Temagami Stewardship Council - September 25th Meeting

The regular September meeting of the Temagami Stewardship Council was held on Monday, September 25th, 2006. Everyone met in the auditorium to facilitate a power point presentation of the 2006 edition of the Stewardship Rangers.

Reporting on Action items from the minutes of the previous meeting, TSC Coordinator, Nathan Kirby, brought the Directors up to date on his activities in 2006. A copy of the 2006 workplan was not available. A map showing the proposed expansion of the Stewardship to the Temagami Municipal boundaries was also not available. A meeting with Municipal officials to discuss the proposed Septic System Assessment Project had not been conducted but was carried out following the meeting. Reporting on an investigation of the Milne Landing, Brent Trach, of the MOE, stated that although the landing was messy there were no leaks or spills detected. The site is more of a housekeeping issue. Proposed changes to the bylaws to allow alternate representation were discussed and will be voted on at the next meeting.

Nathan Kirby along with Michelle Allard, leader of the Stewardship Rangers in 2006, gave a presentation on Ranger activities during the summer months. Michelle reported on activities that included a wide range of projects, such as, cleaning backcountry canoe routes around Temagami, removing graffiti on Maple Mountain and bird banding on Lady Evelyn. These Rangers were shared with the Lake Nipissing Stewardship in 2006; however, the TSC will move to create a crew of Rangers that will work specifically on Lake Temagami for the summer of 2007.

MNR Biologist, Chuck McCrudden reported on the SPIN (Summer Profundal Index Netting) completed between August 29 and September 13 on Lake Temagami. SPIN is a standard provincial index method to assess the health of lake trout populations. Lake Temagami has never had an index assessment of the health of the lake trout population conducted on it. A total of 67 net sites in all 8 basins of the lake were assessed. The catch of lake trout ranged in size from 225mm to 1000mm with most in the 400mm size range.

Preliminary comparison of lake trout abundance suggests that Lake Temagami (1.6 lake trout/net) has higher abundance than Lake Wanapitae(0.4 LT/net) and Lake of Bays (0.75 LT/net), lower abundance than two Muskoka lake waters (Lake Rosseau at 2.5 LT/net and Lake Joseph at 3.0 LT/net) and similar abundance to Lake Opeongo(1.5LT/net), a Hwy 60 drive to lake in Algonquin Park. Other measures of lake trout population health will be forthcoming when data analysis, including the determination of lake trout age and growth rates, is completed. Upon completion of the Lake Temagami data analysis the results will be compared to the biological measures of the lake trout populations in the provincial SPIN database. A comparison report will be prepared on the SPIN results.

The TSC would like to thank the Temagami Lakes Association for providing docking during this project.

Chuck also reported on the FWIN (Fall Walleye Index Netting) that will be conducted on Lake Temagami by Laurentian University and MNR crews between October 10 and 17. The netting is a follow up to the FWIN conducted in 2001 although the 2006 FWIN will cover all the 8 basins of Lake Temagami. The TLA will be providing docking and accommodation for the Laurentian crew while John Moskwa is providing an area for fish sampling to be conducted at Loon Lodge.

Discussion followed on the criteria to be used when accepting new member organizations into a TSC that would represent the entire Temagami municipality. The Directors agreed that an applicant should: (a) support the stated goals of the TSC and (b) represent a “viable organization”. Defining “viable” resulted in suggestions that groups applying for membership should represent a substantial group of people, be active and involved in the local community and meet on a regular basis.