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Lake Biodiversity Photo Challenge launched
This summer Living Lakes Canada is calling on all Columbia Basin residents to get involved in the Lake Biodiversity Photo Challenge.
Simply snap a photo of your favourite lake(s) and submit it to the contest for a chance to win prizes from Kicking Horse Coffee and Lush. Photo submissions will be accepted until July 31 and displayed in an online gallery and shared on social media. There will be one winner for each category: Most Biodiverse, Public Favourite and Most Impactful.
Winners will be chosen by Earth Rangers President Tovah Barocas and announced at the end of Lakes Appreciation Month in July.
“Living Lakes Canada is thrilled to announce the Lake Biodiversity Photo Challenge. We want to provide Canadians with a fun and engaging opportunity to visit their local lake and take notice of things they may not always be aware of,” said Georgia Peck, program coordinator with Living Lakes Canada. “Biodiversity is all around us, you just have to look for it!”
Canada is home to two million freshwater lakes, but not all of them are monitored regularly or even photographed, which makes it hard to tell how these lakes have changed over time. Lakes are subject to impacts such as shoreline development, changing nutrient levels, and water levels. Photos provide reference points that can help determine the scale at which human activity or natural occurrences are impacting these water bodies. These issues, combined with the impacts of climate change, make community-based water monitoring efforts like photo documentation even more important.
“The ‘Most Biodiverse’ category encourages photographers to capture a single snapshot of as much flora and fauna as possible. As for the ‘Most Impactful’ category, we want to raise awareness around the pressure felt by freshwater biodiversity,” said Peck.
Submit your photos by email to [email protected], via the online submission form at lakeblitz.livinglakescanada.ca or by using #LakeBlitzPhoto on social media.
This photo challenge is part of Living Lakes Canada’s inaugural National Lake Blitz program, a community-based lake monitoring initiative that provides Canadians with easy-to-use water monitoring tools to help them monitor climate change impacts on the health of their favourite lake.
To learn more, to get involved, and to view the online gallery of submitted photos, visit lakeblitz.livinglakescanada.ca.
Lead image: Ta Ta Lake. Jill Loutit photo
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