Protecting the lake's natural assets and values through vigilance and science.
The Sylvan Lake Management Committee (SLMC) chair Beverly Anderson of Norglenwold and SLMC vice-chair and Mayor Susan Samson of the Town of Sylvan lake championed the “Ice Fishing Hut” project that is summarized in this presentation:
Ice Fishing Hut Presentation 2012
Many interested representatives of the watershed municipalities, provincial government agencies, and law enforcement cooperated to complete this project successfully.
What will the Sylvan Lake watershed look like in the future?
Annual reports by the watershed municipalities to Municipal Affairs contain some important population, land use and financial data that can be scaled up to indicate the changes that will occur in the next few decades in the growth projections hold.
Baseline data for the reporting year 2009 are increased by the ratio of populations shown in the previous SLWSS News post.
Sooner or later a population equivalent to today’s City of Red Deer will have to be compressed within the boundary of the watershed.
The corresponding land use changes will inevitably place increased stress on the lake water quality and quantity, and on all the natural capital. Municipal budgets for watershed services will expand dramatically and provincial expenditures for health, education and infrastructure will increase several-fold.
Henry Sielmann joined SLWSS members Kim Schmitt, Graeme Strathdee and Mike Williamson at the Bayview Cafe on May 11. Henry served as a SLWSS director and managed a photography contest, redesigned the website, and started the ice hut project. He also was an active member of the Jazz Society.
Sheree Davies, proprietor of the Bayview Cafe baked an apple pie for the occasion. A similar tasty pie will be entered into the 1913 Days Pie Competition and Auction. Sheree has selected the SLWSS as her designated partner and we will share in the auction proceeds if she wins. So contribute to the campaign by dropping toonies in the Bayview Cafe jar.
Both the Town of Sylvan Lake and the County of Lacombe have published reports and maps that define the land areas proposed for future development.
The following map overlays excerpts from two municipal plans on a Google Earth image of the Sylvan Lake watershed.
Land Development Areas in the Sylvan Lake watershed
Note: Click on the link to open the pdf file in another window. You can then save the file om your own computer. Alternatively, right-click on the link and Save the Target to a folder on your computer.
The section of the Lacombe County Area Structure Plan map is extracted from this report (20 MB download).
The section of the Town of Sylvan Lake land use map is extracted from the Growth Strategy (9.5 MB download).
