Update July 20, 2008

Three research boats are now on the water of Lower Beverley Lake studying its shoreline habitat, the near shore species with a particular emphasis on Species at Risk and game fish in deeper waters, in A2A’s first major on-the-ground project.  

A2A obtained funding and is managing a project on the Gananoque River System with the assistance of 13 partnering organizations. The project is officially called the Gananoque Watershed Community Stewardship Project, because its ultimate goal is to involve the entire community around the Gananoque River system of 18 lakes in stewardship activities.  Landowners are already involved in the project. Our goal is to connect them with the partnering organizations that can help them find out what stewardship programs are available to them.  The result for all the community, if A2A and its partners are successful, will be cleaner, healthier and more abundant water for better swimming and fishing in the Gananoque watershed area where, according to a study done by the health units, 80% of the groundwater is considered to be vulnerable.  

The first step is knowing the current state of the water, the shorelines and the creatures that live there--too big an undertaking for the entire system in one year. So for this year we had to decide where to start.  Because there was already a strong cottagers’ organization on Lower Beverley Lake, eager to help and keen to do a Lake Plan with the information gathered, it seemed a logical to go there first. 

So this summer students trained by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, the Cataraqui Region Conservation Association and the Centre for Sustainable Watersheds are out on Lower Beverley Lake.  They are studying shoreline health and identifying  and counting the species living near the shore.  Already 6 Grass Pickerel have been found, one of the Species at Risk!  There is also an OMNR boat identifying and counting game fish in deeper waters. Another student is doing landowner contact work going from house to house to meet the roughly 400 residents and give them shoreline information.   

Volunteers from all across the watershed are involved in this research.  Each day they go out on the boats to help, particularly with recording information.   And in early August more volunteers will be taking samples of water across the entire system during a three week blitz, which will yield around 20 different readings.  From this we will learn how water quality changes from lake to lake, and address any problem areas with more intense stewardship efforts. For further information on getting involved as a volunteer, please e-mail ganwatershed@gmail.com

A2A would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Species at Risk Fund and the Thousand Island Development Corporation’s Funding program.