Annual Report 2012-2013

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN – John A. Ross

Our water quality monitoring program continues to add to our understanding of the river, allowing us to see trends, thus giving us the ability to tailor our projects to the needs of the watershed. A large fire west of Milk River last fall, while devastating to the landowners, became an opportunity to study the recovery of the native prairie. We will be sampling the water to determine what, if any, changes in run-off and water quality from the site into the river will occur without the protection of the grass. We had the great honor to host the WPAC Summit in September. We were treated to some very informative guest speakers; I continue to learn from these great people. Our second State of the Watershed report is nearing completion and should be available later this spring. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 5 years since the last one, but this one should be bigger and better expanding to include parts of the watershed outside of our province containing input from Montana and Saskatchewan. We’ve also been working very hard on the Integrated Watershed Management Plan, which should be completed this fall. This will be our community’s guide for the future.

The Microbial Source Tracking project was initiated, with samples being collected throughout the summer and the DNA being analyzed. Initial reports are extremely interesting and I believe the results will be not only surprising, but also change the way in which we view water quality within not only our watershed, but potentially all watersheds.

Many thanks go out to the directors and especially our staff, Tim Romanow, Mary Lupwayi, and Sandi Riemersma. We continue to push forward and without their dedication we couldn’t achieve what we did this year; and as one of the directors said, they make me look good.