Awarded to the Lake Windermere Ambassadors Society to collect data on the water quality and ecological health of Lake Windermere while upgrading a portion of the shoreline at Kinsmen Beach to provide high quality fish and wildlife habitat as per local shoreline management guidelines.
PROPONENT: Lake Windermere Ambassadors
DESCRIPTION: In 2013, in addition to helping the Lake Windermere Ambassadors (LWA) achieve their scientific monitoring and environmental education objectives, the Columbia Valley Local Conservation Fund supported the Ambassadors’ shoreline restoration goals at Kinsmen Beach in Invermere. The Kinsmen Beach Restoration Project aimed to prevent erosion, restore native riparian habitat for fish and wildlife, increase recreational opportunities for fishing and wildlife viewing, and provide environmental education opportunities to shoreline property owners and others who visit Lake Windermere’s busiest community beach. Methods used in conducting this project included creation of a rip-rap structure to stabilise eroding shoreline, planting native plants in a disturbed section of beach, and adding more native species to a section of restored shoreline. The shoreline restoration project became a model of ecological restoration for other lakeshore property owners (it was used as an example for a restoration project on private land on Premier Lake). An interpretive sign was installed to provide a permanent source of education about the fish and wildlife values of shorelines, as well as the restoration project.
OBJECTIVE: The primary objectives of this project were to: 1) Upgrade the shoreline from “moderate” to “high” habitat value for fish & wildlife as identified in the Windermere Lake Foreshore Fish and Wildlife Habitat Assessment and Shoreline Management Guidelines; and, 2) Serve as a pilot project that can be replicated around the lake by private landowners.
PHOTOS: LWA
