Killarney Lake Science Workshop

The Watershed System Research Program hosted a workshop on Friday March 16, 2012 at University of Manitoba to discuss the water quality problems in Killarney Lake, Manitoba.

Co-chairs, Selena Randall and Diane Orihel kept the invited attendees on their toes through a series of presentations and a period of discussion. Speakers included:

Jay Struth and Rick Korman of the Killarney Lake Action Committee, who gave us background to the problems in the lake and actions that have been tried already.
Diane Orihel of Univeristy of Alberta gave us background to the water quality and limnological features of the lake
David Lobb of University of Manitoba gave us an explanation of the external inputs of nutrients to the lake and put it in the context of the wider watershed.
Diane Orihel explained the internal nutrient cycling processes.
Gordon Goldsborough of University of Manitoba outlined some paleolimnological studies on the sediments of the lake done in the 1990's.
Elaine Paige of Manitoba Conservation and Water Stewardship went through the provinical monitoring that was done on the lane in 2010
Dave Callaghan of Freshwater Institute went through some phosphorus release studies done in Killarney Lake.

After much needed resfreshments, the group got down to discussing knowledge gaps, research needs and the potential for future work and collaborations facilitated by Selena Randall. The major challenge was to get some willing volunteers to take some work forward - few wanted to commit, but most of the researchers present agreed they were interested and would like to participate in future work.

I can see the Watershed System Research Program continuing to be involved in this story - watch this space...

Dr Jon Gerrard, Manitoba Liberal Party Leader and MLA for River Heights then closed the meeting. Jon has supported the Killarney Lake Action Committee for many years and we were very pleased he was able to join our workshop.