BONNYVILLE – Local groups are hoping ripples will become waves during the Keep Our Lake Blue campaign.
For the third year in a row, LICA-Environmental Stewards and the Moose Lake Watershed Society (MLWS) are encouraging residents who live around Moose Lake to commit to one of 52 actions to improve water quality. The two groups each play a role in the planning and implementing processes of the campaign.
“Everybody has a small part to play, and collectively, it creates a larger action on the lake,” explained Kellie Nichiporik, chair of the MLWS. “It helps reduce the prevalence of blue-green algae. We want to keep our lake blue and not blue-green.”
A kick-off event was held at Vezeau Beach on July 29, where residents could sign up to be part of the Keep Our Lake Blue campaign and decide which of the actions they wanted to take.
In the summer of 2019, LICA-Environmental Stewards developed the Keep Our Lake Blue campaign to promote healthy aquatic systems in the Beaver River watershed. The goal is simple: is to improve Moose Lake’s water quality.
And actions don't have to be complicated.
"It can be as simple as making sure that any of your shampoos and detergents are phosphate-free,” Nichipork noted, when asked how easy it was to complete an action. “Some of it can be a little more elaborate, like changing (where) the water coming off your property is going. You can create a little buffer or make sure that we have good plantings... There’s a lot of different actions people can take and some of them are easy or something people are already doing and others that could make a significant impact.”
During the first year of the program, there was a resident who was redoing their driveway and realized they could do one of the harder actions during the project. Instead of making the entire area concrete or asphalt, they introduced other items that reduced runoff from their property.
“They made it permeable versus a completely non-permeable surface,” Nichiporick recalled. “That’s a huge impact and a huge action for somebody to take.”
Others actions people can do include planting more trees and shrubs along property edges, watering your lawn or garden in the early morning or evening to minimize evaporation, adjusting sprinklers to only water the lawn, installing a rain barrel to collect runoff from your roof to use for watering your garden, fix any leaking faucets or pipes, use a broom instead of a hose to clean driveways or sidewalks and make sure your car isn’t leaking oil or other fluids onto your driveway.
Mary and Georges Binette have been participating in the Keep Our Lake Blue Campaign for three years. They were also part of the Water for Life Committee and the Pelican Narrows Shoreline Committee.
There are a number of actions they’ve been doing around their property for years to ensure their impact on Moose Lake is minimal.
“We worked on our septic system, not fertilizing or harming the shoreline, and that kind of stuff,” Georges noted. “Our front area is completely natural and, in the back, we have a lawn but we don’t really fertilize. We have an acre behind us that’s bush, we have a little bit of grass there but it’s all natural.”
Mary encouraged people to sign up for the Keep Our Lake Blue campaign to help “with creating awareness of the different ways that you can actually try and keep the water environment as clean as possible.”
“A lot of people are putting in paved areas and they’re just cutting down all the natural growth in the water. A lot of people just aren’t aware of what they could be doing. A lot of people want the information and appreciate it,” she continued.
According to Kristina Martel, executive director with LICA, the organization is interested in expanding the campaign’s reach by creating new partnerships with other local groups, who have an interest in the environment and water quality, to assist in launching the Keep Our Lake Blue campaign in their area.
*This story was updated on Aug. 12 to reflect comments and information received from LICA-Environmental Stewards.
