The Quamichan Watershed Stewardship Society (Quamichan Stewards) was formed in the spring of 2006 to respond to the continuously declining health of Quamichan Lake. After two years of initial research and investigation it was able to move forward to prepare a Watershed Management Plan.
With nearly $50,000 from the federal EcoAction Community Funding Program, $10,000 funding from the Pacific Salmon Foundation and substantial in-kind and cash donations from the community, the Management Plan takes the whole Quamichan Watershed into consideration and provides a blueprint for restoring the lake to health. The plan was developed in partnership with all of the stakeholders, including the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the B.C. Ministries of Environment and Agriculture, the Municipality of North Cowichan, local farmers, and residents of the watershed.
In May of 2010 the Quamichan Stewards received a new grant from the federal Environment Canada EcoAction Community Funding Program to begin implementing the Management Plan.
To kick this off, the Quamichan Stewards co-hosted the BC Lake Stewardship Society's 2010 Community Forum. This was made possible with the addition of other funding from TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, Nature Trust, Pacific Salmon Foundation and Sea Spring Salmon Farm.
This event was a huge success and drew in over 400 people!
Other projects completed as part of this grant included:
The Quamichan Watershed Management Plan, final version, October 2009. 86% of Quamichan Watershed residents who completed the survey support the Vision for the Watershed and 90% agree with the Plan!
And just available in December 2009 is the Duncan Cairnsmore Air Quality Monitoring Site.
Click on the map to find the Duncan site; click on it to drill down and see the contaminant parameters; and click on the specific parameters to see the recent history graph.
If you have questions, comments, or want to volunteer, please phone or email Roger Hart, Chair of Quamichan Stewards, at 250-715-3039 or info@quamichanlake.ca or Kai Rietzel, Project Coordinator, at 250-746-0227 or kai@quamichanlake.ca
The Quamichan Watershed Stewardship Society has taken a lead role in improving water quality, wildlife habitat, and land uses within the watershed by building/restoring wetlands in an area that was previously drained. Building wetlands is one activity that contributes to all three goals by:
The brightly coloured gunk clogging parts of Elk Lake is potentially a pet-killer, the Capital Regional District confirmed Wednesday.
Water quality tests, conducted by the CRD after the aquamarine soup was reported Saturday, found it was caused by a blue-green algae bloom, said Janette Loveys, park operations services manager.
"There are several varieties of blue-green algae and they are not all toxic, but this is a form that is toxic," she said.
Any dog that drinks the water is likely to become ill and it could be fatal, Loveys said.
Sarah Simpson, Citizen News
Published: Wednesday, October 05, 2011
A high coliform count generally prevents swimmers from dipping into Quamichan Lake but there's a host of other recreational opportunities to be had there says Quamichan Stewards chair Roger Hart, including canoeing, kayaking, bird watching, and fishing.
That is, if people could actually get to the lake.
The lure of catching some fish and the shining sun brought fishers and their families out to Art Mann Park on Saturday where the Quamichan Stewards hosted their first fishing derby on Quamichan Lake.
Cowichan youngsters release 2,500 trout into Quamichan
The Citizen
Development: Water management to community garden, Crofton Hotel to Woodland Hills recognized by municipality
On November 18th the Quamichan Stewards and Queen of Angel's grade fours teamed up with the Freshwater Fisheries Society to help them stock Quamichan Lake. The lake received 1500 catchable sized Taylor Cutthroat Trout as well as 1000 catchable sized Rainbow Trout. A-channel news was there to catch the fun. Click here to watch the video. The Quamichan Stewards plan to hold a fishing derby in the spring and hopefully the fish will not have all been caught by then.