Need help with spring projects on your property?

Do you have spring projects to do? Available for big or small jobs at a good rate.

Hitachi 50 Rubber tracks, Blade, Thumb, 42inch clean up bucket, 24inch digging bucket, 16 inch digging bucket. $70 per hr.

I have done lots of work in the area and know the community well.

Thank-you 250-554-3466 or 250-319-5639 JAYRO EXCAVATING

Fully insured and WCB

ICE OFF

I added the ICE OFF poll to the blog but haven't had a chance to let everyone know it is there. Today we're seeing lots of open water. It's all happening so fast and early!

The results of the poll are fairly predictable, but what the heck, vote anyway!

Sylvia

Invitation to Participate in the Water Monitoring Program

New Recruits Needed 

• Are you concerned about our environment? 
• Is the water quality of Lac Le Jeune of concern to you? 
• Can you spare a few hours per year to help on the completion of this important project? 

If you can answer yes to these questions you will be welcome to join us. There is no special scientific background required as all necessary information is supplied on site and printed sheets.

We are entering the fourth and final year of the Water Monitoring Program at Lac Le Jeune. We have had a dedicated group of volunteers working on this for the past three years but have had some unavoidable attrition among our members this year and would really appreciate it if those vacancies could be filled.

To effectively and fairly distribute the scheduling of volunteers throughout the monitoring period (from ice off to ice on) we require at least 15 people. Since we carry out the testing a minimum of twelve times per monitoring period, each volunteer can expect to have 3 or 4, two hour shifts, throughout this period.

Water safety is essential, so for the testing on the big lake we like to have three people and two boats employed for each testing period and two people and a single boat on the little lake.

Wherever possible both lakes are done sequentially on the same day. The sampling time preferred by the MOE is between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm. The schedule occasionally has to be changed up or down a day in order to avoid poor weather but is the exception rather than the rule.

A summary of what is involved in the sampling and testing: 

Once on the lake the air temperature, wind direction and strength, barometric pressure, and surface water temperature are noted and recorded.

The Secchie disc (an 8” diameter weighted disc in an alternating white and black pattern) is lowered through the water column till it can no longer be seen. This depth is recorded as the Secchi Depth and is used in the criteria for collecting samples at a later stage in the process. It provides a good indicator of the depth to which light penetrates. This depth changes with the season, light conditions and numerous environmental factors throughout the year.

A probe, which measures: Temperature, conductivity (hardness of the water), and Oxygen concentration in % and mg/L, is lowered through the water column stopping at 0.5 m, 1.0 m and every metre thereafter to the bottom. The four measurements noted above are recorded at each level providing a vertical profile of information.

Water samples are taken at specific depths calculated from the data provided by both the secchi depth and the meter readings. These samples are divided and processed as prescribed by the MOE protocol and are sent for analysis yielding information on concentration of Nitrates, Phosphates, and Chlorophyll “a”. In addition one of the samples is preserved so that plankton and algae species can be identified and quantified. When all the test results are combined they provide an effective reference with respect to the state of health of our lakes and are invaluable in developing strategies for managing the quality of our water and the continuing excellence of our fishery for years to come.

Contact Hugh Burton at Phone: 250-314-6760 or email: hughlejeune@telus.net

~submitted by Hugh Burton~

TNRD Free Disposal Day

photo by Cat Branchman

Thank you to TNRD for contacting us about this event! A poster will be available soon.

Sunday, April 26, 9am-1pm, is Free Disposal Day at the Lac le Jeune transfer station.

Residents may bring ONE FREE LOAD PER HOUSEHOLD to to the transfer station. One load is defined as a maximum of one 8 foot pick-up truck box OR one 8 foot trailer.

Be prepared to wait in line, it will be a busy day. Please tarp and secure your load before leaving home! You can be fined $100 for failing to secure your load.

Check TNRD Environmental Services for further information.

Noise regulation bylaw

photo by Jake Fowler

In February, 2015 the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board of directors passed an noise regulation bylaw.

A bylaw of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District to regulate the making or causing of noises

The 4-page document outlines the bylaw in detail (PDF), and the TNRD bylaw enforcement web page provides information about how to initiate a complaint. Here are the general regulations from the bylaw document:

6.1 No person shall make or cause, or permit or be made or caused, any excessive or persistent noise which disturbs or tends to disturb the quiet, peace, rest, enjoyment, comfort, or convenience of the neighbourhood or persons in the vicinity. 

6.2 No person being the owner or occupier or tenant of real property shall allow or permit such real property to be used so that excessive or persistent noise which occurs therein or emanates there from, disturbs or tends to disturb the quiet, peace, rest, enjoyment, comfort, or convenience of the neighbourhood or persons in the vicinity. 

6.3 No person shall play or operate any radio, stereophonic equipment or other instrument or any apparatus for the production or amplification of sound either in or on private premises or in any public place in a manner which disturbs or tends to disturb the quiet, peace, rest, enjoyment, comfort or convenience of the neighbourhood or persons in the vicinity. 

6.4 No person that owns, keeps or harbours any dog or other animal, or any number of dogs or other animals, shall permit such dog(s) or animal(s), to make or cause excessive or persistent noise, by cries, barking or howling, which disturbs or tends to disturb the quiet, peace, rest, enjoyment, comfort, or convenience of the neighbourhood or persons in the vicinity.

The bylaw was initiated by residents who live near Angels Animal Rescue in Merritt, and the focus on dogs is reflected in the rather unusual wording "dogs or other animals". However, the bylaw is meant to address any type of "excessive or persistent noise".

The Armchair Mayor News reported that Ronaye Elliot, Director of Area J (which includes Lac Le Jeune) gave notice that she would not support the bylaw in her area: “My folks have said to me they don’t want a noise bylaw.” However, the outcome is that the bylaw will apply to all 10 electoral areas.

A Bylaw Infraction Complaint Form and a Barking Dog Incident Form (again, a form for dogs but not other types of noise?) are available on the web. Hopefully residents of Lac Le Jeune won't ever need to download them! Thankfully, anonymous complaints are not permitted. And here's some advice: If you are ever on the receiving end of a complaint, keep your own noise logs.

Thanks to Howie Mattfeld for suggesting we post information about this new bylaw on the blog.

Welcome! BCIT students and instructors performing an expanded study

Those who follow the blog will know that a group of our residents, under the direction of Marge Sidney from the Ministry Of the Environment (MOE), have been monitoring the waters of both the main lake and the little lake for the last three and a half years. Over that time we have accumulated a lot of information on the temperature, oxygen concentration, nitrate and phosphate levels and the specific conductivity. Samples have also been taken using predetermined criteria that permit identification of the plankton and phytoplankton living in the lake. We have done a minimum of 12 samples per year from ice off to ice on. We have not done any sampling during the winter months nor have we gathered any information concerning the fish.

On Monday March 2, 2015 through to Wednesday March 4; a group of students and instructors from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, directed by Marge Sidney, will come to Lac Le Jeune to perform an expanded study under winter conditions.  In addition to what we have been doing, this study will include catching fish under the ice, aging them, sizing them relative to their age, examining stomach contents, and observing what parasites they might be subject to. The bottom of the lake will be dredged in several places, which will permit evaluation benthic sediments in terms of the number and types of organisms residing there and the nutrient and minerals that are sequestered there.

Plankton, phytoplankton and invertebrate organisms will be collected from several sites around the lake using special vertical and horizontal traps. Since these are the organisms which make up the base of the food chain, information on the types present and their numbers is invaluable to maintaining a viable fishery.

The group will also carry out the same profiles we have been doing which will give information on the winter conditions that we were unable to do. We are most fortunate to have BCIT do this comprehensive winter study as it will add greatly to the information we have gathered over the past three and a half years.

Marge Sidney is really hoping that as many residents as possible will come out to witness the proceedings. The most interesting part will probably be the placement of the fish nets early Monday afternoon. There is a shallow set and a deeper set put out through holes cut in the ice with a chain saw. There will be two holes for each set separated by many metres. The nets themselves will be installed between these holes using a special tool called a jigger board. It is designed to crawl from one hole to the next just under the ice carrying the net with it. The nets are left out overnight and retrieved the next day hopefully containing fish. We will scout out areas where fish are numerous prior to deployment.

Hope to see you there, it should be interesting and instructive.

~ submitted by Hugh Burton ~ 

Have you seen Hardy?

UPDATE: HARDY HAS BEEN FOUND. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!

Charlene Hanuse is doggy sitting a 1 year old black lab named Hardy.  He got out and bolted around 5:30pm today (February 15).

If you spot him, please all Charlene at 250-572-6245.

He is harmless, but probably a little scared.

Unfortunately, we don't have a photo at this time.

Lac Le Jeune (Fish Lake or Trout Lake) History - The Baby Camp

Here are some interested snippets about Lac Le Jeune's early history.

---

A note of Isobel Maclean (daughter of Sidney C. Burton and his wife Jane Ann) written - June 1996

Lac Le Jeune - The Baby Camp 

Several people have asked me if I remember the Baby Camp at Trout Lake. 

I do have memories of it but am afraid this information may be a bit inaccurate. 

The year was probably 1912? The idea was to give babies and young children a place to recover from childhood ills aggravated by the Kamloops heat. 

The camp sponsored by a church group (?) was half way along the back road on the down side. It consisted of wooden platforms with a tent over the ridge pole, each had a stove. There were at least six of these. 

Tents were taken down over the winter but the platforms remained. This camp did not last too many years. The women probably got too lonely or found it a hardship, carrying water from the lake and cooking and caring for small children in primitive conditions. 

The tents finally disappeared and the platforms left to the elements and any camper who needed a few bits of lumber. 

Those remaining platforms were a great place to play! 

---

From the Kamloops Standard - 04 November 1913 - p. 11 - Tuesday

Lac Le Jeune - Fish Lake - Babies' Summer Camp - 1913 

Babies' Summer Camp -- Donations Are Urgently Needed for Valuable Work

The following is the financial statement of the "Babies' Summer Camp" that was established this summer at Fish Lake by some of our prominent lady citizens. The receipts from subscriptions paid up are $521.75, to which can be added $48.50 for subscriptions promised but not yet collected.

There will, therefore, be a total of $570.25 receipts while expenditures for the building, six house tents and furnishings amount to $621.25, leaving a deficit of $51 which has to be met.

The committee consisting of Mesdames H.M. Fulton, Harriet A. Syme, V.T. Lee, E.J. Lee, F.E.H. Morley will be glad to receive more subscriptions as there are many other things that are required yet for the camp. The committee also wish to thank all those who have already so generously subscribed towards the movement which is an estimable one in every way.

~ submitted by Neil Burton

Have you seen Luke?

UPDATE FEBRUARY 17: LUKE HAS BEEN FOUND, SAFE AND SOUND! 

UPDATE FEBRUARY 16: LUKE HAS BEEN SPOTTED IN KNUTSFORD. KEEP LOOKING!

One of the TRU Animal Health Technology program dogs has gotten loose. He is a Husky, black and white and has a collar and leash attached. He is timid but likes other dogs.

If you see him please call us at 250-572-5914 (Sonia) or 250-828-5174 (TRU - AHT building) or 250-320-5578 (Erica).

 He was last seen February 12th in the Springhill area by Kamloops Bylaw officers at around 1:45pm.

Mailboxes...again

Our mailboxes have been broken into again. Leslee Lucy spoke to the postal worker who delivers our mail, and it appears the mailboxes were broken into sometime between yesterday's delivery and today's. The mail will not be delivered until the community mailboxes are repaired.

This is happening frequently. We should all check our mail daily. Some residents have opted to pick up mail in Kamloops.

Thanks to Leslee and others who passed along information about the community mailbox issues today!