 2020 year, I was impressed and inspired with the level of passion and care the surrounding community has for Lake Windermere and its surrounding environment. I am proud of the work our team accomplished during a strange and unpredictable time and I am humbled by the massive impact this lake has on the Upper Columbia Valley as a whole,” wrote acting Ambassadors program coordinator Georgia Peck in the report.
The report highlighted the organization’s ongoing water monitoring, which in 2020 included 18 lake sampling excursions, 20 creek sampling excursions, six species surveys, 14 citizen scientists trained, and the 10 Year State of the Lake Report. In outreach and education, the Ambassadors had three themed photo contests, 273 community subscribers, 1,308 social media followers, published 11 educational articles and had 50 children attend the group’s free summer camps.
The 10 Year State of the Lake Report reviewed the last decade’s worth of water quality monitoring and related activities, stretching right back to when the Ambassadors were formed in 2010.
“Based on the reviewed data, water quality in Windermere Lake was found to be relatively stable with no evidence of a deteriorating trend. It is recommended that consistent monitoring continues into the future, especially in light of climate change predictions, surrounding development and changes in land use,” wrote Peck about the 10 year report.
This past year was the third one in which the Ambassadors ran free kids summer camps, expanding to run six camps this year: five at James Chabot Provincial Park in Invermere and one at Tilley Memorial Park in Canal Flats, serving a total of 50 kids, while making sure social distancing protocols and Interior Health Regulations for the pandemic were followed.
In 2020, the Ambassadors, in partnership with Living Lakes Canada, began re-doing the Foreshore Inventory Management Planning (FIMP) that was originally done from 2006 to 2009 to gain insight into foreshore habitat values and the impacts that human activities can have on this space.
The Ambassadors’ water monitoring ran from Apr. 20 to Sept. 15 last year. The group also monitored Lake Windermere tributaries from May 13 to Sept. 16., and collected weekly beach water quality samples from Kinsmen Beach, James Chabot and Windermere Beach from May 11 to Aug. 31.
