Welcome to Lake Windermere Ambassadors

    Sunday, September 23rd marks BC Rivers Day, a day to highlight the many values of rivers and increase public awareness and stewardship of rivers around the province. Here in the Columbia Valley, we are incredibly lucky to host the source of the Columbia River and to have good water quality that allows us to […]

After a hazy August caused by hundreds of wildfires burning across the province, the smoky skies have us wondering what impacts it might have on our waterways here in the Columbia Valley. The combined impacts of wildfires can have negative consequences for water quality in a watershed. Not only does the burning of vegetation and charring of […]

Letter to the Editor: The heat of last summer left us all feeling a little thirsty, including Lake Windermere. Just last year, lake levels dropped at the highest rate since the Lake Windermere Ambassadors began monitoring the watershed in 2010. Monthly averages show that 2017 had the most dramatic rate of lake level decline between […]

By: Rachel Kanan, 2018 Watershed Stewardship Assistant   If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? No one knows. However, if someone is playing “Shots” by LMFAO through their speedboat speakers near Kinsmen Beach on a busy Saturday, there will be a small […]

History After a disastrous flood of the Columbia River demolished much of the area of Trail, B.C., to Vanport, Oregon in 1948, interest in flood control grew across the West Coast. A Federal response came in 1964, in the form of Prime Minister Diefenbaker and President Eisenhower’s arrangement of the Columbia River Treaty. It served […]

Our first excursion to sample the lake water this year was April 24th.  It was a blustery day, with very low water levels.  Too low to launch the motorboat, we embarked in a flatwater kayak to face the waves and collect Phosphorous samples! The lab results came back showing very low Total and Dissolved Phosphorous concentrations, […]

Saturday, April 14th at 1:00 pm we will host a learning workshop in Invermere, BC.  If you’ve ever wondered about nutrients in Lake Windermere, and whether they might be a good thing or a bad thing, come on out for this free talk and hands-on afternoon session. We will get to practice water sampling and […]

All about Ice: Part III Why do cracks form in the ice?   Have you ever noticed the long cracks that form in the ice on Lake Windermere? Some of them are short and thin, others are very long and can sometimes be up to an inch wide. Why do these cracks form, and are […]

All about Ice: Part II How does ice grow? We are often told to wait until the ice is thick enough before venturing out onto a frozen lake. But how can we know for sure when the ice is thick enough? And how long does it take for the ice to grow that way? In […]

All about Ice: Part I Why does lake ice form on the surface? Have you ever wondered why ice forms on the surface of Lake Windermere in the winter, and not at the bottom of the lake? We all know that hot air rises and cold air sinks. So why is ice and water any […]