Little red fish flock to our creeks

If you go down to some of our local creeks, streams and rivers, you may experience an exciting event, the Salmon Run. The unique Kokanee Salmon return to their birthplace every year from September to December to complete their life cycle. The Kokanee Salmon run attracts visitors from all over, including bears and eagles. [Read more]

Lakeshore cleanup day

Sept 19, Invermere –

Pitch-in for a healthy Lake Windermere — Lake Windermere Project organizes 14th annual lakeshore cleanup.

Wildsight, a leading force for conservation in Canada’s Columbia and Southern Rocky Mountains, invites area residents to lend a helping hand with this year’s Lake Windermere Shoreline Cleanup. [Read more]

Thank you, lake ambassadors!

Lake Windermere Ambassadors deserve a big ‘Thank you’.

Participation in Ambassadors “a logical choice” – Kirby Brown

The Lake Windermere Project is getting set to enter a new era — by 2010, more local individuals and businesses will be playing a bigger role in the health of the lake.

“The Lake Windermere Project is having a great year,” said Heather Leschied, Wildsight’s LWP program manager. “We’re into our fifth and final season — but the 2010 project end date won’t spell the end of community-based water stewardship of the lake and its tributaries.” [Read more]

Putting the spotlight on outdoor lighting

Outdoor lights that are left on at night have surprising negative effects on your utility bill, your neighbors and the lake environment. Many people around the lake use lights at night to dispel their feeling of insecurity, but a lot of these lights are wasteful, intrusive and harmful. Bad lighting creates both glare and sky glow. Glare is the direct shining of a light into an observer’s eye, and sky glow is the composite illumination of the sky. [Read more]

How does lake foam form?

Area residents may sometimes notice foaming around the shoreline of Lake Windermere, which can cause concern. However, most foam observed in lakes and streams is a product of nature and not necessarily an indicator of pollution. [Read more]

Invasive weeds in and around the lake

August 10, Radium –

Wildsight is organizing a Community Weed Pull on August 10th, from 3pm – 5pm, at the Horsetheif Creek Forest Service railway crossing in Radium Hot Springs. By participating in the weed pull you will learn to identify the invasive plants in our region and help restore the native plant ecology in the Columbia Valley.

Weeds in the yard are pests to everyone, and getting rid of them is often grueling work. The lake views invasive plants no differently. In fact, the lake sees invasive weeds as a much more severe problem than we do. Without limbs the lake cannot discard pesky plants like we can, so we have to help the lake to stay free of invasive plants. With just a little effort, there are many things we can do to reduce the growth and spread of noxious weeds in and around the lake. [Read more]

Aquatic plants are not just weeds

To many people, the term aquatic plant is synonymous with “weed”, but nothing could be further from the truth. Aquatic plants are a natural and important part of the aquatic ecosystem, forming the basis of all food webs. [Read more]

Lake stewardship conference

Registration by August 7 –

Love your lake? Don’t miss this upcoming region-wide lakekeepers workshop, a “how-to” for stewards.

People who love lakes will learn how to be good stewards of them at a LakeKeepers workshop this August. Hosted by the Lake Windermere Project and the B.C. Lake Stewardship Society, the workshop will be comprehensive, enjoyable and interesting. It will take place on Saturday, August 15 and Sunday, August 16, 2009, at Lake Windermere.

“It’s for anyone who wants to form or join a lake stewardship group,” said Heather Leschied, of Wildsight’s Lake Windermere Project. “It’s a ‘how-to’ on water monitoring that will give people the tools to manage their lake’s specific needs, because each lake is different.” [Read more]

Renovate your retaining wall

In the continuing quest to maintain a neat and tidy shoreline, many waterfront owners remove important shoreline vegetation, which inevitably leads to the problem of erosion eating away at their property.

Many people then install a retaining wall.

Retaining walls have long been a fixture on many shorelines in B.C., especially Lake Windermere. The misguided belief is that the wall will solve the erosion problems, while creating more space for lawn. What many property owners don’t realize is that the construction and maintenance of a retaining wall on their shoreline wrecks havoc on the lake’s biological processes and aquatic life. Retaining walls can actually contribute to shoreline erosion and can make problems worse over time. They interfere with natural lake processes by altering currents along the shoreline, causing waves to slam against the vertical wall. [Read more]

The scratch on swimmer's itch

Swimming is one of the most popular activities on Lake Windermere. Whether you use one of the many private beaches along the lake or a public beach, swimmer’s itch can affect you. [Read more]