Executive Summary:
In 2018, the Alberta Lake Management Society (ALMS), with financial support from Alberta Ecotrust, piloted the Summer LakeKeepers program as a citizen science initiative. The program was designed to empower volunteers to monitor water quality on smaller, more remote lakes, many of which were underrepresented in provincial monitoring efforts. Participants received training and equipment to carry out standardized sampling during the open-water season. Since the program began, over 30 unique lakes have been sampled, with many monitored across multiple seasons (see Map 1).
The Summer LakeKeepers program in 2025 included 11 lakes (Map 2). In total, 45 monitoring trips were completed by 31 participants across four major watersheds: Athabasca River, North Saskatchewan River, Red Deer River, and Peace River. Sampling began on May 26, and the final sampling event occurred on October 2.
ALMS released a Summer LakeKeepers training video to assist volunteers with field monitoring preparation and sampling protocols.
The 2025 Summer LakeKeepers program was made possible by the Alberta Conservation Association’s (ACA) financial support.
For detailed program Methods, please visit Summer LakeKeepers Methods
For Results, see below. Please also visit the Gordon Foundation’s DataStream for raw data.
Please view our Brief Intro to Limnology to help improve your understanding of the following report.
Land Acknowledgment:
We respectfully acknowledge that our work takes place on the traditional territories of Canada’s First Peoples, including the Cree, Dene, Blackfoot, Saulteaux, Nakota Sioux, Inuit, and the Otipemisiwak Métis Government representing the Métis Nation within Alberta, as well as the Métis Settlements. The lakes we monitor are located within these territories, and we honor the enduring connection of Indigenous communities to the land, waters, and sky. We are committed to fostering respect, reconciliation, and meaningful partnerships with all Indigenous communities through our programs as we monitor and protect these vital natural resources together.
Map 1. Summer LakeKeepers Yearly Growth
Map 2. Summer LakeKeepers 2025 Sites
Summer LakeKeepers 2025 Nutrients:
Summer LakeKeepers 2025 Lake Profiles:
Summer 2025 Field Photos:
What has the monitoring results of the plan and of the indicators shown? Is there a need to modify the plan? It is important that the lake watershed management plan does not just sit on a shelf. Information gaps should be addressed, action items need to be managed, completed, and evaluated to best address the needs of the lake. Always keep in mind the vision: if the actions taken are not bringing the lake closer to that vision, then the plan needs to be modified. Consider updating both the state of the watershed and the lake watershed management plans at regular intervals to make sure that the actions taken were achieving the desired outcomes and to evaluate what work still needs to be done.
Reporting is an essential component of any watershed management planning and implementation process. There are two main types of reporting that should be shared with stakeholders on a regular basis: implementation reporting & effectiveness reporting.
The development of a lake watershed management plan provides the guidance needed to implement activities, but the plan cannot be static. Monitoring the performance of your management actions is essential to understanding whether your goals have been met, and whether further actions are needed. Monitoring and evaluating the implementation and effectiveness of a lake watershed management plan allows assessment of progress towards the goals and objectives of the plan, identification of problems and opportunities, and a collection of critical information required when performing a 5 or 10 year review of the plan.
Once a plan has been approved by all affected sectors and officially endorsed and released by the steering committee, then implementation can begin in full. Action projects can be large and comprehensive, or made smaller by staging projects over time or into modules that can be tackled one at a time. Fundraising is an issue that many community groups may find intimidating, but experience with programs such as the Pine Lake Restoration Program (see 
The members of the steering committee will continue to play a strong role in facilitating and tracking implementation actions. This includes any actions they were responsible for, as well as tracking other committees and sector’s actions and progress made towards achieving the plan’s outcomes. Ongoing communication is essential to successful implementation and achieving outcomes, therefore a regular reporting mechanism could be set up in order to provide regular evaluation of the plan.
There is no limit to the number or types of lake management actions, but they typically fall into the categories on the right.
This graphic describes how the various committees and groups will work and interact together. The circle size depicts the approximate number of people involved, and the circles overlapping indicates that some individuals may reside in all of the circles and participate in multiple committees as part of the planning process. The technical committee is shown as an arrow, indicating that it is independent and has relatively few people, and yet it interacts with all of the groups. This graphic may look different depending on the lake and the people involved, and a detailed structure should be agreed upon and described in the plan’s Terms of Reference (Step 6).
Helpful resources