Lake inventories getting underway for FIMP project

Earlier this year, Living Lakes Canada entered a four-year Contribution Agreement with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and their Canada Nature Fund for Aquatic Species at Risk Program for a new Foreshore Integrated Management Planning (FIMP) project.

The overarching goal of this new Living Lakes Canada Project is to improve the quality and quantity of information about lake foreshore habitat integrity and species at risk in the Upper Columbia Basin. The project will review and revise the FIMP methodology and map (or re-map) 6-8 lakes in the Columbia Basin over the next four years to assess the rate of change in ecological and urban development parameters.

Living Lakes Canada recently awarded the lake inventory work for Year 1 to 3 different consultants: Ecoscape, Wood, and Masse. Big thanks to the (volunteer) proposal selection committee members from Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations & Rural Development (FLNRORD), DFO and Regional District of Central Kootenay, who helped the Living Lakes Canada FIMP team finalize the list.

Some other developments have been completed or are currently underway:

• Additional technical review by Ktunaxa Nation Council on the Methods Report is pending.
• The LLC FIMP team participated in a presentation (based on foreshore development guidelines reports) to FLNRORD.
• A LLC FIMP team member completed some field reconnaissance to select lakes to assist with lake prioritization.
• A questionnaire regarding “Lake Development Pressure” was circulated to FLNRORD staff to help assist with prioritization of which lakes to survey in the coming years. Results are pending (and thanks to Andrea Evans from FLNRORD in Nelson for handling the internal distribution).
• The LLC FIMP has team submitted its first final report to DFO.

We’ve also made updates to the FIMP project page, including a List of Candidate Lakes.

And on May 7, 2020, acting Foreshore Integrated Management Planning (FIMP) program manager Ryan Cloutier with Living Lakes Canada provided an overview of the program in a webinar hosted by the Kootenay Lake Partnership for Provincial Government Staff who review applications related to lakeshore development. The clip below is the FIMP presentation. To view the full webinar, go to: https://youtu.be/W_B9-5ze3Kc

For more information about this project, or if you have any questions, please contact FIMP Program Manager Ryan Cloutier at ryan@livinglakescanada.ca.