A local environmental group received a major grant to do the first-ever plant survey of Big Lake.
Members of the Big Lake Environment Support Society (BLESS) told the Gazette last week that the group had received a $20,000 grant from the Edmonton Community Foundation. The cash will pay for the first-ever botanical survey of Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park.
There’s a lot of development going on around Big Lake, said Miles Constable, a member of BLESS and one of the applicants for the grant, and this study was meant to determine the baseline for plant life in the region before that development goes ahead. “This should probably have been done 10 to 15 years ago,” he said, adding that the group has been discussing it for some time.
The survey will have researchers cataloguing every plant species in Lois Hole Park, Constable said, with a particular eye for endangered, threatened, unusual or invasive species. This information would let researchers track the effect of future development around the park on its plant life.
The Edmonton Community Foundation gives out about $1 million in grants to community groups each year, said Craig Stumpf-Allen, the group’s director of special funds, and had approached BLESS about applying for one after hearing of its work.
“The board felt that that was a very important project,” Stumpf-Allen said of the BLESS study. “Without that baseline information, you can’t recognize future changes, and you can’t take appropriate mitigation strategies to prevent damage to sensitive areas.” BLESS also had a proven track record with these studies, having previously done water quality and breeding bird surveys in the region.
Any chance to get baseline information on a natural area in the Sturgeon watershed will help St. Albert, said city environmental manager Leah Jackson. While there have been some studies of plants around Big Lake, such as one done as part of the provincial Special Places 2000 program, this would likely be one of the few, if not the first, to cover all of Lois Hole Park.
The study has the strong support of the provincial parks department, Constable said, and will likely involve researchers from the Sturgeon River Research Project at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
BLESS hoped to start the study this spring with the help of a researcher, Constable said, with a final report ready by next winter.
Questions should go to BLESS president Pat Collins at 780-459-9745.
