The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) celebrated the first day of a new 30-year tenure of Saddle Lake as a regional park for Area D with a ribbon cutting on Feb. 19.
The RDKB took over the land surrounding the lake from the provincial government after receiving a licence of occupation to turn it into a regional park.
[Interim director Roly] Russell said Saddle Lake is the first actual organized park for the regional district.
“This park has two primary goals. One is recreation, skating in the winter and checking out the pond life in the summer,” he said. “As well as there’s some significant wildlife value in the park in terms of some endangered species such as the tiger salamander and just some high quality habitat. So it’s a dual purpose park in conservation as well as recreation.”
Jenny Coleshill, project coordinator for the Granby Wilderness Association, said the area was very important, ecologically.
“There’s lots of conservation values associated with the area,” she said. “That’s the first reason why Granby Wilderness started getting involved. It’s a real hotspot, a breeding pond for tiger salamanders, which is a red-listed amphibian species.”
Coleshill said the lake was devastated when six years ago someone released gold fish into the lake.
“Gold fish are carnivorous fish that will eat the tadpoles and eggs of nearly everything,” she said. “We started to raise awareness of the gold fish issue being an invasive species and their impact on the tiger salamander.”
Coleshill said there are also lots of breeding birds that use the lake, including ducks and yellow-headed black birds, as well as other species such as painted turtles.
She added that they are looking at putting together a stewardship agreement with the regional district and the stewardship groups of the area to ensure that historical preservation, recreational use and conservation values are being met.
As for the historical value of the site, Coleshill said there is a dam at the foot of the lake that was put in around 1913 by Doukhobors for creating irrigation for the valley.
From the Grand Forks Gazette