Manitoba

Water Stewardship Lake Minnewasta Bank Stabilization Project.

Manitoba Water Stewardship has awarded A Rocha Prairie Canada a project grant for stabilizing Lake Minnewasta’s shoreline. This funding will allow the planting of several thousand trees along the south lakeshore.

A Rocha along with its partners, Pembina Valley Conservation District, City of Morden, Stanley/Lake Trail Volunteers, Dave & Cole Hildebrand and Volunteers currently employed with Manitoba Forestry and Stanley Soils, have all lent their expertise to help with this project.

Brief background of Lake Minnewasta: Lake Minnewasta serves as the main drinking water source for the City of Morden and surrounding area. Because of the underlying shale, the banks of the lake are prone to degradation, mainly erosion and slumping if the banks aren’t well stabilized.

The usual story for these small lakes: Water was needed for growing towns, so, dams were built in the 40‘s and 50’s.  Unfortunately, around fifty years later, most of these lakes have silted in and another dam is required to be built upstream. Because of the way the Dead Horse Creek feeds into Lake Minnewasta, most of the silt is dropped into a low-lying area prior to entering the lake. This has prevented the lake from silting in and has given it many more years of life. The south shore of the lake, approximately 20 acres of shoreline, consists of same age trees; which in about twenty years or so will be dead. This will leave the entire south shore subject to erosion. This leads to turbidity (“dirty water”) and will create a situation where silt will fill the lake, rendering the lake not much more than a shallow slough.

Currently, the lake is in good condition, with fishing, hiking trails as well as a place for excellent canoeing. But, within a very short time, without bank stabilization, this will change dramatically. The Water Stewardship Grant addresses this very issue. By taking action now, we will be saving the lake for the future. We’re encouraging everyone to whom good, clean drinking water means so much, to become involved.

A Rocha is an international conservation organization with teams working in nineteen different countries. The A Rocha Pembina Valley Interpretive Centre is located next door to the Pembina Valley Provincial Park and the Pembina Valley Bible Camp in southern Manitoba; approximately thirty minutes drive southwest of Morden. Site Managers Josh and Bethany Paetkau can be reached at 204-246-2059.