AGM 2017 Board
Report LAKE UTOPIA PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION
AGM 2017 Board
Good evening everyone and welcome to the 6th annual general meeting of the Lake Utopia Preservation Association, affectionately known as LUPA.
Just as a reminder, LUPA’s mission statement reads:
The Lake Utopia Preservation Association is a registered non profit organization dedicated to improving and maintaining the pristine quality of Lake Utopia. To protect and preserve the area’s environmental quality.
In an attempt to fulfill our obligation to our mission statement and ultimately to our members, the Board has met on 7 occasions since our last AGM and we have been in constant contact via E mail and phone.
We continue to be consulted by other stakeholders when studies and researches are being launched ,which effect the well being of Lake Utopia and or the fish and wildlife that depend on Lake depth and quality to survive.
Our intervention through Renee Morais, the environmental Coordinator at JDI, has been successful in changing the allowable Lake depth from Aug 01 to March 14 to 55feet on the Fish Management Plan. This depth has many positive results. It is the buffer level we need when heavy rains or run off from the water shed cause the Lake to rise, and it is the level that best suits loon nest building and dwarf smelt survival.
We have recently been contacted for input into a draft action plan for the endangered Lake Utopia Dwarf Rainbow Smelt. The study is the undertaking of Fisheries and Ocean’s Canada, Species at Risk Division.
We have review the plan and responded with comments on several sections of the plan and also noted our concern that invasive pickerel in the Lake are having a detrimental effect on the smelt population as well as many other species of fish that once thrived in the Lake.
We have indicated that we a willing to cooperate with all groups involved in the development of the Recovery Plan.
The proposed version of the plan will be published on the Species at Risk Public Registry.
Two Board members, Ken Hanselpacker and Harry Moses have represented us at
meetings of the N.B. Alliance of Lakes Associations and in January of this year we expressed our support to the Research Council of Canada, Natural Science and Engineering for their proposed research on impacts, past and present, that contribute to the build up of blue green algae in Lake ecosystems.
Board member Larry Parks and Association member Stillman Wilcox supplied boat transportation and accompanied scientists who placed sensors at multiple locations and various depths in the Lake to accumulate data on the presence of Algae and other Lake sediment content.
Three Board members Tom Trynor, Ken Hanselpacker and Shirlee Coleman as well as LUPA member Gerry Parks spent a very misty rainy Saturday volunteering at the Pickerel Fishing Tournament sponsored by Eastern Charlotte Waterways.
The pickerel from all the entrants were measured for length, mouth gape and weight and labeled prior to the prize money distribution. All of the fish were bagged and transported by the scientists present to have their stomach contents assessed. This invasive fish is having a grave effect on our Lake and this research will hopefully lead to further review, and some form of control of the Pickerel population.
The protocols that have been adopted by JDI to prevent, as far as is possible, flooding following severe rain events are working up to a point. Water levels at Elmcroft trigger dam operators to open gates at certain Lake levels. The one protocol that we are still working to change , is the closure of gates too soon before the Lake returns to a good buffer level of 55 – 56 feet. The gates close at 59 feet and the Lake level drop slows significantly. Should we have a second storm, the buffer isn’t there to lessen flooding. We will continue to request a change to this particular portion of the protocol.
Again thank you for coming and supporting the work of your Board members.