Join the Friends of Kootenay Lake Stewardship Society for a lake watchers workshop on osprey nest monitoring techniques by boat and land.
This workshop will take place on Monday, May 16 at the nature centre at Kokanee Creek Provincial Park from 10 a.m. to noon and Tuesday, May 17 at the Community Corner in Crawford Bay from noon to 2 p.m.
It will involve nest monitoring techniques by boat and by land. Facilitators Janice Arndt and Elaine Moore will walk volunteers through important information needed to monitor osprey nest breeding behaviors and educate volunteers for boat tour monitoring that the society will initiate in June, July and August.
The team of facilitators have been involved in over 18 years of osprey nest monitoring from Waneta to Balfour. The project will help inform on-the ground action projects for future years. The project will increase the scope of the monitoring to include the main body of Kootenay Lake.
Volunteers will be using proven protocol established from this program and all the results will be both reported to the Kootenay Lake community and to provincial database efforts such as BC nest records, provincial species inventory database and to Project NestWatch.
Increasing our understanding of breeding ospreys is extremely important as they are considered bio indicators of aquatic health, depending almost exclusively on fish for their diet.
Currently, there is a fisheries decline occurring on Kootenay Lake and it has become increasingly important to enhance our knowledge of the breeding success of this sentinel species.
For more information, visit friendsofkootenaylake.ca/news/osprey-nest-monitoring-workshop or contact Kat McGlynn at info@friendsofkootenaylake.ca and 250-777-3542.
The mandate of Friends of Kootenay Lake Stewardship Society is to improve the health and stewardship of Kootenay Lake through monitoring, habitat restoration, capacity building and the empowerment of local communities and stakeholders. The society is an inclusive stewardship group dedicated to engaging local people to be stewards of Kootenay Lake’s water quality, fish and wildlife habitat.