| | About three years ago, the County of Grande Prairie decided to take an active role in improving water quality within the municipality. Bonnie Clease, Conservation Coordinator with the County initiated an awareness campaign to convince stakeholders and partners to get involved in making a difference, forming the West County Watershed Group. The Group includes the Town of Beaverlodge, the Village of Hythe and the County of Grande Prairie, with stakeholders ranging from agriculture producers, acreage owners, recreational groups and municipal representatives. The Beaverlodge River is the main water supply for the Town of Beaverlodge.
“We started by publishing some newspaper articles to raise awareness, and meetings with individuals,” explains Clease. “This year, I had 48 people agree to allow me to conduct local health assessments on their land.” One of the most successful projects so far has been an individual stakeholder who wanted to relocate his winter-feeding and handling facilities from the banks of the Red Willow River. “We got some funding and technical support from various agencies and support groups, but more importantly several neighbors volunteered their time to help relocate the facilities,” says Clease. “The hard work and efforts of the landowner, together with the support of others, has really helped raise awareness in the community.”
Other activities in the watershed include changes by the Town of Beaverlodge to upgrade their ponds and to alter release dates on their ponds. The local golf course, who had removed most riparian buffers, is replanting trees and trying to reestablish buffers through support of the Watershed Group and Partners. “I’ve worked with the local Boys and Girls Camp, who host about 3500 kids every summer,” says Clease. They have put in a small bridge for quads so they don’t go through the river anymore. “Since they don’t have shower facilities, I worked with the leaders to provide kids with biodegradable and environmentally friendly shampoos and soaps.” Now the camp list requires kids to bring their own environmentally friendly supplies to camp.
“We’re currently holding a poster contest focusing on water quality with the elementary school kids,” says Clease. She has also done presentations to various schools, and organized bringing the play “We All Live In A Watershed” to the various communities, which included take home materials on watersheds. “This was very well received, the feedback from teachers was incredible and they said the kids were singing the songs for weeks.”
Clease is planning an upcoming information evening that will include presenters from Alberta Environment, PFRA, Fish and Wildlife and others. “As a watershed group, we’ve started some benchmark water sampling for our own information,” she says. Fish and Wildlife is looking at setting up a water monitoring program for the area. Clease also plans to continue focusing on individual local health assessments and building awareness over the next year.
“I think it will take five years to really make a difference, there are still challenges and some apprehension,” says Clease. “It’s about creating trust first and helping stakeholders realize we are really a helping hand with no attachments.”
For more information, contact:
Bonnie Clease at email: bclease@countygp.ab.ca |
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