Preserving Lardeau
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Updated: October 28, 2009 7:52 PM
For people like Grant Tower living north of Kaslo near the Lardeau River, it’s easy to see why watershed planning is necessary.
The Lardeau River is the only remaining major free-flowing river entering Kootenay Lake. It supports a wealth of fish and wildlife. But it’s constantly threatened by the impact of logging roads, erosion, forestry, mining, human settlements, forest fires, washouts, over fishing, highways, dams, independent power projects and transmission lines.
That’s why Tower is co-ordinating the Friends of Lardeau River Society and looking for more members and supporters in Nelson.
“Kootenay Lake wouldn’t be what it is without the rivers feeding it,” said Tower. “If we want to protect biodiversity in one place, we have to look at the whole system.”
To help people in Nelson understand the beauty and complexity of the Lardeau River, Tower is facilitating a town hall-style meeting at the Prestige on Nov. 5 at 7 p.m.
He’ll be accompanied by wildlife photographer Jim Lawrance who has been doing an inventory of species in the area and photographing them. He’s compiled more than 100 photos into a slide show.
After the pictures, Tower will show a short spawning video featuring kokanee salmon, gerrard rainbow trout and bull trout. Then he’ll open up the floor to questions.
“A lot of people may have never seen the Lardeau. We want to introduce them to this beautiful ecosystem and hopefully they’ll want to help us protect it,” said Tower.
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