Water Quality Monitoring Program : 2021 – 2022 and beyond
Eric Luiker’s excellent overview of our 2021 water quality observation program, and plans for 2022. Eric’s presentation has some very good information about how water quality is determined. Let us know what questions or concerns you have about water quality in our watershed. Your comments and feedback will help guide our future water quality monitoring activities.
Cyanobacteria
Cyanobacteria (also called blue-green algae) in freshwater can be a health concern as it can contain cyanotoxins. The N.B. Department of Environment and Local Government has some very good cyanobacteria information; check out their excellent three minute video overview. Our video webinar “Identifying Cyanobacteria: Keeping You and Your Pets Safe” is a valuable resource presented by Dr. Meghann Bruce, field research lead for cyanobacteria research in New Brunswick since 2018. A more in-depth explanation of cyanobacteria and toxicity is in Dr. Janice Lawrence’s superb webinar video entitled “Cyanobacteria in New Brunswick: Understanding Toxicity“. Both of these latter videos have a very informative question and answer session from webinar participants.
Cyanobacteria on the water surface of the eastern shore of Grand Lake, Nov. 3, 2021, air temperature 18 deg. C 
Cyanobacteria mixed with shoreline foam on the eastern shore of Grand Lake, Nov. 5, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. air temperature 10 deg. C 
Cyanobacteria mixing in the water column on the eastern shore of Grand Lake, Nov. 5, 2020 2:00 p.m. air temperature 10 deg. C
Water Quality
An excellent summary of the 2020 water quality analysis results was presented by Eric Luiker in his webinar entitled “Understanding Lake Water Quality: First Steps for Grand Lake, New Brunswick“. With the help of the Nashwaak Watershed Association, we have prepared a 2020 field season “Water Quality Report” that summarizes the water quality in the Grand Lake area based on data from the six sites observed in 2020.
Shoreline Zone
According to the Love Your Lake website, there are six key benefits to maintaining a natural shoreline. They are:
- Maintaining Water Quality
- Moderating Temperatures
- Creating Wildlife Habitat
- Mitigating Flood Frequency and Impacts
- Reducing Erosion
- Maintaining or Increasing Property Values.
Planting native plants that help control erosion (such as the red-tip willows discussed in Shoreline Protection) can help establish a natural shoreline.
Integrated Watershed Management Plan – an overview
At our monthly meeting of April 12, 2021, Lois Corbett, Executive Director of the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, presented “Working to Protect NB Water for 50 Years: the importance of watershed protection“. Lois’s nine page overview gives a brief history of water quality protection in New Brunswick, and shows how an integrated Watershed Management Plan (IWMP) can help. Lois also gives pointers to three IWMPs that can serve as a model for other watersheds.
