Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

Pasqua Lake

Algae blooms becoming more intense, lasting longer in Qu'Appelle Valley lakes: U of Regina biologist

Algae blooms becoming more intense, lasting longer in Qu'Appelle Valley lakes: U of Regina biologist

First Nations leaders, community activists and university scientists say they're growing increasingly worried about the Qu'Appelle Valley chain of lakes, with water quality sometimes dipping below recreational use standards and toxic algae blooms increasing in severity. "We're going to get hit with some wicked blue-green-purple algae if we don't start building policies and protecting our fresh water," said Aura Lee MacPherson, chair of the Calling Lakes Ecomuseum, an advocacy group that works to protect the Lower Qu'Appelle River watershed, in southeastern Saskatchewan.

Global warming increases human health risk due to toxic algae in Canadian Prairie lakes

Global warming increases human health risk due to toxic algae in Canadian Prairie lakes

New research by scientists at the University of Regina’s Institute of Environmental Change and Society shows that global warming is increasing levels of toxic algae detrimental to human health. The study was published online, in the journal Limnology and Oceanography Letters. “Our decade-long project establishes that global warming is increasing toxin levels in Prairie lakes,” says Dr. Peter Leavitt, a Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change and Society and a co-author of the study. “What is particularly worrying is that the chance of exceeding toxin levels that cause acute human health effects has increased to one in four in several lakes in southern Saskatchewan.”

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