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Watershed News and Views Spring 2020
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SEAWA Annual General Meeting Postponed
Due to COVID-19 the Annual General Meeting scheduled for June 2020 has been postponed until further notice.
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Other Event Cancellations due to COVID-19
SEAWA participates in a number of annual community spring events. We are disappointed that the following events had to be cancelled, but look forward to participating in 2021!
*Kiwanis Science Fair
*World Water Day celebration - Medicine Hat Public Library
*Seedy Saturday
*Spring clean-up on Earth Day organized by Parks and Recreation, City of Medicine Hat
SEAWA’s ongoing Water Art Show at the Arcade Plaza had to be closed; however, necessity is the mother of invention. Displays were rearranged so that people would be able to look at the displays and read them through the windows.
Until further notice on social distancing we are connecting with our watershed stakeholders using virtual tools - social media (facebook and twitter), website postings, teleconference, email (executive@seawa.ca) and phone (403-580-8980).
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What a Changing Climate Means for Rivers
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According to the United Nations, water is the primary medium through which people everywhere will feel the effects of climate change. Close to home, climate change threatens to fundamentally alter how much, and when, water flows in Alberta rivers. Since climate change can influence both the quantity and quality of water resources, understanding relevant changes and trends is increasingly important for communities and resource managers.
Read the full article on our website.
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SEAWA is looking for volunteers to help with riparian restoration plant care for the summer. Starting May 4, we will need help with watering, weeding, mulch application, and repair/re-installation of plant cages. Please reach out to us by email: executive@seawa.ca or phone: 403-580-8980, and follow our page on facebook.
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Meike is SEAWA’s new Community Engagement and Office Intern. She grew up in the foothills in Cochrane where she developed a passion for Environmental Stewardship. Meike is looking forward to getting muddy, gaining hands-on experience conducting riparian restoration work, and increasing her prairie plant identification skills! She completed her Bachelors of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of British Columbia in Kelowna and her Masters in Environmental Management at the Christian-Albrechts University in Germany. She is very happy to be back in Alberta and to have this opportunity to get to know the communities in the South East Alberta Watershed!
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Alexi Nelson
Alexi is going into her 4th year of a Bachelor of Applied Science in Ecosystem Management Degree at Lethbridge College. She has lived in Medicine Hat for most of her life and has developed a strong interest in grassland conservation and restoration through previous field experience in the area. Her hopes are to expand her knowledge and gain more experience in weed management and restoration techniques. Alexi is excited to be involved in improving the health of riparian habitat while connecting and working with the community.
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Hannah Sabatier
Hannah is currently attending University of Manitoba, working towards her degree in Ecology. Growing up in Manitoba, Hannah has worked and lived on the Tall Grass Prairie and has worked with invasive and endangered species. She is interested in the impacts of human activity on the environment and loves learning how we can change our behavior to live more symbiotically with it. She is looking forward to learning more about riparian areas and how we can change our behavior to maintain a healthy watershed.
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... and a Practicum Student
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Keely Gilham grew up on a cattle and grain farm in Manitoba and moved to Lethbridge to get a Natural Resource Compliance Diploma and a BSc in Conservation Enforcement. She has two young sons who love the outdoors, and they spend their time gardening, hunting, fishing, camping, and hiking.
While working full time she decided she wanted to pursue her Masters of Science in Environmental Practice because the policy and legal side of environmental issues interests her. Having an agricultural background and environmental education she always seemed to be drawn to water and invasive species issues - which is why she was excited to partner with SEAWA to map Russian Olive species along Marlborough Coulee in Medicine Hat. The data will assist her research focusing on the current regulatory status of the species at a local level, current management and other available options of managing the species, and current provincial legislation regulating the species. She will also look at what legislation needs to be changed to better manage the species, the process involved in changing environmental legislation, and the stakeholder collaboration that needs to happen during that process. She is looking forward to exploring more of our watershed and working towards change to better manage invasive species in our region.
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Russian olive infestation at the north shore of Connaught Pond, College Drive, Medicine Hat, May 2018. Photo credit: Marilou Montemayor.
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SEAWA Applauds our Volunteers!!!
April 19-25th was Canada’s National Volunteer Week. This year’s theme is "It’s Time To Applaud Our Country’s Volunteers" and SEAWA would like to extend heartfelt thanks and applaud all of the volunteers who have brought the organization to where it is now. SEAWA was created, and continues to be governed, by a Board of volunteers with representation from various sectors in the watershed. Volunteers provide SEAWA with tremendous support, allowing us to continue to achieve our goals and objectives. In addition, volunteers support SEAWA by being members of various committees, shouldering some of the field work at our riparian restoration projects, repairing and maintaining field tools and equipment, writing articles for the newsletter, assisting with SEAWA events and manning SEAWA booths, and participating in watershed networking events. There are numerous other services that volunteers do daily to promote SEAWA and our work, including educating people about water, and promoting a healthy watershed and the conservation and restoration of natural ecosystems.
WE THANK YOU!
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A warm welcome to our new volunteers Ron and Marg Schneider. Connaught pond, Medicine Hat, on Earth Day, April 22, 2020. Photo credit: Marilou Montemayor.
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Have you had a chance to watch our documentary?
Prairie Shores - Riparian Restoration in the SEAWA Watershed
The video, shot in the spring and summer of 2019, demonstrates how partnerships, hard work, and passion can bring about successful riparian restoration.
It can be viewed here.
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The highlight of Earth Day 2020 at the Connaught pond was Draba reptans, a rare plant found (and photo taken) by Martha Munz Gue. Plant identification by Cathy Linowski.
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Connaught pond is one of SEAWA’s riparian restoration sites where trees were planted in 2018 and in 2019. SEAWA has been celebrating Earth Day at the pond since 2017. (This year's event was planned to include fewer people so that social distancing could be implemented.) On April 22, SEAWA volunteers Gerry, Ron and Marg Schneider, David and Martha Gue, and John Slater spent several hours at the pond picking up litter (including golf balls from the nearby golf course). Gerry also pruned cottonwood saplings, Martha found a rare wildflower, and David found a bird’s nest that incorporated shreds of plastic. SEAWA staff were there all day and completed the first field work of the season. Staff repaired of basins/berms around each tree, watered and checked on plants, sprayed "deer-off" on uncaged plants, installed stakes for plant cages, and collected Artemisia cana root shoots and seeds, and milkweed seeds for propagation.
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SEAWA Water Art Show window display allows people to see research results along with stunning art from the sidewalk. Photo taken March 18, 2020.
Photo Credit: Meike Wege
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Valuing Water Through Art
By Martha Munz Gue
Two art shows hosted by SEAWA are currently located in downtown Medicine Hat. While both venues closed mid-March due the Covid-19 Pandemic, they were open for the first two weeks in March, and will be available for viewing again when "shelter in place" and physical distancing rules are lifted. SEAWA is appreciative of the generous donation of storefront space by the owner of Arcade Plaza, and the enthusiastic participation by local artists. The creative and cooperative spirit is palpable in that space.
The SEAWA Art Shows have developed into a communication tool on water, watersheds, ecosystems, and SEAWA, and have reached new people who may not otherwise have known about SEAWA and its projects. The art shows reach the heart, while the head is intrigued by the displays about SEAWA’s applied research projects at the riparian restoration sites. Books, fact sheets and brochures about functioning parts of the watershed are also displayed: grasslands including bumble bees, butterflies, wildflowers, as well as invasive species and endangered species in the watershed.
The space has been used as a place to connect with groups such as CPAWS, Grasslands Naturalists, city leaders, Medicine Hat News, and other businesses, services and volunteer organizations. A total of 32 people signed the guest book the first day of the show (Sept 27) in the Arcade Plaza, during the Downtown Art Walk. So enthusiastic were the artists and the owner that the show remained in place for the next three months with artist volunteers supervising open hours twice a week. In January, new art was recruited from local artists, mainly through the Hat Art Club. Over 240 people have signed the guest book in the first five months.
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SEAWA Valuing Water Through Art window display, side-by-side with the eye-catching Rey de Reyes Sewing and Alterations gown displays. Photo taken March 18, 2020.
Photo Credit: Meike Wege.
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The window space is now shared with “Rey de Reyes Sewing and Alterations” whose “Consignment Gowns” business is also in the building. Their display of three colourful gowns brings a different demographic to the window, sometime browsing the SEAWA displays after an initial interest in the gowns.
In the meantime, the library invited SEAWA to mount a show at the Public Library for the month of March to go along with programming for World Water Day. Unfortunately, the planned reception could not happen, because the library closed its doors to the public mid March due to Covid-19. Hopefully, when the library is opened again, the show will still have another week or two for viewing. The library show includes works by Pat Davies, Dale Beaven, Darlene Chatten, Loretta Fix, Ian Gilchrist, Martha Munz Gue, Louise Maier, Elaine Spitzer, Diane Smyth, and poems by Gerry Ehlert and Paula Munro.
While social distancing measures caused both the Arcade gallery and the Public Library to be closed, the SEAWA riparian restoration applied research displays can be viewed from outside any time at the Downtown Arcade Plaza on Third Street (across from CORE). For information or comments call 403-878-5973, or contact SEAWA at executive@seawa.ca or 403-580-8980.
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In a "sign of the times", the gown in the window adjacent to the SEAWA display has been replaced with cloth face masks and a selection of materials. Photo taken April 24, 2020.
Photo credit: Marilou Montemayor
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The Battle With Leafy Spurge Continues!
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Seline Solis and Natasha Rogers with dug-out leafy spurge, July 17, 2018.
Photo credit: Marilou Montemayor
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Riparian areas are strips of land next to a body of water (streams or lakes/reservoirs). In the spring of 2018, SEAWA initiated a field-plot experiment on the control of leafy spurge in a riparian area of the Seven Persons Creek. The experiment continued in the spring/summer of 2019. This experimental site had been heavily infested with leafy spurge despite the presence of bio-control organisms - hawk moths and flea beetles - previously released by researchers. Leafy spurge is a perennial weed that grows a strong, extensive and deep root system from which smaller roots and shoots emerge. It is toxic to cattle and horses but tolerated by goats and sheep. Chemical weed control in riparian areas is undesirable, so SEAWA laid out an experiment that used "cultural" weed control methods. Cultural weed control refers to any technique that involves maintaining field conditions such that weeds are less likely to become established or increase in number. Examples of cultural weed control include crop rotation, avoiding overgrazing of pastures or rangeland, using well-adapted competitive forage species, and maintaining good soil fertility.
Learn more about the experiment, including results and conclusions, on our website.
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Sunflower Bee collecting nectar from a Sunflower. Photo Credit: Dwayne Myers.
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June 22-28th is Pollinator Week!
A week to celebrate pollinators, their importance, and what we can do to help protect them. Pollination is the transfer of pollen grains of the male part of a flower to the female part of a flower which allows for the production of seeds. Approximately 90% of flowering plants require animal pollination. This includes a majority of our crops and fruit trees that produce our food!
People commonly associate pollinators with the introduced honeybees. Alberta has over 300 native bee species. Many of these are more effective pollinators than the honeybee. These bees do not form large colonies; most live solitary lives and nest in the ground. Alberta native bees include an assortment of bumblebees, sweat bees, leaf-cutter bees and mason bees. Bumblebees are important for plants that require “buzz pollination” such as tomatoes, which cannot be pollinated by honeybees.
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Monarch Butterfly perched on Milkweed Flowers. Photo Credit: Devaughn Squire.
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There are many other pollinators, including over 2200 species of native butterflies and moths found in the Prairie Eco-zone, where Medicine Hat is located. Flies represent an extremely diverse set of pollinators from hover flies to tiny midges, and beetles, ants, birds, and even bats are all effective pollinators.
All of these have different habitats, and favour different plants at different times of the year, and even time of day. While butterflies prefer pollinating in full sun, flies stay in shady moist habitats, and moths are most active in the late afternoon and at night. The presence of many different pollinators allows for a diverse, resilient ecosystem.
Increasing urbanization and large areas of single crops means that pollinators have to travel long distances to feed. Creating pockets in urban and agricultural areas where native pollinators can feed and nest makes life a bit easier for these impressive workers. There are 39 cities in Canada that have declared themselves “Bee Cities” including Airdrie, Calgary and Chestermere.
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Let’s help Alberta’s pollinators by: not spraying pesticides, planting native plants, conserving and restoring natural areas and riparian areas, and planting pollinator gardens in your own property. SEAWA is planning to create a small pollinator garden on a private property in downtown Medicine Hat.
An important tip: plant the same flowers together in bunches so pollinators do not need to fly as far from one plant to the next of the same species. Plant flowers that bloom at different times of the year to extend the time that pollinators can collect nectar. Provide areas for nests, rests, and hydration for your pollinators. Leave your leaves and some wood stumps! And you can even set up a bee bath or a bee hotel!
Information on what to plant in your pollinator garden can be found here.
For more Information, visit:
Seeds of Diversity. Pollinator Gardens, and Alberta Native Bee Council.
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News From Partners and Members
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Prairie crocuses.
Medicine Hat, April 23, 2020.
Photo credit: David Gue
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Nature Walks with Grasslands Naturalists
Submitted by Martha Munz Gue
The natural areas in the city and beyond are beginning to show colour. Mosses and lichen were greening up in mid-March. They are nestled at the base of the grasses and forbs on open prairie, hiding in the soil from sun and wind. They work hard to prevent erosion and, by providing shade, help retain moisture.
Look for the early wildflowers soon. Crocus, moss phlox, and tiny yellow prairie alyssum are usually the first. It is interesting to notice that, as soon as the alyssum and crocus begin blooming, the first butterflies and native bees make their appearance, thankful for the nectar provided by the early blooms.
Individuals and households are encouraged to check out a trail near your place of residence at your own best time. We encourage nature walks at least once a week as things can change a lot within one week. A daily wildflower walk might be fun with a wildflower brochure in hand, or phones set to any of the websites and apps mentioned below. For bird sightings you will want to start early, soon after sunrise. If you are more interested in bees and butterflies, don’t start before 10 am; they need warmth before they get busy.
Identification of local wildflowers and butterflies can be made easier by going to the hatwildflowers and mhbutterflies sites.
Another rich source of information about wildflowers is the website for Alberta Native Plant Society. Bumblebee sightings can be reported to bumblebeewatch.
You may report online the sightings of wildflowers you see in first bloom and mid bloom to Dr. Elizabeth Beaubien’s "Alberta Plant Watch" which tracks the wave of spring as it moves up the province of Alberta.
For identification of invasive species, check out the Alberta Invasive Species Council website . You can report the location on this app: EDDmapS/Alberta. After verification, the weed will be reported to local authorities who remove the weed.
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Mountain runoff forecasts for southern Alberta
(natural volumes for March to September 2020)
Oldman River basin
- Average to above average for the March to September 2020 period
- Average to above average for April to September
- March recorded volumes are below average to above average
Bow River basin
- Average to much above average for the March to September 2020 period
- Average to much above average for April to September
- March recorded volumes are much below average to much above average
Snow accumulations measured in the mountains as of April 1, 2020
(Mountain snowpack)
Oldman River basin: average at Westcastle II (102%), much above average at Lee Creek “Q” (165%) and Allison Pass (124%) (3 sites surveyed). Snow pillows (3 sites) are above average to much above average.
Bow River basin: much above average at Highwood Summit Bush (139%) (1 site surveyed). Snow pillows (6 sites) range from above average (Sunshine Village and Three Isle Lake) to much above average.
Long Lead Precipitation Outlook
Environment Canada (issued on March 31, 2020): Temperature is forecast to be below normal in Alberta for the April through June 2020 period. Precipitation is forecast to be generally above normal for the April through June 2020 period.
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Got something to say? Have an event you'd like us to share with our members?
Do you have a story you'd like to tell? Are you hosting a watershed-inspired event? Want to share it with over 600 like-minded individuals? Let us know! We're always looking for topics that might interest our members.
executive@seawa.ca
403-580-8980
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P.S. SEAWA relies on an active volunteer membership. Send us an email if you are passionate about maintaining a healthy watershed!
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