Lakes, ponds and creeks have been overflowing their banks with the excessive rain that has been falling in the area.
For most residents, excessive rainwater is simply an inconvenience since the sloped terrain usually provides good drainage and water runs away from structures and other development.
A wet spring however, can provide the best conditions for certain yard work. Poking rocks from grassy areas and pulling grass from rocky areas is much easier when the ground is saturated and loose.
Excessive water
Changing lake levels make daily lakeshore strolls somewhat adventurous, as the terrain keeps changing.
Some boggy areas have become too wet to pick through, creeks are too wide to jump over and grounded deadfalls are either too unstable to act as bridges or are gone entirely.
Trees and other debris continue to be dislodged by the rising water and travel back and forth in the lake as the wind direction changes. A wayward waterfowl nesting platform that spent two years lodged in the McCarthy Bay is now gone and has yet to be spotted in one of the many shallow bays on the big lake.
Better late than never
Our location and elevation is the reason for a late starting and short summer. The renowned Mayfly hatch occurs in June and July, not May as the name suggests.
Our June berries, or Saskatoon berries, were only just flowering in June and are usually ready for picking in late July and August.
Once again, our April showers arrived in June. Accompanying cold temperatures slowed the growth of many wild and domestic plants, but with any luck and if the optimistic gardeners in the area are correct, once the heat of summer arrives in July and August, like last year, vegetables and fruits will thrive - late but luscious.
Friends monitoring
In addition to water quality monitoring throughout the summer, members of Friends of Lac des Roches and Birch Lake are a few of the estimated 2,500 volunteers partaking in the annual North American secchi dip in.
From June 23 to July 15, water clarity is measured at fresh water lakes, using a specially designed black-and-white secchi disc.
Clarity or transparency of fresh water is a key indicator of the health of a lake’s ecosystem. The British Columbia Lake Stewardship Society invites interested volunteers to contact it at info@bclss.org or 1-877-BCLAKES (225-2537) for more information.
Treatment team update
The team from Williams Lake is scheduled to spray invasive plants on private properties around Lac des Roches on July 9-13.
Properties must be pre-registered for treatment (1-800-665-1636), and they’re if not attended to this year, it will be automatically added to next year’s schedule.
Chase is on
The Boultbee walkers recount their wildlife sightings when they meet daily.
Lately, a common theme with the very active critters is “chasing” - of the usual and somewhat unusual kind. Reports include a crow chasing a ground squirrel; a fox chasing a mouse; a fawn (the size of a kitten) chasing its mother; a swallow chasing a chipmunk; a doe chasing its previous year’s fawn and a badger chasing a ground squirrel.
Although not so much a chase, there are several accounts of black bear and white-tailed deer, high-tailing it into the forest when spooked by local trekkers and their dogs.