Calling all role models - YOU!
Botanist, Horticulturalist and Author June Flanagan's Guest Blog
Watching the Oldman River watershed come alive with wildflowers is one of my favourite pastimes. Despite our chilly spring this year, the coulees are already dotted with yellow bells and pale purple prairie crocuses, along with petite prairie townsendia daisies and patches of tiny white moss phlox flowers. These four early-blooming native plants launch a parade of beautiful wildflowers that will continue until the first fall frost.
Today is the last day to renew your OWC Membership
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Oldman Watershed Council | 100, 5401 - 1st Avenue South | Lethbridge | Alberta | T1K 4V6 | Canada
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Anglers, ATVs, and baby fish ...
Photo courtesy Andy Hurly, Director, OWC |
Funny-lookin' thing!
Enjoy!
Andy Hurly
(Editor's note:
You will probably recognize its lovely call when you hear it in some of the videos below.
Here's an interesting science project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCs0lhF5Gmk
And here is a ton of curlew videos - some great quality, others are DIYs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNAuLaqxQ8Q&list=PLrtVlWWdpvqImwR0AUOBuklST07fVFUR2 )
OWC April 2014 E-Newsletter
2014 OWC Membership Renewal Deadline - April 30
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Oldman Watershed Council | 100, 5401 - 1st Avenue South | Lethbridge | Alberta | T1K 4V6 | Canada
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OWC AGM Date Correction
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OWC March 2014 E-Newsletter
Will we have to boil water AGAIN?
From OWC's Executive Director, Shannon Frank:
Recently in Lethbridge, the main problem was sediment overload, basically mud clogging filters at the water treatment plant. But where did all this mud come from?
Recreational use and forest harvesting in our mountain headwaters certainly contribute sediment, as does agriculture, oil and gas and urban communities that change the landscape. Every decision has a trade-off and many of the decisions we make create sediment and allow it to run off into our streams.
In the past, healthy wetlands and riparian zones (green zones along the water’s edge) had an important job - capture and filter run-off before it reached a creek or river. But we’ve removed wetlands and degraded riparian zones to the point where they can no longer do their job. So we try to replace that job with water treatment plants and that comes at an ever-increasing cost.
OWC and many other groups are working to change that. We are all contributing to the problem and can also all be part of the solution. That is what the OWC is all about – working together to find practical solutions to big challenges like water quality.
So will we have to boil water AGAIN? Most certainly.
We can't expect to continue to do what we're doing - and even expand land uses - and maintain water quality. There will be consequences.
All best wishes,
Shannon Frank
Introducing OWC Blogger Barbara Amos
I am an artist and after many years of working a studio in the urban centre, I felt a need to reconnect to the land. The insistence of the urban grid was beginning to feel overwhelming. I spent a month in the Crowsnest Pass. When I was there, I felt as if something invisible but powerful was having a soothing effect on me. I began to understand the power of place. While this was a long way from where I grew up, and in many ways a foreign land to me, the sense of being in the right place was quite profound. Six months later, I had found a way to move my studio to the edge of the Pass. I look out onto a horizon that can both humble and awe the spirit.
As I studied the traditions of Canadian landscape painting, I began to ask: How does an artist today create a voice for the land for the watershed, for all that it supports? Perhaps there are other artists who would like to consider this as an opening for a conversation?
I share an image of an oil painting of part of our watershed: "Fields and Sky"... and look forward to this new conversation.
Barbara Amos
Introducing OWC Guest Blogger Stephanie Vehnon
After Lakeland College, I decided to continue on and obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree, majoring in Environmental Science, at the University of Lethbridge in 2013. When I moved to Lethbridge in 2011, I discovered the Oldman Watershed Council and wanted to get involved. I contributed as much as I could, while a full time student at the University of Lethbridge. In May 2013, I obtained a summer student position as the Environmental Program Assistant at the City of Lethbridge. This was a great experience that lasted until December 2013. Here I learned the value of storm drain pollution and the effects that pollution has on our Oldman River. In February 2014, I obtained a full time position with the City of Lethbridge as the Environmental Program Assistant, and continue to be a part of the Oldman Watershed Council.
Water management is a vital part of the future of our planet and all life forms. I take a keen interest in ways we can monitor and manage this necessary resource. I take a strong interest in the Oldman Watershed Council, how far it has come, and the future directions and goals of this non-profit organization. I learn more and more each time I connect with this group. A main reason I became a part of the OWC’s Communications and Outreach Team is to allow the message to be spread to the community and establish a connection with people, so they understand how valuable our watershed is. Many people do not realize that we are just a small portion of a larger picture – it fascinates me to spread this message to others and engage them in water education. Water connects us all, from the mountains in the West Coast, to the Hudson Bay in Ontario, and beyond! Watersheds are where we live, and they all flow into one another. Water quantity and quality is what we strive to maintain in order to secure the future of our water supply. Groups such as the Oldman Watershed Council help us monitor, manage and maintain water quality and quantity within our watersheds. From mind to body, to the physical and chemical atmosphere, water education and awareness allows communities to be aware and help to preserve the future of our water! One thing I have realized recently is if we just sit back, take a deep breath, and enjoy the natural environment for even just 10 minutes a day, it is amazing how relaxed, and connected with nature, we can be! I am pleased to be a part of the Oldman Watershed Council and look forward to being a part of many projects and future goals!
Check out Oldman Watershed Council (OWC)
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