Pelican Lake launches boat plan to keep invasives out

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This article was published 15/05/2025 (185 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just one boat launch will be open to visitors at Pelican Lake this season while the Rural Municipality of Prairie Lakes implements a plan to shun aquatic invasive species.

Reeve Darren Seymour provided the Sun with an update Wednesday on how the RM plans to implement a “one boat, one lake” policy this summer.

Seymour said all travellers will be directed to the boat launch near Ninette, where watercraft inspections will take place.

Gates for inspections will be open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day of the week.

“We’ve put up a shed there, and we’re in the process — we’ve got five or six inspectors that were getting trained up to inspect the boats,” said Seymour.

“Any travelling boaters, if someone comes from Brandon, comes from Winnipeg, they will come to the access at the north end at Ninette, which most of the people do anyway … and they come here and they get an inspection.”

The remaining 20 accesses around the lake will be closed to the general public using barriers, chains and a combination padlock. Locals, however, including people who rent a seasonal campsite, will be able to buy a decal for their boat that allows them to gain entry.

Locals will operate on an honour system, in which they purchase a decal for their watercraft and commit to Pelican Lake as their one lake for the summer.

Explaining the program, Seymour said that the RM decided that locals in the Prairie Lake region have more skin in the game, and can be trusted to give a higher priority to the health of the lake.

“We feel that you have a bit of investment in the community and in the lake, so you will probably, you know, have the best interest of the lake in mind,” said Seymour.

“If you’re a ratepayer or a cottage owner or a seasonal renter, then you have a stake in the lake. And if you sign up and do the decal program, then you get the code to be able to access the lake at those locations.”

Closure of access points is designed to prevent boats that could be carrying aquatic invasive species from entering the lake. Boats that have been in affected lakes can serve as a vehicle of travel for species like zebra mussels, which have spread into Manitoba and were discovered in Clear Lake last year.

Zebra mussels have been found in Lake Winnipeg, the Red River, the Assiniboine River and Clear Lake. According to the province, the mussels pose a risk to fish populations and can change ecosystems. Among those impacts, the mussel consumes large quantities of algae, which affects the base of the aquatic food chain.

The program has been designed so that people who use the lake fund the inspections and management.

Inspection will be $40, and boaters can buy a $5 tag upon leaving the lake that will give them free access when they return, so long as they have not launched the boat in any other lake. The tag will bind their boat to their trailer, and would be broken if the boater launched the watercraft elsewhere.

Sales on the decals have been busy so far, according to Greg Speirs, a volunteer who helped put the program together.

“We did have our first registration last weekend at the Ninette Hall, and it was very well attended,” Speirs said. “In fact there was hardly a time throughout the day that there wasn’t somebody at the table registering a watercraft. And at other times there was a waiting line.”

Speirs, who dedicated time to help the RM design and implement the policy this year, said the community is backing the idea. He believes the honour system for locals will work as intended because people in the area are familiar with the issue of invasive species in lakes around the province.

“Feedback that we’re getting from the local residents, whether they’re permanent or seasonal, I mean, they’re on board 100 per cent,” he said. “They understand the urgency, they understand the need. They’re buying in 100 per cent and I fully believe that the trust is there.”

Speirs added that the community would like to add more access locations for the general public, but it is not yet financially possible. Since inspections are the program’s biggest cost, the decision was made to focus all inspections in one place.

The inspection program is set to roll into effect next week, with training almost complete for inspectors, Seymour said. Provincial inspectors are set to train staff on location when the weather clears up.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com