It’s been a while since we announced the funding for a project to increase our understanding of the current status of Llyn Padarn and to explore a more collaborative approach to its future management. The reason we’ve been a bit quiet is that there’s been a lot going on, so it’s high time for an update.
In early February, the newly formed Llyn Padarn Forum met at the Royal Victoria Hotel and was chaired by Liz Saville Roberts MP. The Forum was attended by concerned local residents, who had responded to previous posts, as well as invited representatives of the statutory agencies with responsibility for Llyn Padarn, local businesses, community councillors, and interest groups. It was a busy agenda, with the theme of ‘what do we know’ and ‘what do we need to know’ about the lake, to ensure it is managed sustainably in the future. The Forum agreed that the first six months of work should focus on improving our understanding of water quality and recreational use.
Following on from a subsequent meeting of the Water Quality Working Group, we launched a Citizen Science Project to carry out weekly sampling of water chemistry and viral load at 5 locations around the lake, in collaboration with the North Wales River Trust and Bangor University. Sampling started at the beginning of April and will run into June. We have also been successful in securing a year’s worth of weekly bacterial sampling from Surfers Against Sewage, which will start later this month. A big thank you to all the volunteers!
The Recreation Working Group has agreed to do some surveys to gather information to better understand who is using the lake, how they use it and where they get their information. We will be putting a call out for volunteers soon, so please look out for the posts.
The Forum met again at the beginning of April, and this time we began to look at some of the issues the lake is facing in more detail. There was discussion as to whether the legislation and regulatory system is sufficient to ensure the protection of the lake, and case studies around recent events helped to highlight some of the current issues regarding how and when the public is kept informed.
In the background, we are working on collating existing knowledge and data for the lake, which will help to inform future management decisions, and planning some community events, which we will let you know about as soon as we have confirmed dates. We are also planning an upgrade to www.loving-our-lake.org. There’s lots of useful info on there, so it’s worth a look, but it’s a bit dated and due for a makeover!
...oh, and we need to secure some further funding so we can build on the progress to date!
These fabulous photos were taken by our Water Sampling Volunteers.
Big thanks to everyone who is giving their time to help us love Llyn Padarn 🙂
