Thank you to our partners! Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development, the Lakeland Industry and Community Association and the Beaver River Watershed Alliance, Environment Canada, and the Pigeon Lake Watershed Association.

There are other lake monitoring programs operating in Alberta, visit our website to see the complete list of all lakes being sampled.

Spring is here, and the annual wetness will revive awareness of the impacts of motorized recreation on watersheds.

For what not to do on a quad in a lake, go to the website of the Mayatan Lake Management Association and check out their 2013 Workshop presentation from Alberta Environment and Sustainable Development on "Recreational Lake Science and Regulations". You'll find a good introduction to the law, but what stuck with me was the photo of the guy ripping through a marshy lakeshore, a backwards baseball cap instead of a helmet suggesting that "responsible use" was not his deal. An equal challenge to lake management comes through the words accompanying this photo: that the province prefers to maintain public access, that there are limits on what can be enforced, and that lakefront communities should be exerting more peer pressure on local riders.

There are definitely rules and some options for better enforcement.  There's also a slight legal grey area and passing of the hot potato.  Wet areas surrounding a permanent lake expose a gap in provincial regulations and uncertainty as to whether the municipality can fill it.  Some simple reforms would provide much clarity and there are multiple current opportunities.

The environment isn't a distinct legal category. That means everyone including the feds, the province, the municipality and the landowners can potentially have lake management roles. The two key players concerning quads on lake shores are the province and the municipalities, and I sense uncertainty about their division of responsibility...Read the complete blog from Adam Driedzic at the Environmental Law Centre.