Arrow Lakes Environment Stewardship Society

The Arrow Lakes Environment Stewardship Society will hold its Annual General Meeting on Sunday, October 22nd at 2:00 PM at the Senior’s Centre in Nakusp.

Agenda:

1. Call to Order
2. Acceptance of Minutes of last AGM.
   1. Resolution 2: That the minutes of the last AGM be accepted.
3. President’s Report of Activities
   1. Resolution 3: That the report of the president be received.
4. Financial Report (attached)
   1. Resolution 4: That the financial report be received.
5. Election of Directors and Officers

If anyone is interested in joining our board please contact one of the current directors

1. The current directors are as follows:
   1. Victoria Youmans – President
   2. Simon Wallis – Vice-President, Secretary
   3. Nelson Rooks
   4. Richard H. Johnson – Treasurer
   5. Doug Lofgren

6. Adjournment

After the business meeting the new board will meet to set up autorize the new signing officers at the Credit Union and deal with other matters to ensure ongoing coordination of the business of the society.

Arrow Lakes Environment Stewardship Society

Annual General Meeting

Sunday, November 27th, 2022 at 2:00 PM at the Nakusp Senior’s Hall

The meeting is open to everyone, not just members of ALESS.

I will post the agenda on our website here prior to the meeting. There will be a short presentation of the results of the water study we conducted with the Box Mountain Watershed Alliance on the drinking water of Box Mountain.

I will also present a description of our work on regrowth after wildfires and the installation of hydrometric water flow rate measuring stations on McDonald and Caribou Creeks and our work with Living Lakes Canada.

Richard Johnson, President

 alessbc1@gmail.com

ALESS has initiated a mapping project for the Arrow Lakes area to address, over time, each of the water sheds that feed into Arrow Lakes. We will be focusing on three new water sheds this spring, Inonoaklin Creek, Eagle Creek and McDonald Creek. The first is important because of its relationship to the numerous water users and water wells in the Inonoaklin Valley. The second two are important fish spawning and habitat. We are happy to hear from the community if there are other watersheds that deserve our attention. Please contact us.

ALESS new program is to provide digital maps on our website, that can be updated in response to the needs of the community. This program will move from watershed to watershed as the focus of interest dictates, mapping the things that are most useful to the community. Currently we have maps of the watersheds above Burton, showing, among other things, land holdings and creek watersheds. These can be viewed on our website at https://arrowless.wordpress.com/resources/maps/

We have paper and digital maps of the area from Nakusp to Edgewood that were produced by Selkirk College/Columbia Basin Watershed Network 2017 mapping program. We also have 4 paper maps that cover the same area that were produced for us by FLNROD in 2018, showing forestry cut blocks. But maps, especially paper maps, become less useful over time, as landscapes change.

MacDonald and Nakusp creeks were sampled in September 2019 by trained technicians from Living Lakes Canada. The samples were send to the University of Guelph for analysis. The work was done under the STREAM program supported by the World Wildlife Fund, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and Living Lakes Canada. The full report can be downloaded by clicking here or the image below.

A brief description of some of the results can be found in Resources>>Reports section.

On Sunday, the 15th of July 2018, ALESS members started water sampling Nakusp Creek commencing at Box Lake wetlands.  Thanks to your support, we are able to continue with our mission.

ALESS, in welcome collaboration with Gerry Nellestijn and Eleanor Duishuis, of the Salmo Watershed Stream keeper’s Society, recently held a watershed planning meeting at the Senior’s Hall in Nakusp (5 December, 1 to 4pm), to present our organizations to a number of major stakeholders operating within the ALESS proposed jurisdictional area (Galena Bay south to Castelgar, incorporating the adjacent valleys with tributaries feeding into the Arrow Lakes region).

A total of 15 individuals attended the session, including representatives from 6 of the major local stakeholders, all of whom actively and positively supported our proposed activities.

Look forward to a new and invigorated ALESS, working with local groups in a non-confrontational approach, to identify and address pressing ecosystems concerns in our local area! We are all bound to Nature in a very real and immediate sense, respectful of the need for positive action in protecting and enhancing our total living environment for all life within our biosphere.

We encourage all interested parties and individuals to provide input via our website. This is crucial to ensure that everyone with an interest in their local living environment has an equal chance to present their thoughts and aspirations!

Please refer to Membership>>Special Meetings for details of the proceedings

ALESS members conducted a water sampling on September 30, 2017 at MacDonald Creek to help maintain a healthy ecosystem and act as a baseline for future reference.

A community engagement awareness day was held today the 2nd of October, 2017 at Selkirk College and Box Lake.

Activities included a meet and greet, a trip to Box Lake for some hands on Wetland inspection and education on ecosystem awareness.

ALESS shared a booth with the Columbia Basin Watershed Network at Toad Fest on Summit Lake, August 29th and 30th, 2017. Although the venue is outside of the ALESS area in which we work, we thought it a good chance to connect with people and tell our story. It was a success.

We met a lot of people and connected with other organizations like the Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program (FWCP) and the Central Kootenay Invasive Species Society (CKISS). We have worked with the FWCP before and CKISS will be working with us as we do some field trips with the Nakusp school.

We had our new watershed maps on display. Thumbnails are shown below.

The originals are 34 by 44 inches. Contact us if these are of interest to you or watch for our next public presentations to see them in full size.

We also took pictures at Toad Fest and will be posting them here shortly.