Students will step up to defend Lois Hole Park with science this spring as it becomes host to Alberta’s first Wetland Centre of Excellence.
Speaking at the city’s community living standing committee meeting Feb. 14, Tony Druett of the Big Lake Environment Support Society revealed that Ducks Unlimited Canada had picked the John E. Poole wetland at Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park as the site for its first Wetland Centre of Excellence in Alberta.
The Wetland Centre of Excellence program sees students enact conservation projects in wetland regions with the help of Ducks Unlimited, said spokesperson Jen Golletz. The group has 24 such centres in Canada sprinkled throughout every province but Alberta. Ducks Unlimited decided to base its first centre in Alberta at Big Lake because it is close to their Edmonton office and they have a lot of employees from St. Albert.
“There’s unlimited potential here,” Golletz said, especially with BLESS already active in the region as the stewards of Big Lake.
The centre of excellence would see up to nine Edmonton-area classes get out to the Poole wetland three times a year to perform hands-on environmental projects of their own design, Golletz said. Other centres have seen students collect water and soil data, plant native trees and shrubs, and build boardwalks and birdhouses.
“It really is about student-led conservation,” she said.
The program itself aims to spark a passion in students for environmental science and offers scholarships for those who wish to pursue them, Golletz said. It also has a mentorship aspect where older students learn about wetlands and lead youths on field trips to pass on their knowledge.
Bellerose teacher Clayton Wowk said his class will be the first to work with the new centre, having been contacted by Ducks Unlimited about it in late 2021.
“We’re still very much in the design and exploration phase,” Wowk said, but his students have so far come up with five possible projects which could see them perform garbage cleanup and water-quality tests in the region.
Wowk said students are working to get the necessary permits from Alberta Environment and hope to start field work this May.
In an interview, Druett said this program is a great initiative which will make more people aware of Big Lake’s environmental importance and aid in conservation efforts.
“It is a first for Alberta, and to have it in Lois Hole Park and in the city of St. Albert is a real feather in the cap.”
Druett said BLESS hopes to co-ordinate the centre’s educational efforts with those of its Summer Nature Centre and to work with it during its May 14 International Migratory Bird Day celebration.
Golletz said Ducks Unlimited hopes to create additional centres of excellence in Calgary and Grande Prairie should the one at Big Lake take off. The Big Lake centre will hold a launch event this June.
Questions on the centre should go to Golletz at [email protected].
