Kennisis Lake Community Environmental Monitoring Program

Kennisis Lake Community Environmental Monitoring Program

Breton-Honeyman, Kaitlin

Kennisis Lake Planning Committee
Host contact: Douglas, Cameron

Sager, Eric
Department: Environmental and Resource Science/Studies

TP-573

2006

U-Links Office and online

Kennisis Lake

Community lake monitoring programs

This report outlines potential, existing community-monitoring programs and includes suggested next steps fo the Kennisis Lake Cottage Owners' Association.

The aim of the Kennisis Lake Community Based Environmental Monitoring Program is to collect key data in order to monitor change in, on, and around the lake. The monitoring of change is essential to identifying threats to the lake and to track positive progress of initiatives created by the Plan. It should also help to identify areas that require further research. This project not only has monitoring goals but also has important educational and community building aspects. A major goal of the project is to get community members out interacting with each other and their environment. This is critical in order for 2 cottagers to make connections between human activities and the consequences to the lake ecosystem. The ability of young children to connect with nature early on significantly influences their attachment to the environment later on in life. The vision of this project is that it will foster ongoing environmental responsibility. The overall Community Monitoring Program needs to be meaningful and to function in cottagers’ minds. Therefore, this project should continue to evolve to fit the changing needs of the Lake and its community. This program should also facilitate community spirit and will hopefully reach out to some who have yet to directly engage directly in shared lake stewardship. This program could serve as a wonderful example of the power of citizen science. The result will be a greater understanding and feeling of responsibility for Kennisis Lake and the information collected from these programs should also shape future research and policy decisions on Kennisis Lake.

Trent University