The Cowichan Watershed Board will convene at Cowichan Lake, Thursday, April 7, for a public meeting at the Cowichan Lake Education Centre, at 5 p.m.
Everyone is welcome to attend.
During the meeting, Eric Morris, an erosion specialist with Kerr Wood Leidal (KWL) Engineering will report on the Cowichan Lake erosion study that he completed this past fall.
Morris will be followed by Craig Sutherland; also of KWL. Sutherland will discuss summer lake water levels and two approaches to managing summer water levels at the Cowichan Lake weir, including the rule curve model and a rule band model.
Sounds technical? It is – but Craig has been asked to make his presentation easy to understand.
After that, there will be a presentation on a new tool that can be used to display high definition elevation data so that various lake water levels can be shown on maps and air photos. This type of information has proved to be very useful for flood protection related mapping in the lower watershed. The Watershed Board will also receive a brief update on work that is being done to establish possible targets that would reflect the health of the watershed. An example of a target could be setting a date as to when clams in Cowichan Bay will be edible again.
In addition to this upcoming meeting, the Cowichan Watershed Board has been hard at work on a new website, at www.cowichanwatershedboard.ca.
”The pictures on the web-site let people see what an amazing watershed the Cowichan is. I look forward to the day when we are able to establish web-cams at strategic points so people can check out lake levels or the salmon counting fence in real time,” the board’s co-chair Rob Hutchins said.
“I think it’s great. There is so much available at people’s fingertips on the site from hydrology, to information about meetings, to stories about the Cowichan lamprey and other creatures,” Lake Cowichan mayor Ross Forrest said.
The Cowichan Watershed Board invites people to their website, where they can take place in a contest with some modest prizes. The board would also appreciate hearing your suggestions and comments.