Lake Winnipeg and the Lake Winnipeg Foundation and the Canadian Water Resources Association

Better stewardship of Lake Winnipeg is clearly one of the most important issues of our day. For seven years under the NDP, the condition of Lake Winnipeg and the extent of the algal blooms has been worsening. We clearly need better approaches to stewardship than we have seen.

Wednesday and Thursday this week I attended sessions of the symposium entitled Managing Nutrients within the Lake Winnipeg Watershed. This symposium was organized by the Canadian Water Resources Association (http://www.cwra.org/). There were an impressive group of speakers who provided important and critical information on many facets of Lake Winnipeg.

Sadly, for the NDP government, several of the presentations represented an indictment of their policies. Clear and compelling evidence was presented that we need to focus on a strategy to reduce phosphorous going into Lake Winnipeg rather than on the NDP target to reduce both nitrogen and phosphorous going into the lake. By focusing on phosphorous, we can spend our dollars more efficiently and achieve greater effect from our efforts. We were also presented with evidence that the government's push to put buffer strips along streams, while it may be well meaning, is not very effective in reducing phosphorous going into the streams and rivers. It may achieve, at best, a 4% reduction in phosphorous. It was very clear, by the end of the symposium that much more effort is needed in research and in a better understanding of effective measures on smaller model watersheds within the Lake Winnipeg basin.

Prominent at the Symposium were Lyle Lockart and Robin Mather of the Lake Winnipeg Foundation (see http://www.lakewinnipegfoundation.org/). This Foundation has been working hard to push for much better stewardship of Lake Winnipeg than we have seen to date. Congratulations to the organizers of this important conference - the CWRA, to the Lake Winnipeg Foundation and to the researchers who have contributed to our improving knowledge of Lake Winnipeg and the sources of the phosphorous going into Lake Winnipeg.

In the photo above I am with Lyle Lockhart in front of the Lake Winnipeg Foundation poster at the conference.