SHARRON WOLOSHYN

250-593-0041

The water at Lac des Roches is at its lowest level in years due to the lack of precipitation this fall. The channel between the big and little lake is passable, but only when using a shallow drive option on outboard motors.

Since this area of calm water is the first to freeze, the anticipated cold weather in November will soon cut off this transportation link. It will reopen once again for the winter when the ice is thick enough for travel.

Low water levels also mean there is plenty of newly exposed shoreline and the absence of unfrozen water in the shallow bays. This will force the muskrats, otters and beavers to look for new homes this winter.

Unfortunately, the pair of muskrats that chose our floating dock as their alternate winter nesting site are out of luck. We have to repair the damage caused by these furry and ambitious little shore mates!

Public information

Another development near the lake is being considered, but this one, despite its location

on the headwaters of

Lac des Roches, will have significantly less impact on the area than that of the government’s proposal we first heard about in 2004.

The Crown’s plan, which initially proposed 500 homes, two resorts and a golf course on the southeast shores of the lake had residents and visitors of the area extremely concerned about the environmental impact on this pristine area.

That project was officially “set aside” in November 2007.

The latest development proposal for the area, northwest of Lac des Roches, has landowners considering a 43-lot subdivision around Muddy Lake.

Helga and Manfred Zeiner have invited the public and Lac des Roches residents in particular, to learn about there development ideas on Nov. 14 at the Interlakes Community Hall.

Maureen Pinkney,

Area L representative for the Cariboo Regional District (CRD) indicated that the CRD is committed to better informing residents of significant development proposals than has been exercised in the past and residents applaud both the developers and the CRD for hosting this information meeting.

Very good water

The last of the official water testing was conducted on Oct. 30 by the Minister of Environment.

Despite the cold weather and breaking waves that filled their boat with water by the end of the test, Gord and Wendy Marshall managed to assist Marg Sidney of Kamloops in completing a full water analysis of the big lake.

Wendy reported that, as she has found with her bird activities, waterproof paper and pen are must haves for outdoor recordings and they couldn’t have recorded the results without them on that day.

The results were as expected, indicating that the water quality is “very good.” Now, we all have to do our part to keep it that way. This testing completes the 3-year program of in-depth analysis by the Ministry.

Sidney will return to Lac des Roches in five to six years unless the annual monitoring done by the resident lake stewards indicate significant changes in water quality which could warrant an earlier visit.