A lake for the next century

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/01/2016 (3757 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

All Manitobans are familiar with the current plight of Lake Winnipeg, but would someone in 1916 have predicted the degraded lake we see in 2016? Excess nutrients, algal blooms, invasive species and expanding development, all now under the influence of climate change, plague our lake. So, as we look into the future, whether 10 or 100 years ahead, what will be the new challenges to our lake?

The science advisory council of the Lake Winnipeg Foundation recently sought to define what the public, stakeholders, scientists and government agencies can do today to be prepared for the inevitable threats of tomorrow.

Below are our recommendations to help sustain the lake for the next century and beyond. The lack of action in these areas over the past decades, despite repeated warnings, has allowed the lake and its larger watershed to deteriorate. Intelligent foresight is useless unless we have a management structure built on vision, leadership and co-operation that can lead to action now and in the future.

We can begin on a high note with the news that the recently elected federal government has made the Lake Winnipeg basin an explicit priority for both Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Department of Environment and Climate Change. This prioritization presents an opportunity for Manitobans to call for direct actions to promote the health of our lake and its watershed.

To begin, we make a number of suggestions:

 

• We need to see significantly more co-operation within Manitoba among civic, municipal, provincial, federal and First Nations agencies, as well as between Canada and the United States. Lake Winnipeg’s watershed is not the domain of any one government body. The causes of the flooding in recent years, or possibly of drought in the future, as well as a growing list of water-quality issues, are not confined within neat political jurisdictions, and our responses cannot be either. Our neighbours to both the west and the south may have a greater thirst for the water that flows into Lake Winnipeg in the future. We need to be working more closely with them to develop cross-boundary solutions now, and to avoid conflicts in the future.
• We need to liberate valuable scientific information about the lake, paid for by the public, that is gathering dust for lack of easy access. Effective mechanisms to share data among scientists and citizens, coupled with science-based, rejuvenated core-monitoring within the watershed would accelerate research and generate solutions in both the watershed and lake. As highlighted in Scott Forbes’ eloquent plea in these pages on behalf of a sustainable fishery in Manitoba, if we do not know what is happening now or understand the system in which we are living and working, we cannot know when it is imperilled. And it is the responsibility of all public agencies to collect and share their data as stewards of the public interest.
• All stakeholders must now agree on a management plan for the lake and communicate this vision to the people of Manitoba. The lack of a firm, unified vision for the lake has hindered taking action. The plan must balance lake uses for hydroelectric power generation, recreation and the commercial and recreational fisheries against habitat conservation, protection and restoration, which are in obvious conflict at times. At the very least, we need to agree to measures that will reduce activities that may harm the lake.
• Lake management must include measures to ensure long-term sustainability of the lake for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations. Stakeholders and their influence, either beneficial or detrimental for the lake, will change in the future. With growing populations, we may see a day where the lake is valued more as a recreational resource. We do a profound disservice when we allow current vested self-interests to control the debate around our obligation to the long-term sustainability of the lake.

The best way we can prepare for what awaits Lake Winnipeg in the future is to understand how it functions today, be vigilant for threats on the horizon, co-operate with all stakeholders and let science guide us and ensure a legacy of strong and transparent oversight and management. We are not alone and we can look to what others have done elsewhere to protect their great lakes.

In Ontario, this has taken the form of the Great Lakes Protection Act, passed into law in October, which aims to ensure lakes there are swimmable, fishable and drinkable. It is time for Manitobans to get our collective act together and do what needs to be done now so our lake is a place of pride a century from now.

 

Mark Hanson is an associate professor in the department of environment and geography at the University of Manitoba. Alex Salki is a retired Fisheries and Oceans Canada research biologist. This was written on behalf of the Lake Winnipeg Foundation’s science advisory council.