Year-round and seasonal residents interested in maintaining the natural beauty of area lake waters are invited to attend the Rainy Lake Conservancy’s Annual General Meeting via Zoom at 5PM, Thursday, August 11. The Rainy Lake Conservancy is a charitable organization based in Fort Frances.
The first twenty minutes of the meeting will be devoted to Conservancy business, an update of what the organization’s members have achieved over the year and their plans for the coming year.
The rest of the meeting will be a presentation from speakers Jim Leonard and Shaun Loney, authors of Manidoo Ziibi, a book of stories and photos about the Indigenous people and European settlers who have lived along the Rainy River. This is a chance to learn more about the rich history of the two groups on both sides of the border and to discover present-day river landmarks.
“I’ve always wanted to collect stories of the Rainy River to help us all – Ojibwa, Metis, settlers and visitors – to understand each other better,” says Leonard.
The Conservancy partners with many organizations on several projects. For example, members organize nature outings, collect water quality data, promote good shoreline practice, and support important research and community projects. The primary focus, however, is to protect the wilderness character of Rainy Lake by facilitating conservation easements and land donations and providing information on good lakeshore stewardship.
Easements are voluntary, legal agreements which help to protect private land from over development in future years while sometimes providing tax advantages to landowners. Under the terms of the agreements, the property owners conserve the natural values of their land while still holding title, living on, selling, using, or passing on the land. The easement is a flexible document balancing the wishes of property owners with the Conservancy’s mission to preserve the ecological values of the properties.
In general, the Conservancy is a venue where Canadians and Americans work together to preserve the natural beauty, clean water, abundant plant and wildlife, and rich history of this uniquely beautiful part of the world. Plus, members meet like-minded lake dwellers.
Lake dweller or not, member or not, everyone is invited to attend Thursday’s Annual General Meeting.
E-mail info@rainylakeconservancy.org to receive a meeting Zoom link. More Conservancy information can be found at www.rainylakeconservancy.org.
