Welcome to the Athabasca Current, where each month we share the latest opportunities for upcoming events, links of interest, and give you an update on staff and board activities!
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Upwelling usually refers to the process by which deep, cold ocean water is brought to the surface. It can also refer to a similar occurrence in large lakes (like Lake Athabasca), or the transportation of nutrients in a body of water. In the Athabasca Current, we'll highlight a top priority item (or two!) here.
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Congratulations to Caity!
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Caity Seifert officially finished her 8-month term with us under the University of Alberta Adaptation and Resiliency Training Program. Luckily, we secured enough funding to hire her on as a full-time project manager! We're excited that she was able to remain with the watershed council, and her final report looking at expected climate change influences on the water sources in the Athabasca watershed will be posted to our website soon so keep an eye out!
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The thalweg is the line connecting the lowest points in a valley, and thus the line of fastest flow or deepest water. For the Athabasca Current, the Thalweg will be events and opportunities that are coming up quick.
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Fort Assiniboine Bicentennial
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The 2023 Fort Assiniboine Bicentennial Voyageur Canoe Brigade will be landing in Fort Assiniboine on July 8th! There will be a bicentennial celebration with lots of exciting events and activities lined up, including the Athabasca Watershed Council Display!
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X-Stream Science is now available in the Athabasca watershed for grades 7-12!
X-Stream Science is an experiential learning program that gives students hands-on scientific field experience by teaching them water quality and benthic invertebrate sampling at a local water body. Through the generous support of TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, the Athabasca Watershed Council is able to offer this program at no cost to schools across the watershed.
Know a teacher that would be interested? Contact our Education and Outreach Coordinator Ashley at outreach@awc-wpac.ca, or 780-213-4389.
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A channel can be defined as the outline of a path of water. The channel is where we'll be outlining some of the work the staff and board have done each month!
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Outreach Week
This year, the first week of June was incredibly busy for us! Caity and Petra attended the kickoff to Environment Week in Lac La Biche on June 4th. On June 5, Sarah, Ashley and Kailyn helped out with a planting in Jarvie. On June 6, Ashley and a volunteer ran a benthic invertebrate station for grade 4 and 5 students at Yellowhead County's Pond Day at Chip Lake. On June 6th and 7th, Sarah, Caity and Kailyn attended the County of Barrhead's Pond Days at Lac La Nonne and Thunder Lake. On June 7th and 8th, Ashley and a volunteer headed to Hinton to deliver X-Stream Science programming to grade 8 and 9 students. Sarah and Petra attended 4 other meetings between the two of them. The total impact of the week: 5 staff participated in 10 different events, interacting with over 500 people!
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On June 12th and 15th, Ashley drove to Widewater to meet with Kate from the Lesser Slave Watershed Council and deliver X-Stream Science programming to two different grade 8 classes from Slave Lake.
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The week of June 12th, Sarah joined Lisa Card in assessing potential ALUS project sites across Westlock, Athabasca and Barrhead counties.
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June AGM
On June 17th, the AWC hosted our Annual General Meeting in Lac La Biche. We reveiwed staff activities and the financial report from 2022-23, and moved onto electing the Board of Directors and choosing an executive committee. In the afternoon, the new board met for their first meeting.
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On June 24th, Petra, Sarah and Caity attended the Baptiste and Island Lakes Stewardship Group Annual General Meeting, while Ashley joined staff from the Red Deer River Watershed Alliance and the North Saskatchewan River Watershed Alliance at Métis Fest held in Métis Crossing.
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On June 29th, Sarah, Caity and Kailyn headed to just past Grande Prairie to take Riparian Health Assessment training offered by Cows and Fish.
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The next AWC board meeting will be held on September 21, 2023, more details to come.
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Check out some of our blog posts for more information on our projects and why we do them:
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Playfair was an English geologist who was among some of the first Western scientists to recognize that rivers shape the landscape. River basins and valleys are formed by water carving across the landscape. This section will be where we share news, surveys, and other links from across the landscape that might shape the way we view the Athabasca watershed.
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Métis Nation of Alberta Fish Health Monitoring
Can I eat the fish? This is one of many important questions being addressed by the Métis Nation Askîy program. The program includes monitoring projects focused on studying plants, fish, and wildlife across Alberta, and some of the results of their fish monitoring have been released! The results from fish tissue samples from several lakes, including Lac La Biche and Lesser Slave Lake, show low levels of mercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The levels are below Alberta's recommended consumption limit (in other words, the fish are safe to eat).
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Alberta Energy Regulator: Public Information Session on Minerals
The Government of Alberta is hosting a virtual public information session on July 19th at 1pm. The session will be about the transfer of regulation of rock-hosted minerals to the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). Rock-hosted minerals are minerals extracted from quarrying or other traditional mining techniques. Currently, the mineral extraction process is regulated by the Government of Alberta, but that will shift to the AER once the Mineral Resource Development Act is proclaimed.
During the session, information about Alberta's resource sector and the AER's role in mineral regulation will be provided.
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Introductory Document on Oil Sands Mining Effluent (Tailings Ponds) Now Available
Environment and Climate Change Canada has shared a new introductory document as they explore options on the management of the accumulated oil sands process-affected water in existing tailings ponds located in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region. The new document is intended to provide information on current thinking and to solicit feedback on their approach moving forward.
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A confluence is a place where two streams flow together. If you'd like to help the AWC and support the work that we do, please consider supporting the AWC through making a donation.
Our organization is accepting donations through the ATB Cares/Benevity portal. ATB Cares will match 15% of every dollar donated to Alberta-based, non-religious charities through this site (up to $5,000 of matching funds a year).
Your support to the Athabasca Watershed Council will help us achieve our vision of a watershed that is ecologically healthy, socially responsible, and economically sustainable. If you would like to make a donation, visit our website using the link below.
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Bankfull is the point on the slope of a bank where any further water level rise would cause water to spill out onto the floodplain. We thank our members and partner organizations for their ongoing support. We hope to be able to go above and beyond in the work that we do, which wouldn't be possible without our supporters. This month we would like to thank the Government of Alberta. Their generous core operations grant allows the AWC to continue to work across the watershed.
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