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Lake Ambassadors gets funding to conduct mussel study
The British Columbia Conservation Foundation (BCCF) has announced that $12,200 has been awarded to two deserving community organizations in the Columbia Valley and Christina Lake.
This funding is available through the BC Conservation Foundation’s Small Projects Fund, a granting program that is available to organizations committed to executing a small project to educate on, protect, or enhance fish and wildlife populations and habitat in British Columbia. Eligible groups include fish and wildlife clubs, community stewardship groups, First Nations and public entities.
The first project proponent is the Lake Windermere Ambassadors Society (LWAS), a registered charity that operates in the Columbia Valley. LWAS directs a community-based water monitoring and freshwater education program to monitor water quality and species, identify stressors to freshwater environments, encourage stewardship action, and determine essential restoration activities.
A total of $10,000 in funding from the BC Conservation Foundation will help fund a study entitled “Baseline Native Mussel Study for the Headwater Lakes Monitoring and Education: Lake Windermere Project” that seeks to understand why the population of freshwater mussels is declining in Lake Windermere.
The lack of mussels is especially concerning, as the lake was thought to have some of the best conditions for their survival. The study will highlight specific locations that provide critical habitat, and will use the information to inform future stewardship and restoration activities.
The project is endorsed by: the District of Invermere; the Columbia Lake Stewardship Society; and the Shuswap Band.
“We are excited to receive funding from the BC Conservation Foundation to support this important project,” stated Amy Baxter, Program Coordinator with Lake Windermere Ambassadors.
“We believe this project on Lake Windermere will go a long way to answering the question of what is happening to our native mussel population.
“By investigating the cause of the declining mussel population, we can develop solutions that will ensure that this species is preserved for future generations.
“Investing in research to understand the mussel population decline is an important step towards preserving the health of our lake.”
The second project proponent is the Christina Lake Stewardship Society (CLSS), a registered charity that has been operating in the Kootenay-Boundary since 1998. CLSS has been involved in a wide variety of projects over the past 24 years, including water quality and invasive species monitoring, youth education, and community outreach.
A total of $2,200 in funding from the BCCF will support CLSS in updating and creating new displays in their visitor’s gallery. The first display will be a measuring wall. In this display, visitors will be able to measure their height in comparison to actual-size common wildlife species that make their home in the Christina Lake Watershed, including white-tailed deer, coyotes, the American beaver, the black bear, and Rocky Mountain Elk.
The second display is a Wild Wall that will allow visitors to spin cubes suspended on five columns of vertical rods. The challenge for visitors is to match the content on the cubes in order to form the correct row of facts on a given species that lives in the Christina Lake Watershed.
Lead image: A busy Lake Windermere on a summer afternoon. e-KNOW file photos
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