A long-term conservation plan for Quill Lakes

Time for groups, government to help prevent disaster, says Greg Riemer.

As a long-term resident of Lumsden, I have long considered Last Mountain Lake to be my lake. I recreate on it, I fish on it and I even hunt waterfowl on it. It is one of the great recreational resources of southern Saskatchewan.

I also had the great privilege of working in the Quill Lakes for more than a decade with the old Saskatchewan Wetland Conservation Corporation, which was one of the precursors of the Watershed Authority and now the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency. While there I worked to secure a contiguous 32,000-acre wildlife management area that almost completely surrounded Big Quill Lake.

Unfortunately, it’s all under water now.

The problems in the Quill Lakes leave me more than a little conflicted. As a Lumsden resident, I sincerely want the water quality in Last Mountain Lake to be as good as possible. I have also made a great many friends working in the Quill Lakes who are now suffering because of the high water there. It is not record high water, but it’s close.

The problem that everyone wants to ignore is that there is a human cost to all this.

Families around the Quill Lakes have lost their farms, or a good portion of their farms. This was good productive farmland that supported families, communities, and yes, the provincial economy. It seems government has washed its hands of the dislocated by saying the lake has not reached its natural outflow point yet, so the landowners involved are just SOL.

What happens if the lake continues to rise? Will

DFO (Fisheries and Oceans Canada) pull a stunt like they did with Lake Lenore and not let the provincial government let it outflow? If DFO forces them to dam the Quill lake outflow and the lake rises above the natural outflow point, will those affected by further flooding be compensated fairly? The lessons from Lake Lenore say probably not.

The reason the Saskatchewan Wetland Conservation Corporation was able to secure 32,000 acres around Big Quill Lake was because it had never been surveyed as part of the Dominion

Land Survey (which started in 1871). At the time of the survey, those 32,000 acres were underwater and had never been patented, so it remained Crown land. After the Second World War, community pastures were set up around Big Quill Lake. It took 80 years for the land to recover from the flooding. It’s worth noting that it did recover. We are now 150 years or so from the last big flood of the Quill Lakes and the lake is approaching an outflow again.

Have we learned anything from history? What happens when the lake finally recedes? If government seems unable to deal with this disaster, it should at least learn from it. A good government should not let this human tragedy happen again.

What I want to suggest is an idea to prevent this economic and human disaster from recurring in another 100 years.

I believe that it is time for the conservation organizations and government to work together to alleviate the human suffering around the Quills. We need to ensure that the land now flooded never re-enters the deeded land base of the area. We should be compensating those flooded landowners and ensuring that when the lake recedes the flooded lands are never resold, but rather become a park or wildlife lands co-managed with community pasture associations. We can let future generations sort that out, as long as the currently flooded lands remain some type of Crown lands. This will maintain their economic value to the community and will create an even more enhanced wildlife management area.

In another hundred years or so when the lake fills up again, no one will be displaced and we can feel good about leaving a legacy there. Greg Riemer, retired, Lumsden