🚀 go-pugleaf

Over the past five years, a keystone property only 4.86 hectares (12
acres) in size has allowed The Nature Trust to take part in the re-birth
of a pretty lake in the Fraser Valley near Chilliwack.

Cheam Lake--pronounced Chee-ahm and named after a similar sounding Sto:lo
Indian word meaning �wild strawberry place�--is just east of Chilliwack.
It was drained in the 1950s so its rich deposits of marl, a kind of lime,
could be mined for spreading on farm fields. 

Ironically, a water plant called chara, locally known as green stonewort,
helped form the marl beds over centuries of interactions with the lake
water. Logging operations earlier this century also affected the lake�s
marge.

Now, through the co-operation of The Nature Trust, Ducks Unlimited Canada,
the Regional District of Fraser-Cheam, the B.C. Ministry of Environment,
Land and Parks, plus the federal government�s Department of Fisheries and
Oceans, 101 hectares (250 acres) of lake and marsh is in the process of
being restored. The Regional District manages The Nature Trust�s land.

When the long-term project is finished, the lake will once again be an
important nesting, migration and wintering area for ducks and geese, and
it will be home for juvenile Coho salmon and Cutthroat trout. Ospreys,
Bald eagles, herons and various types of shorebirds are already using it
again.

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This article is posted as a public service by The Nature Trust of West
Vancouver, B.C. Canada. The Nature Trust is a Charitable Corporation
(#0398650-53), which is dedicated to conserving areas of ecological
significance in British Columbia. If you wish to make a donation, please
call (604) 925-1128.

Since 1971, The Nature Trust and its partners in conservation have
invested more than C$25 million to secure over 200 acquisitions in British
Columbia. These cover 13,055 strategically located hectares (32,259
acres), thus creating a legacy of grasslands, marshes, forests and
mountains that protect the plan and wildlife species they nurture.

This article is copyright, (c) 1995, by The Nature Trust of British
Columbia, 808-100 Park Royal South, West Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V7T 1A2.
All rights reserved. 

E-mail should be addressed to: nature.trust@morgan-news.com