There’s a lot of data about water quality in Saskatchewan lakes available to researchers. Now, University of Regina student Lushani Nanayakkara, a PhD candidate in biology, is trying to find out how people use lakes. With this information, she hopes to gain insight into effective management practices of Saskatchewan’s lakes.
“We have a very good idea of the water quality and natural science information. By doing this survey, we’re hoping to get an idea about what folks are using the lakes for, what they’re concerned about if they have any concerns, and the general idea of how they should be managed and if they want to get involved themselves,” Nanayakkara said.
She’s been handing out surveys at different lakes since the beginning of the summer as well as distributing them online, and estimates that she’s gotten about 330 returned.
“By knowing what people are using these lakes for, we can prioritize things,” she said.
As an example, if one lake is used primarily for swimming while another is used primarily for fishing, the lakes would be managed differently. A lake for swimming requires good water quality, while one for fishing needs to help support fish populations.
She is primarily looking at lakes in the southern half of the province – from north of Saskatoon to the U.S. border. Most lakes are in the Swift Current, North Battleford, and Humboldt-Wakaw area.
“We have all this water quality information and natural science information,” she said. “It’s a way of gauging if people know what’s going on in the lakes and an attempt to get from academic research more into the applied side.”
She doesn’t have a hard designated end date for her research, but is hoping to gather what she needs by early October, and best-case scenario would have 1,000 surveys to work from. From that information, Lushani will come up with a management framework, and says that framework will be a “synthesis” of the two components of natural science and her research into the more recreational side.
“It’s really important to get their perspective on these systems as well because I think the more knowledgeable as a community we are, we can better adapt to things like climate variability that leads to, for example, the sewage dump (in Humboldt) that was caused by heavy rainfall,” she said.
If you need an incentive to fill out a survey on the lake you use, Nanayakkara has one: three fishing rods and reels donated by Cabela’s. If you fill out a survey and leave your contact information, you’ll be entered into a draw.
The surveys can be found here: http://www.sogosurvey.com/k/SsTWQYTsRsPsPsP.
