ATHABASCA — A Calling Lake man has been recognized for his outstanding work protecting lakes and watersheds in the province.
For the past twelve years, the Alberta Lake Management Society (ALMS) has made a point to showcase the dedicated, passionate volunteers that have enabled data collection at more than 100 lakes since the organization’s establishment in 1996 with the Volunteer of the Year award.
This January, Calling Lake’s own Owen Larson was celebrated as the standout steward for 2024, an act of recognition that both surprised and inspired him, adding fuel to his drive to maintain the natural beauty of his seasonal home.
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“I was caught off guard,” said Larson, who's been working with ALMS for four years. A routine stop to pick up supplies for a winter weekend sampling trip turned into an unexpected and emotion-filled photo op, complete with a droplet-shaped plaque for commemoration.
“I was completely taken aback. I was volunteering not to be recognized, I was volunteering just to be a good neighbour and a good resident and a good steward of our oasis,” he added. “I got a little emotional because I think back and go, ‘Geez, there is lots I was volunteering and taking time for, and I did it because I wanted to.'”
ALMS program manager Brittany Onysyk said Larson was a clear fit for the award’s criteria of going the extra mile in helping ALMS gather data that informs long-term water quality trends around the province and creates benchmarks for lake health, which in turn can help guide decisions on how to sustainably manage and restore water and watersheds.
“Owen, he goes well above and beyond what we see for our volunteers and would expect from someone who’s volunteering their time,” she said. “We really want to show too that we appreciate their time and that their efforts are making a difference, they’re making a change.”
Larson and his wife Tamara are part-time residents of Calling Lake, and although they split their time between Edmonton and Northern Alberta, the couple actively engage in community advocacy and efforts year-round.
Onysyk said Larson has played a key role in recruiting other lake residents to help out with sampling trips or get involved with the monitoring programs themselves over the years, efforts that allow ALMS to continue building on data collected at the lake 25 years ago.
“We’re a non-profit and don’t have boats to go out on the water, so we really rely on our volunteers to get us out” said Onysyk. When volunteers age out, have other commitments, or simply won’t be around for testing dates, lakes can fall off the programs entirely if no supporting community network is in place.
“With Owen, him just being able to really rally his community and build that interest and having other people involved, it builds a really solid resiliency to the water sampling at their lake,” she added.
Larson is active in both the LakeWatch and the Winter LakeKeepers monitoring programs, which get him out on the water in conditions of all kinds, and can make for long days depending on the type of testing. But a larger goal of sustainably preserving the lake’s health for years to come is what keeps him coming back despite the time commitment.
“One thing I’ve learned about information and data is that you can always do a snapshot in time and see what the data tells you, but it’s really the trending over period of time that will help you determine what’s going on with the lake,” he said.
While he’s been a regular at Calling Lake for nearly 17 years, Larson said Tamara and family have roots along the shoreline reaching back to the 1970’s, and this connection has fostered the couple’s sense of stewardship for their part-time home.
From cleaning up the beach, picking litter off the water, and designing their nearly net-zero Sea-Can house to have as little environmental impact as possible, they share a vision of preserving the natural resource for future generations of the community.
“This is our oasis, and we want it to be as nice tomorrow as it was yesterday, and that’s a healthy respect.”
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ALMS said no formal partnership with the M.D of Opportunity or Bigstone Cree Nation exists in regards to lake monitoring, but Larson said he has spoken to officials about lake health and Onysyk said any individuals and organizations wishing to get involved with ALMS are welcome.
And while Larson is returning to his regular job in a full-time capacity this year and hopes to enjoy his time at the lake relaxing, he said the recognition from ALMS has added fuel to his volunteering fire.
“I was going to take a step back from it,” he said. “But this award has actually got me energized again to a point where I’m going to continue, and we’re going to enlist more volunteers and continue doing the sampling because it’s the right thing to do for our oasis.”
Onysyk said the efforts of Calling Lake’s volunteers like Larson over the years will be available in the form of a trend analysis using more than 10 years of collected data, expected to be available in May.
Data gathered at Calling Lake and all other Alberta lakes by ALMS and the provincial government can be found online on the Alberta Water Quality Data Portal, and ALMS yearly reports can be read on their website. Those interested in volunteering can visit www.ALMS.ca.
