| ALMS 2012 Scholarship Winner | 
Congratulations to Lauren Bortolotti, PhD candidate at the University of Alberta, the 2012 ALMS Scholarship winner.
Lauren's research: More than half of prairie wetlands in North America have been lost to human development, but there is growing interest in restoring these wetlands because of the many valuable ecosystem services they provide. In their natural state, wetlands are highly biologically productive and diverse systems that provide critical habitat for wildlife, especially waterfowl, perform essential services such as groundwater recharge, erosion control, and water quality improvement, and are important carbon sinks. This may not be the case when these ecosystems are disturbed, so it is important for management and conservation planning to understand whether and how fast wetlands, and the ecosystem services they provide, recover after restoration. This project represents one of the most comprehensive evaluations of wetland restoration to date, simultaneously assessing multi-trophic level biodiversity, ecosystem function (biogeochemical processes), and the relationship between biodiversity and function in these wetlands
About Lauren: Lauren's diverse past research experience - in fields ranging from cell biology to bird behaviour - has helped her shape a clear vision of the contributions she wants to make through her current and any future academic research. She believes strongly in the importance of science-based conservation and management decisions and thinks that, given the projected effects of climate change on the prairies, interest in preserving our watersheds will only continue to grow. She hopes to participate in finding solutions to the challenges that climate change and other anthropogenic stressors pose for the conservation of freshwater systems.
For more information please contact:
Lauren Bortolotti, PhD candidate
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta (email)
Lauren will also be presenting at the 2012 ALMS AGM at the Cold Lake Workshop on September 28.
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| AWQA goes to the Beach |
 Thousands of people have signed up for their free water quality test kit and now ALMS is sending outreach staff out to Alberta beaches to set up water testing demonstrations. We also hope to talk to people about how to protect water quality by managing what we do on land within our watersheds. We also expect we'll be able to talk about protecting our lakes and give out information on cyanobacteria blooms.
Below is the AWQA Beach Outreach Program schedule. It is our intent that these events be collaborative with participation from other groups interested in protecting and managing water quality. Watershed stewards, municipal governments or Alberta Environment's Respect our Lakes (ROL) representatives will partner at many events.
Please email Jane if you would like to get involved or meet up with us!
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DATE
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LAKE
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PARTNER
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July 7
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Baptiste Lake
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Local Steward
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July 8
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Long Lake
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July 14
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Wizard Lake
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ROL
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July 15
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Lac Ste Anne
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County, ROL
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July 20
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Garner Lake
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July 21
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Cold Lake
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July 22
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Moose Lake
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July 27
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Miquelon Lake
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ROL
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July 28
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Wabamun Lake
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ROL
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August 3
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Gull Lake
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ROL
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August 4
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Gull Lake
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August 5
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Sylvan Lake
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ROL
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August 6
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Sylvan Lake
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August 9
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Pine Lake
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August 10 - 11
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Buffalo Lake
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August 12
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Pine Lake
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August 17
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Skeleton Lake
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August 18 - 19
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Lac la Biche
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| Riparian Management Focus Group | |
 The Riparian Land Conservation and Management team (RLCM) would like your input prior to preparing their final report and recommendations to the Alberta Water Council (AWC) for effective conservation and management of riparian lands.
As background, the AWC is a multi-stakeholder partnership with members from governments, industry and non-government organizations, all with a vested interest in water. From time to time, the Council examines and advises the Government of Alberta, stakeholders and the public on specific water issues. The RLCM initiative originated from a statement of opportunity brought to the Council by the Watershed Planning and Advisory Councils sector in 2011.
RLCM was identified as a priority and the AWC struck a project team to examine the issue. The purpose of the RLCM team is to "enhance knowledge and provide recommendations for effective conservation
and management of riparian lands in support of Water for Life goals." The team activities include:
- Developing a definition for riparian lands.
- Documenting the current state of riparian lands, management, and stewardship in Alberta and the riparian management and stewardship "best practices" (policy, practices and procedures) of other jurisdictions.
- Evaluating the current state of riparian lands, management, and stewardship against the needs of all relevant sectors and propose recommendations for improving riparian land conservation and management in Alberta.
The team is now seeking sector input. Anyone interested in reading the document on the current state of riparian lands and either participating in focus groups held in Edmonton (Jul 25), Calgary (Jul 27), Athabasca, and Lethbridge or providing answers to questions via email please contact us.
Your input is requested on the questions below:
- What other approaches, strategies, initiatives or techniques should be considered for assessing health and extent of riparian lands?
- What other approaches, strategies, initiatives or techniques should be considered for conserving and managing riparian lands?
- Do you agree with the scope, depth and nature of discussion provided in the report?
- Do you support the "Considerations & Conclusions" reported?
- Do you agree with and support the provincial definition of "riparian lands" as noted in the consultant's report?
Contact us for the background information and to register for the focus groups before July 20. Responses by email are due Aug 15. Any questions can be directed to Judy Stewart.
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| Reports |
Irrigation Districts Water Quality Project 2011 Progress Report. Interesting, non technical, report detailing the water quality in southern Alberta irrigation networks. Irrigation water is not only essential for agricultural production, it provides municipal water for more than 40 municipalities plus thousands of rural residents in Alberta. The irrigation infrastructure also provides habitat for wildlife and forms reservoirs that serve as recreational lakes in southern Alberta. This report summarizes the first-year results of a five-year project (2011-2015) and includes results for nutrients, chlorophyll a, salinity, physical and biological parameters, metals, and pesticides.
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| 19th Annual ALMS Workshop | 
Cold Lake, Alberta September 27-29, 2012 Visit www.alms.ca to see updated agenda and to register. Early-bird rate ends mid-July! |
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| Experimental Lakes Area: Update | |
Bill C38 has passed and the ELA is officially up for sale.
Click here to read the Government of Canada's response to ALMS' letters of concern and a scathing reply from one of our directors.
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| Articles featuring ALMS |  |
LakeLine Article: Developing a Guide for Lake Watershed Management Plans. LakeLine is a publication of the North American Lake Management Society
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| July is Lakes Appreciation Month! | | |
Well, at least in the US...
Do you think ALMS should lead a similar initiative for Alberta?
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| Now on Twitter too! |
This is where we post news articles, interesting blogs or opinion articles, and day to information about ALMS and our program. Check it out! |
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