Our Hotel Lake Stewards

Following the first year of volunteer work with UBC and the jellyfish study, the 6 volunteers came together for a second initiative, this time to work on a new scientific study of Hotel Lake under the oversight of BC Lakes Steward Society (BCLSS).  Commencint on June>>>> the 6 volunteer began to conduct the protocols associated with the BCLSS level 1 program which, if work proceeds as planned for the next few years, will​ result in a Lake Characterization report that 

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​​​​​​​​​​Hotel Lake Stewards are also well into their full-year schedule of collecting stations under British Columbia Lake Stewardship Society's (BCLSS) stage 1 program which will involve the collection of data from Hotel Lake such as water turbidity and water temperature data and also other meteorological data.

Shortly after commencing stage 1, Hotel Lake Stewards  learned that BCLSS would be able to provide another important lake monitoring tool called a YSI.  This instrument has both water temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) measuring capability at all levels in Hotel Lake.

To understand how important this news is, here is a quote from BCLSS: "Oxygen is essential to nearly all organisms on earth including life in lakes. Given that fish breathe oxygen dissolved in water (referred to as dissolved oxygen or DO), the sport fisheries and healthy aquatic ecosystems that many of us enjoy, are absolutely dependent on water having an adequate supply of DO. Its concentration also has a great effect on the biochemical nature of a lake; long-term changes in oxygen concentration, especially at the lake bottom, can markedly affect nutrient availability and alter the productivity of the entire lake. As such, oxygen is one of the most important resources influencing lake management and its measurement should be part of any lake sampling program."