Meeting Highlights from this Quarter
Optimum Land Use Plan in Progress
Our proposed land use maps have been completed – by hand. The presentation material, explaining the maps, needs to be finalized. This was the focus of the January meeting. Barry will be working on digitalizing the maps into the PowerPoint presentation. Although Maureen Pinkney has retired from the Cariboo Regional District (CRD), she has indicated that the CRD is expecting our proposal for consideration and inclusion in the Interlakes Official Community Plan.
Website Revised Again
Our website has again undergone some major renovations thanks to our neighbour at Bridge Lake, Karl Schmitz, who showed us how to improve the response times on our website and make updates to the dynamic pages. We are very grateful to Karl for his hours of work on our website and his ongoing technical consultation and guidance to our team.
Incorporation as a Registered Society Underway
The process for incorporating is underway and we were pleased to find out that our group’s name will be used as our incorporated name. Our focus and activities will not be impacted by incorporating as it has more of a legal impact on the society.
Sustainability Committee in 100 Mile House
A new group has formed in 100 Mile House that is looking at sustainability and environment issues throughout the Cariboo region. They are still determining their role and mission but are utilizing existing community organizations to spread information about their meetings and some of our members are on their emailing list. As more information is known about this group and their activities, we may put their information on our website. Any members interested in the emails may contact our executive through our email for contact information.
BC Bird Atlassing Continues
Wendy Marshall is continuing on with her work for this nesting bird inventory for our area. The general public is invited to join in and can obtain more information by contacting Wendy at 250-593-2327.
BCLSS Membership Renewed
We have renewed our membership to the BC Lake Stewardship Society for another year at a cost of $40. As a member of this group, our lake monitoring activities are performed with the criteria used on lakes throughout BC, and the data is tracked and analyzed by society and Ministry of Environment officials. Membership also provides insurance to volunteers in our group involved with lake stewardship activities, provided annual forms are completed and filed with the BCLSS.
Marie Wallewein named liaison with Cariboo Regional District
Co-Chair of Friends of Lac des Roches and Birch Lake and full-time resident on Little LdR, Marie Wallewein, is our official liaison with Bruce Rattray, Area Director with the CRD. Although Bruce and the CRD have websites to provide regional information, any issues that arise that require immediate feedback or results, will be handled through Marie for our area.
Request to Refrain From Rezoning Rejected
Our group was approached by the Friends of Bridge Lake, requesting our support on their letter to be sent to the Cariboo Regional District, requesting that rezoning for large parcels of land not occur during the offseason months, but rather be postponed for the summer months when more residents are in the area and available to be present at rezoning meetings. Ours and several other community groups were included as supporters of the request. The request was denied by the CRD Board. They felt adequate methods were in place for residents not living in the area to voice their concerns about rezoning and that there was too much activity in the Cariboo to allow for any delays in the process. Residents are reminded that current rezoning and development activities in our area are mentioned and detailed on several websites, listed here;
- Cariboo Regional District (CRD) – www.cariboord.ca
- Bruce Rattray, Area L Director CRD – www.brucerattray.ca
- 100 Mile Free Press – www.100milefreepress.net
- Friends of Lac des Roches and Birch Lake – www.lacdesroches.org (this web site)
Advisory Planning Commission Representative Named
Bruce Rattray approached the Friends executive, requesting suggestions for a Lac des Roches resident who may be suitable for sitting on the APC, Advisory Planning Commission for Area L. This group meets throughout the year, as required, to review land use applications such as rezoning requests. Friends submitted the name of Sharron Woloshyn, full time resident at LdR, as a willing candidate and was accepted by the board to sit on this volunteer commission for the current term of the Area L director.
Community Forum Held at Interlakes
The office of Cariboo South MLA, Charlie Wyse of the NDP opposition party, requested a meeting with representatives from several community groups in the South Cariboo. After some input into the agenda, the meeting was transformed into a public forum or meeting with a proposed agenda of presentations by Canim Lake Indian Band, Integrated Land Management Bureau and Interior Roads. Several members of our group attended and agreed that this, as one of several community forums held throughout the region seemed to be the beginning of the election campaign.
Muddy Lake Development Gets Go-Ahead
Despite concerns raised about lake water quality and congestion along Highway 24 at little Lac des Roches, the Cariboo Regional District approved the rezoning on the agriculture land to the north of the highway for a 43 lot subdivision which surrounds much of muddy lake, the lake at the headwaters of LdR.
Green Lake OCP Presentation Scheduled for April
The Green Lake OCP is ready for presentation to the public, and will be presented at the 70 Mile House SAMC on Saturday, April 25. Three members of the Friends executive are available to attend and will be driving down for the presentation. We hope to get some ideas from the presentation that will be useful for our own OLUP, which is still being revised.
Community Newsletter On-line in 2009
Our community newsletter for May 2009 will not be printed and distributed door-to-door as it has been done in previous years. The newsletter will only be available on-line at www.lacdesroches.org. This change will eliminate the cost of printing (over $200 in 2008) and effort to deliver to each cabin.
Membership Growing
On March 26, our current paid members totaled 81. These are members willing to pay the new annual renewal fee and support our new focus as a stewardship and community organization. Thank you members!
Highway Cleanup Planned
Although several residents currently perform routine cleanup along the highway and at the public access site, members of the executive plan to do a work party cleanup along the highway from Phinetta Lake to Little Lac des Roches. They will also include a cleanup of an illegal dump site on the Wavey Lake Forestry Service Road. Although the CRD and District of 100 Mile House have designated April 20 – 26 as official spring cleanup week, our group is targeting early June for our cleanup. It will accommodate travel plans of several executive members and we can be assured that the significant amounts of snow fall from this winter will be long gone – not a likely occurrence in the month of April for our area.
Welcome Packages to be Revised
Gordon Marshall and Lorraine Jollymore will be updating our welcome packages that we have been distributing to new property owners on the lake. The package will contain a map of the lake and sensitive areas and a complimentary copy of “Living by Water” which we will be purchasing from society funds.