Aquatic Vegetation and Management Study

Thank-you to everyone who has participated in this engagement to date. The information gathered from this engagement was provided to the Electoral Area Directors Committee and the Regional Board along with the management plans for Charlie Lake, Swan Lake, and One Island prepared by the consultant, Zonal Ecosystems. The Regional Board has approved the Aquatic Vegetation Harvesting project to move forward with next steps including:

• Pre-permit application consultation with local First Nations
• Engaging the Department of Fisheries and Oceans on federal permitting requirements
• Applying for a Section 11 Change Approval under the Water Sustainability Act (WSA) to harvest aquatic vegetation from Charlie Lake and Swan Lake

We will be working on these next steps over the next while and will provide updates as we make progress.

We have received all of your feedback!

There has been a large volume of submissions to the survey and interactive vegetation maps for the Aquatic Vegetation and Management Study.

The PRRD and the project consultant will use the information provided in the feedback phase to draft Environmental Management Plans (EMPs). The feedback results and the EMP’s will be presented to the Electoral Area Directors Committee on April 27, 2023.

Thank you to all the lake users who took the time to participate in the feedback phase! Stay tuned for more updates in April 2023, and be sure to watch the EADC meeting live on our Facebook page.

The online survey is now closed. We have had a tremendous response from the public to the engagement period for the Aquatic Vegetation and Management Study, and the PRRD thanks everyone who contributed. The PRRD and its consultant, Brian Paterson with Zonal Ecosystems, will now begin analyzing and compiling the data.

The interactive vegetation maps will remain open, so please feel free to visit and contribute.

Be sure to register for updates and follow the Peace River Regional District on social media for updates about this project.

The response rate from lake users for the Aquatic Vegetation and Management study has been fantastic so far! If you have not had a chance to complete the If you haven't had a chance to take the short online survey or engage in the interactive vegetation maps, you have one week until the engagement window closes on Friday, January 20 - complete the survey engage with the interactive vegetation maps.

We have heard some reoccurring questions come up during the engagement process concerning jurisdiction and shoreline clean-up that we will review here:

Why doesn’t the PRRD just clean up the lake?

Water, lakes, rivers, streams, aquatic animals, etc. within British Columbia are the jurisdiction of the Province of BC and in some instances also the Government of Canada. The Province of BC has laws that protect water resources in the province by restricting and regulating certain activities that are conducted on, near or within bodies of water. The PRRD has to follow these laws the same as any individual or other organization and is required to apply for permits to conduct any regulated activities, like removing aquatic vegetation.

What about areas around private docks and weeds on the shorelines?

At this time, the scope of the Aquatic Vegetation Management Study is to identify possible areas (if any) that could benefit from the removal of aquatic vegetation with the least environmental harm. Possible treatment areas will aim to provide the greatest benefits (recreational, safety, etc.) to the public with the least impact. Shoreline vegetation removal is not being studied within the scope of the PRRD’s Aquatic Vegetation Management Study. Any works conducted in and about a watercourse in BC requires Provincial approval. That legislation also pertains to private landowners where their properties include watercourses or border watercourses.

There are two ways that you can contribute your feedback to the Aquatic Vegetation and Management Study!

1. Complete the user survey
   There is a survey page for each lake (Charlie, Swan and One Island)
   
   
2. Complete the interactive user vegetation maps
   There is a map for each lake

The Peace River Regional District (PRRD) has received feedback from Peace region residents that Charlie Lake, Swan Lake and One Island Lake have an excess of aquatic vegetation that is detracting from recreational uses, reducing aesthetics and creating a safety issue for lake users.

The PRRD has been conducting research on how to address the concerns brought forward by residents:

• January 2021: The PRRD held a meeting with the Ministry of Land, Water, and Resource Stewardship (LWRS) Operations to discuss the aquatic plant concerns in Charlie Lake.
• March 2021: Regional Board authorized staff to build a business case to obtain a permit to remove weeds from lakes within the PRRD boundaries.
• October 2021: The PRRD authorized the issuance of a Request for Proposals for a qualified biologist to investigate and develop the necessary documentation for a permit to harvest aquatic vegetation for Charlie Lake, Swan Lake and One Island Lake and committed funding for the project.
• May 2022: The PRRD contracts Zonal Ecosystems to research and develop Environmental Management Plans (EMPs) for Charlie Lake, Swan Lake and One-island Lake.
• June-Present: Zonal Ecosystems conducts fieldwork and gathers information from lake stakeholder groups.

To move forward with investigating this potential program, an Environmental Management Plan is required for each lake. Local biologist Brian Paterson (Zonal Ecosystem and Wildlife Consultants Ltd.) is working for the PRRD to develop EMPs that will be reviewed by the LWRS as part of the permitting process. These EMPs will contain general information regarding lake ecology and biodiversity, suggest areas to focus harvesting efforts, and incorporate best practices to minimize unwanted effects to the focal lakes, such as avoiding important spawning and nesting areas and observing appropriate biological timing windows.

The EMP’s will focus on the effects of selective annual harvesting of aquatic vegetation which have been brought forward by residents as a potential solution to the issues. While temporary aquatic vegetation removal does not address the root causes of the excess vegetation and/or algal blooms, mechanical harvesting with a specialized watercraft has been used in many places for temporary, seasonal control of unwanted aquatic vegetation.

The next step in the process is to gather community input. An online survey and interactive user vegetation maps has been developed for Charlie Lake, Swan Lake and One Island Lakes to document public feedback, gauge support for potential harvesting activities in each lake and identify areas that lake users feel would benefit the most from a selective harvesting program. If you have experience with multiple lakes, feel free to complete more than one survey and vegetation map.

The PRRD will be using the information collected from the surveys to gauge support for an aquatic harvester program and to incorporate data into the lake EMPs.