Environmental Stewardship

The Board of Directors of the GF&GC acknowledge that the environment of our area, including clean and pristine lakes and shoreline, is the most precious resource we can hand down to our children and their children. As such, focusing Club resources on environmental stewardship of Club practices and property in the Pemichangan and 31 Mile Lake area as well as encouraging members to be excellent environmental stewards is a top priority.

The GF&GC has adopted environmental guidelines as Club policy, and we invite all club members to do the same for themselves. By articulating these guidelines and increasing awareness and education, we can all work together to ensure that we implement best practices in environmental stewardship.

The GFGC Loon Count

The GFGC Loon Count is an active and vital part of the Club. It was started in 1988 by member Dick Weber, who had a deep love for our lakes and for these wonderful birds.

In 1997 biologists were brought in to capture, examine and immediately release loons on Pemi and Thirty-one. The biologists came back in 1999 to recapture some of the same individuals. The scientific sampling of blood revealed a very low level of mercury and an extremely healthy population of loons. The pollutant levels in samples taken here were the lowest in all of the lakes that were studied in Quebec.

The Loon Count has become not only a social gathering but a very organized recording of loon activity on Thirty-one, Pemi, Bass, Beauty and Malone lakes. These lakes are divided into 14 regions for assigned counters to record. Every year, over 50 people are involved in the count. Members and their friends not only count loons, but also learn about and become closer to these unbelievable creatures.

Stephen Kirkpatrick took over the count from Dick in 1996 and led the count through 2010. In 2011, Tim and She Stephen ile Casgrain took over for Steve. In 2016 and 2017, Greg and Anne Steers took on hosting duties.

The 2018 Loon Count is headed up by Stephen Kirkpatrick once again. If you would like to be involved in the Loon Count, please contact Stephen at kirkpatrickwildlife@comcast.net. He will assign you an area to count, or pair you with another team. The day starts on the water at 10:00 a.m. and at noon, all the counters meet at the Kirkpatrick cottage on Half Penny Island on 31, to report their count and enjoy lunch and great conversation. We hope to see you there.

Fishing Policy

To ensure a sustainable, high-quality sport fishery on Club lakes and to follow a general approach to conservation that reflects both the history and values of the Club, we ask members to:

· Obey provincial fishing laws and regulations;

· Wash their boats before seasonal entry to the lake;

· Use barbless hooks for rainbow and speckled trout, bass and pike, and generally try to avoid the use of treble hooks;

· Not use lead sinkers;

· Never transfer fish from one body of water to another;

· Only keep enough fish to eat on the day of the catch; otherwise practice ‘catch and release’;

· On Malone Lake, keep no more than three fish per angler per day;

· Do their best to record information in the Club fishing log

GF&GC is consulting with the Quebec conservation authorities with respect to desirable size and catch limits of bass (large and small mouth), pike, and lake trout (the latter are already governed by Provincial regulations). Please expect this policy to be updated when those recommended size/catch limits have been finalized.

Water Testing on Thirty-One Mile Lake and Pemichangan

For several years, the Pemichangan and Thirty-One Mile Lake associations have participated in a province-wide water testing program organized by the Quebec Ministry of Sustainable Development and the Environment. The focus of the testing is to create a baseline on water transparency and biological water quality for over 700 lakes in the province.

A 2016 report was prepared by Neil McIlveen with the advice of others involved in the testing on the two lakes and it reviews the results for Lake Pemichangan and Thirty-One Mile Lake to 2015. The basic conclusion is that the water quality in the two lakes remains uniformly high. We should, however, not be complacent about this result given some of the current and proposed stessors on the lakes.

Link to 2015 water quality test results: WATER TESTING 31 AND PEMI RESULTS 2015 FINAL.pdf