Index: Editorial Reflections The Fiddlehead Association of Big Harbour Island on the Bras d'Or Gathering Info On The Bras d'Or Renew Your Membership

RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP FOR 1998 It is easy to forget to renew your annual membership. If you have not done so, please do so. Your contribution provides the money required to carry out the objects of the society, provide Newsletters and work for responsible stewardship of the Bras d'Or Lakes and its watershed. Please Mention the society to family and friends who are interested in our worthy cause.

The Blue Heron, the newsletter of the Bras d'Or Stewardship Society will be published periodically to keep members informed of important issues and concerns regarding projects, responsible stewardship, and important events. The Blue Heron would like input from its readers. Please submit to: The Bras d'Or Stewardship Society P.O. Box 158, Baddeck Nova Scotia, Canada B0E 1B0

In an effort to stimulate more interest in preserving the integrity of the Bras d'Or Lake, the Bras d'Or Stewardship Society (BOSS) applied to Dalhousie University's Environmental Studies Graduate Program for some students to do a water quality study of the Lake.

Five students with varying backgrounds were selected to carry out the research. Heidi Schaefer (biology), Nellie Roest (biology), David Bjarnason (anthropology), Melissa Marschke (environmental studies and development), and Sharon Ho (economics) spent eleven days, from May 4th to May 14th travelling around the Lake and into the watersheds talking to landowners, aquaculturalists, politicians, civil servants, and interested groups to get an understanding of what the impacts are and have been on the Lake.

They have gathered documents already existing on the Lake. They have discovered there are 22 different agencies which have some control over the Lake. Ms. Marschke said "we have been here for not quite two weeks and we cannot even pretend that we could possibly make a dent in how people perceive and treat the Lake".

Mr. Bjarnason said, "It will be an educational process which will eventually change peoples attitudes on how they treat the Lake".

The students recognized the difficulty in enforcing environmental activities and saw the need for a lead agency to take control over the lake. They also saw very clearly that with government cut-backs and lack of personnel, the challenge of providing sustained enforcement of the existing regulations is daunting.The students quickly learned that there is desperate need for baseline studies and more hard data to be gathered.

"With the number of shellfish closures around the lake, there should be more follow up studies done to see if the water quality is deteriorating or improving. Once an area is closed to shellfish harvesting, there is no further testing," Ms. Marschke said.

But even in the short time they have been here, the students feel that their presence may make some little difference. The example they gave is during a tour of the sewer treatment facility in Beddeck. They were shown an aerobic digester which can take the sludge from the settling pond and turn it into compost. The unit had never been used. Another observation they made was the few number of pump out stations for boats around the Lake. They realize it does not make it very easy for boaters to use pump out stations.

"As well as being a learning process for us," Mr. Bjarnason said, "we hope to create a bibliography of existing information on the Lake, and prepare a report for their Professor, Ray Coté. Both the report and the bibliography will be available to the public upon its completion.

Reprint from the Victoria Standard