LILSA WINS 2020

McIntosh Bulrush Award!

 

Accepting the award on behalf of the group is member

Bernie Poulin, Mayor of the SV of Silver Sands​

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Every year the Association of Summer Villages of Alberta, at our annual Fall Conference, presents the McIntosh Bulrush Award to an Individual or Organization that exemplifies lake stewardship activities. Use of personal time to improve: The environment of any Alberta Lake. Any lake shore.

The LILSA is a non-profit society run entirely by volunteers.  Their mission is to improve the quality of the water by educating residents Lac Ste Anne and Lake Isle on best practices and to encourage all municipalities within the watershed to adopt goals to achieve this mission.  They have an 8 member board made up of 6 elected and one appointed by the Lac Ste Anne County and one by the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation.

For several years there has been increasing concern among the lake users that the water quality of Lac Ste Anne and Lake Isle may be deteriorating.  Complaints were made about increased blooms of Blue-green algae, weed grwoth and murky waters.  The shoreline of Lake Isle is also being taken over by Flowering Rush which is a prohibited invasive weed.

During July/August 2019, in collaboration with the Alexis Nakota Sious Nation, a very aggressive flowering rush digging program was completed on Lake Isle.  Lake Isle and the west end of Lac Ste Anne was also surveyed.  In 2020 their accomplishments included the removal of 51 truck loads of floating islands of Flowering Rush from the west end of Lake Isle.  Mapping of the west basin of Lac Ste Anne and extreme east end was completed. Other 2020 planned projects were postponed due to the pandemic.