Editor’s look at Summer 2025
by Christine Ouellet
Lake Heney finally thawed after a long, snowy winter that was a skier’s delight. Spring brought a new reality, shifting the global order with strong power plays, affecting every sphere of our lives.
Changes are everywhere. Within the Association, Roger Lason, Chair, has resigned, and Tony VanDuzer is acting interim until a new chair is elected at the AGM. The association thanks Mr. Larson for his devoted service at the helm for the past ten years.
Like so many lakes, Lac Heney’s presence of invasive species has been identified as a recent Kilgour study reveals on the environmental front. This calls for action, and as David Frum said, we can’t continue sitting in our rocking chair, puffing a “Gauloise”. That said, amazing sunsets such as the one illustrated above are a strong incentive to work hard to preserve the beauty and grandeur of our lake.
I am at the end of my 2-year term on the Association’s Board, and as the Editor of the Association Newsletter. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the community and bring interesting, challenging views to the forefront. The writing/contributor team: Tony, Ted, Tom, Diane, Chantal, Pierre, Margie and Olivier for the page setting, photographers Pierre and Jeff and I want to thank you, our dear reader. We hope you enjoy this publication, and please let us know of any topics you would like us to investigate.
Greetings from the Acting President
By Tony VanDuzer
As usual, it has been a busy year for the Association. Your board has been working hard on issues that matter to you, including government mining policy, water quality, and the new threat of Eurasian Milfoil. All these issues are addressed in this newsletter and will be discussed at our Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Sunday, July 20, 2025. All Association members are invited to the meeting to find out more and ask questions. Please join us.
Attending the AGM this year is especially important because, for the first time in more than 10 years, we will be electing a new President. Roger Larson, who has led the Association so effectively since he was first elected in 2015, including through the difficult years of the pandemic, has stepped down. We will all miss Roger’s leadership and commitment very much.
With Roger’s departure, I am serving as the Acting President, but we are looking for a new President from the Association membership to lead the Association going forward. If you are interested or know someone who might be, please get in touch with me, Tony VanDuzer (javanduzer@gmail.com). I would welcome the opportunity to talk to you about the Association and the President’s role. You could also speak to any of our other board members: Diane Billey, Ted Billey, Rees Kassen, Chantal Landry, Jane Macintyre, Tom McKenna, Christine Ouellet, Rock Radovan, Karen Richardson, Ashwin Shingadia, Liz Stirling, Sean Sutton, and Michael Wolfson.
We are always looking for people to join us on the Board. If you are interested in the issues that affect your lake and your property and are curious to learn more about the board and how you can make a difference, please let me know. See you on the lake, Tony.
Watermilfoil Study
By Michael Wolfson
The Association has just received a report on the extent of milfoil in lakes Heney and Desormeaux, commissioned by the Lac Heney Foundation. There are two kinds of milfoil: the local Northern Water Milfoil and the invasive Eurasian species. In a 2016 study, no Eurasian was found, but based on this new report for 2024, a considerable amount is present.
The problem with Eurasian milfoil is that it can spread very easily and grow very rapidly, allowing it to take over shallow areas of a lake. A major way milfoil is spread is by motorboats that cut up the plants when they are in the shallow water where the plants are growing. These cut-up bits spread and root very easily to form new plants.
The new study, by Kilgour and Associates Ltd, was quite rigorous. Samples of the living plants were collected from 23 locations in Lac Heney and 5 locations in Lac Desormeaux at depths ranging from 1 to 6 meters. These physical samples were taken back to the lab to determine how many contained either Northern or Eurasian milfoil – the results were 12% and 16% of the total collected plant biomass, respectively, in Lac Heney.The highest concentrations of the Eurasian milfoil were found at 4 sites in the northern portion of Lac Heney and one site in Lac Desormeaux.
Controlling or eliminating milfoil, especially the Eurasian variety, can be very costly. At the least, it is imperative that motorboats not cut up existing plants, hastening their spread. Boat washing to prevent new introductions of milfoil is also critical. The Association, in cooperation with the Lac Heney Foundation, is working on how best to respond to the new appearance of Eurasian milfoil, and it will be discussed at the Association Annual General Meeting on July 20, 2025, at the Lac Ste-Marie Community Centre.
https://www.invasivespeciescentre.ca/about-us/reports/
https://www.aplcedres.ca/en/projects-and-achievements/our-projects/431-battle-for-control-of-eurasian-watermilfoil-in-the-cedar-lakes
https://fyto.ca/
Membership
By Ted Billey
Two years ago, our Association formed a membership committee led by Tony VanDuzer, to examine dwindling membership levels and to propose actions that would turn this trend around and restore a strong membership base for the watershed.
The committee considered possible causes for the drop in membership. Certainly, COVID made it difficult to meet and be active in the community. We pondered whether there was a perception that our work is less critical, given that the lake has largely recovered from the damage done by the fish farm, noting that the membership was at its highest levels when the lake was under threat.
We still have important issues that require our attention. Invasive Eurasian Milfoil has been discovered in our watershed, and action must be taken to control and remove it. Also, our recent communications to residents have explained the potential threat of mining in our area and actions that residents can take to counter this threat. Having a strong membership helps our Association when discussing with our local elected officials about issues that affect our watershed. Often, local municipal elections are decided by less than 100 votes, so listening to and supporting an association with a strong membership is good politics.
After considering the above, the committee prepared communications for the residents of the watershed, including those who had previously been members, and sent them out in the first half of the fiscal year, asking for their help to strengthen our base. Additionally, our website was updated with a link that allows residents to pay their dues by credit card, replacing PayPal, which we stopped using the previous year.
I’m happy to report that the committee’s actions resulted in a 50% increase in our membership in one year!
Mining File Update
By Chantal Landry
In April, I met with a representative of the Gatineau Valley Regional County Municipality (MRCVG) to learn about developments in mining since the new Mining Act came into effect last November. Since private lands are now excluded from obtaining exclusive exploitation rights, the MRCVG is currently drafting a document to delineate Territories Incompatible with Mining Activity (TIAM) from public lands in its land use and development plan. These are territories where the viability of the activities currently taking place there would be compromised by the impact of mining activity. The TIAM will then be submitted to the government for approval. In the meantime, the MRCVG has obtained a suspension of the government’s prerogative to designate any new exclusive exploration right while the document delineating the TIAM is being drafted.
Although the new Act does not contain measures to protect waterways from mining waste, it is possible that when reviewing an application for exclusive exploration rights, the government will consider the risks to the health of a lake, if this is the opinion of the Bureau d ‘audience publique sur environment (BAPE) first forwarded to the Minister responsible for the environment. There is also talk of adding lakes to the TIAM as elements of ecological interest. However, this remains to be confirmed.
We will keep you informed of any new developments in this matter. We would like to thank the MRCVG representative for the time he gave us and the information he shared. For your information, in our meetings this spring with the Mayors of Lac-Sainte-Marie and Gracefield, they both expressed their strong disapproval of mining activities within their municipalities.
Protect your lake with wildflowers
By Chantal Landry
If you care about the health of your lake, revegetation of its shoreline is essential. That is why, for a third year, the Association du Bassin versant du lac Heney Watershed (AB-VLHW) invites you to come meet us at the Lac-Sainte-Marie Fête des Voisin’s (Neighbors Day), on June 7th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and at the opening of the Les saveurs de la Vallée Market in Gracefield, on June 13th between noon and 5 p.m. We will offer you a sample of wildflower seeds that will help protect and beautify your shoreline, while contributing to the health of your lake.
Our Association counts on your support in its work to protect the lakes in the Watershed (Lacs Heney, Desormeaux, à la Barbue, Vert, Noir, and other small lakes) so that we, as well as future generations, can enjoy this magnificent nature that is offered to us.
An initiative of the ABVLHW Science and Environment Committee
Merchandise!
Come and play Cribbage at the lake with a new Lac Heney cribbage board. This and many more great items are available at the Beggar’s Bench, in Lac Ste-Marie.
Latest News
A new book by Pierre Calve
The book Le français grandeur nature: portrait et Défense d’une langue vivante (French in Real Life: Portrait and Defence of a Language in Motion) was recently published by the University of Ottawa Press. Here is a summary.
French is probably the most monitored, regulated, and criticized language on earth. The French spoken in Quebec and the rest of Canada is even more so, as it has long been considered the poor and faulty relative of the language supposedly used in all circumstances by a certain elite of French society. In over twenty texts illustrated with numerous examples, Pierre Calvé paints a realistic and objective portrait of French as a living language that naturally varies over time, space, and society.
The topics covered are diverse and accessible to non-specialists. They include, for example, the characteristics of the informal, day-to-day spoken language as opposed to the formal and written versions; the various levels of usage and their social and linguistic acceptability; the debatable recommendations of some “guardians” of language “purity”, as well as themes such as the relative difficulty of French as opposed to English; the historical relationships between the two languages; word borrowing; language insecurity; the complexity of French spelling, etc.
This book fills a gap between the traditional knowledge acquired in school while learning French (mainly written) and the knowledge that every Francophone and Francophile should have about this beautiful language in all the richness of its diversity.
The printed and digital versions of the book are available in various bookstores (see the website leslibraires.ca to know which ones), on Amazon (Kindle), Kobo, Apple Books, etc.
Lake Heney wins the battle against phosphorous
From the archives – By Pierre Calvé and Jennifer Stuart (https://bvlacheney.ca/history/articles/beginnings)
The history of Heney Lake is a testament to the perverse effect of what happens when the delicate balance of a lake is disrupted. It happened in 1991 when a fish farm was established on Heney Lake. In 1993, it produced 80 tons of trout per year; in 1994, it increased to 250 tons. Phosphorus levels recorded an instantaneous massive gain and increased by 20ug/l. The lake went from oligotrophic before the fish farm’s arrival to the eutrophic zone, with the sudden addition of 893 kilos and 1300 kilos of phosphorus in the sediments, while the lake can only absorb 500 kilos from all sources.
After several years of struggle, it was a movement of committed citizens, led by Pierre Calvé and Jennifer Stuart, who filed and won a $4,940,000 lawsuit against the government in 2004. This money was used to cover the costs of decontaminating the lake and to set up a monitoring program as part of scientific research.
Following the application of 1,800 tons of ferrous chloride in 2007, the health of the lake was restored. The phosphorus level had dropped to 15ug/l after the treatment was applied. Regular water tests reveal that the clarity of the water and the presence of phosphorus remain at acceptable levels. The last tests carried out in 2023 revealed a phosphorus level of 9ug/l and water transparency at 5 meters.
All residents living around the lakes, like those of Heney Lake at that time, must remain vigilant to limit as much as possible any new addition of phosphorus to the lakes. Hence, the importance of taking good care of your septic tank by eliminating the use of harmful products.
Disclaimer: While we stive for accurate and fair reporting of all issues, we acknowledge that inaccuracies may occur and we try to correct factual errors and omissions. The views expressed are not necessarily the opinion of the BVLH Association.