A group of amateur cyclists is attempting an ambitious, three-day, 500-kilometre, self supported road trip from Winnipeg to the Experimental Lakes Area, west of Vermilion Bay.
The tour starts today (Friday, August 30th) and will take the seven cyclists to Warroad, Minnesota, Nestor Falls and the ELA.
The ride is aimed at raising awareness and funds for the Lake Winnipeg Foundation as well as bringing more attention to the ELA.
All money collected will support the Lake Winnipeg Community-Based Monitoring Network.
The group mobilizes citizens, scientists and conservation professionals to collect water samples across Manitoba in order to measure phosphorus concentration.
Phosphorus is the nutrient responsible for blue-green algae blooms on Lake Winnipeg and the LWCBMN is identifying hotspots and localized areas that contribute higher amounts of phosphorus to waterways.
This is the fifth year of ‘Cycling for Solutions’ and so far more than $40,000 has been raised.
The fundraising goal this year is $13,000.
Roger Mollot is the Operations Manager of the ELA and he says their self-funded ride has really helped the Foundation.
“They have expanded from 12 sampling sites to over a 160 sites in 2019. They estimate they will collect over 2,000 water samples this year. So from 200 samples in the first year to over 2,000 samples four years later.”
Mollot says “If we can identify where those problem areas are, we can make suggestions to watershed managers about where to invest money and effort into controlling that phosphorus loading so that we can reduce and hopefully eliminate these harmful algae blooms that we see in our lakes each summer.”
Peter Wooders is from Geneva, Switzerland and he is participating in the event.
Wooders says “What I am looking to do as an International person is to fulfill the ELA’s legacy and destiny of taking research and advise and policies from Canada’s lakes to the world. This facility can be the world’s freshwater laboratory and that’s what we are looking for as we move forward.”
Wooders says with the work and research being conducted by the Lake Winnipeg Foundation, they can use the unique facility of the ELA to help propose solutions to some of the problems.
He is hoping to establish the ELA as an International facility so all countries can examine freshwater problems.
For updates on the tour visit https://www.facebook.com/events/519458348805129/
To make a donation call 1-204-956-0436 or visit https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/42690
More information on the ELA can be found at https://www.iisd.org/ela/
To find out more about the work being done by the Lake Winnipeg Foundation visit https://www.lakewinnipegfoundation.org/
