Fall 2026

Hello everyone,

For the third year in a row the FLP newsletter starts with a comment about the glorious fall weather. Nothing better than spending Thanksgiving at the lake with friends or family when the fall colours are as glorious as they were again this year. Thank you for sharing your fall photos on FLP’s 1300-member Facebook page and to Claire Poitras for her photo above. As usual, the FLP Board was busy at the beginning of the summer organising the AGM and then this fall following up on ideas and concerns raised at the meeting. What’s new this year is that FLP is now coordinating its lake health and outreach efforts and initiatives with those of other lake associations. Also, an increasing number of FLP volunteers are stepping up to support the Board’s efforts, which is great news because there’s strength in numbers. This edition also includes information on a local hidden gem. Read on to know more.

2026 AGM

At the July 12 AGM held at the Gatineau Fish and Game Club, the Board reported on membership, lake health, camping and financials, and members present elected the new Board. President Jeff Stanier thanked departing Board member and researcher par excellence Marianne Kennedy-Beaulne, who was instrumental in bringing to fruition last year’s RAPPEL Trout Spawning Bed Study. A former research lawyer, Marianne played a crucial role working with RAPPEL to apply for government funding, and worked relentlessly coordinating the actual testing and overseeing room and board for the RAPPEL biologists. FLP will not be the same without her extraordinary work ethic and attention to detail. Jeff also welcomed new Board member Pat Zakaib (see introduction below) and three new FLP volunteers, Amy Harris and André Patry (Lake Health) and Betsy Ball (website). The Board continues to be composed of representatives from all over the lake who bring a variety of skills to the table. Almost all are fully bilingual, one is a Quebec resident, two are Francophones and two are from the United States, allowing for diverse points of view as well. Several ideas and concerns were raised at the AGM, some of which are addressed below. As usual, we asked our new Board member to tell us a bit about her background and her reasons for joining the Board. Here is what Pat had to say:

“My first experience on the lake was a week-long canoe-camping trip in the 1980s with a University of Ottawa Communications class. Our prof, who knew the lake well, had us portage from Lac Heney to Lac Pemichangan and to our camping site without sighting any cottages. We thought we were in the wilds. I have now been on the lake – my happy place thanks to its quiet and beauty – for 29 years. Wild to remember that we had a party line when we first moved. It took only 28 years to get wifi. My working life – in politics – was complicated and non-stop. I must admit, not having wifi for years was welcome. I am on the Board because I want to give back to the lake for all that it has given me.”

Questions Raised at the AGM

Campsite Map Availability

The campsite map will continue to be reserved to members only. It is available in the Members’ Only section of the FLP website. Please contact Wanda Taylor for the password. It was removed from the public section of the website because the Board regularly received online requests for campsite reservations. The map seemed to be acting as a form of marketing and advertising for camping. It is only intended to help users navigate the lake.

Drinking Water Quality (Potability)

FLP actively monitors lake health with the support of, and direction from, the provincial Réseau de surveillance volontaire des lacs, a Volunteer Lake Monitoring Network (RSVL). FLP volunteers, led by Cameron Jackson, regularly test water transparency at two locations on the lake selected by RSVL, one in the big lake and one near the entrance to Baie Ritchie (see recent results). However, routine lake health monitoring does not include evaluating the potability of lake water.

For those interested in testing whether their water is safe to drink, please note the following information provided by a FLP member. Please note that results may vary over the course of a season. FLP cannot guarantee the accuracy of results and is providing the following for information purposes only. Other alternatives exist.

Relatively inexpensive kits to check if your water is safe to drink are available at Quincaillerie Rona R-Cube Inc., 924 Chemin Riverside, Wakefield (819-459-1133).

The following kits are available:

1. one that tests for bacteria only, to check if your water is potable ($79);
2. one test that tests for metals and other physical substances like iron, magnesium, lead, fluoride and arsenic ($140);
3. both test kits can be purchased together ($199).

Kits come with instructions on how to properly collect the water sample and with all necessary containers, which must be returned to the Rona dealer who sends it off for testing. Please note that there are only certain days you can return your containers.

Pemichangan Boat Washing Station

A third point of discussion at the AGM was boat washing: the continued absence of a boat washing station at Lac Pemichangan and the difficulty of finding the boat washing station in Gracefield (located behind the library). It should be noted that a second boat washing station was installed at the end of the summer at the corner of Chemin du Poisson-Blanc and Chemin du Lac-Heney, in the parking lot of the fire station.

A total of 4,517 boats were washed at the LSM boat washing station between August 30, 2023 and September 4, 2026. Almost 350 boats were washed at the Gracefield station over the summer. For now, without enforcement by Gracefield of their Bylaw making boat washing compulsory, FLP will focus on increasing awareness of the threat of invasive species, for example through better signage.

In order to encourage the Municipality to increase its signage significantly, FLP met with representatives from the 31-Mille, Lac-Sainte-Marie and Heney lake associations over the summer to work on coordinating efforts on various issues, including boat washing. As a result, FLP, Heney and 31-Mille lake association representatives recently met with Gracefield officials (the Directeur des travaux publics and the Coordonnateur des ressources humaines, matérielles et des services de proximité, with the Directrice générale in copy) to express their collective concern about the advance of invasive species in our waterways and to discuss increased signage. Gracefield responded positively, committing to the following in an email to the lake associations:

[TRANSLATION]

• “Request to the MRC: We can support efforts to install a sign highlighting the importance of boat washing at the Gracefield tourist information kiosk, similar to the MRC sign in the Municipality of Low.
• City Website: We can enhance the information available on gracefield.ca to better emphasize the importance of boat washing, the locations of washing and decontamination stations, as well as the provisions of the current municipal by-law and the applicable fines.
• Additional Signage: [We are] prepared to cover the costs associated with installing signs regarding invasive species, following an approach similar to the initiative implemented by the Municipality of Blue Sea.
• Digital Sign: We can also display an awareness message on the City’s digital sign, located just a short distance from the washing station.
• Distribution of Material: We can assist in compiling a list of businesses and public locations where leaflets and brochures could be distributed. This preparation can take place over the coming months, in anticipation of the distribution planned by the lake associations for the spring of 2027.

As for replacing the three small signs indicating the locations of the boat washing stations with larger, more visible signs, the situation is somewhat different. Since the properties in question along Route 105 are not owned by the City of Gracefield, certain authorizations will need to be obtained from third parties before we can proceed.

Nevertheless, we have taken note of this request and are willing to take the necessary steps with the relevant stakeholders. We can also work with the lake associations on this matter to give the request more weight. At this stage, however, we cannot guarantee that the installation can be approved, since the decision is not solely up to the City.”

FLP and other lake association representatives have committed to working with Gracefield to distribute flyers about invasive species and boat washing in 2027, and also to supporting Gracefield’s efforts to install larger boat washing signs on rue Principale.

Lake Health – Dissolved Oxygen Level Testing

Lac Pemichangan was selected by the Quebec Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks for a special project aimed at documenting dissolved oxygen levels in lakes within the RSVL Volunteer Lake Monitoring Network.

The Agence de bassin versant des 7 (ABV), recognized by the Ministry as Pemichangan’s regional watershed agency, performed these measurements in June, August and September 2026 with the assistance of FLP volunteers. This is in addition to the above-mentioned RSVL measurements of lake transparency measured by FLP volunteers throughout the 2026 season.

Measuring dissolved oxygen available in different zones of the lake helps to characterize the quality of the lake habitat. In the deepest part of the lake (the hypolimnion) dissolved oxygen levels serve as an indicator of the lake’s metabolism. The ABV biologists measured pH, temperature and dissolved oxygen levels every meter from the surface to the lake bottom. Two different lake sites with depths between 30m and 60m were measured during each visit.

Lac Pemichangan is fortunate to have been selected for this additional lake health testing. The initial response from the biologist was that the lake is in very good condition, but we look forward to getting and sharing the results of the analysis of the study in the next few months.

Adopt-a-Site Program

FLP hires Marcel Chantigny yearly to help keep the camping and picnic sites located on provincial land clean and tidy. However, given the number of sites and budget limitations, he is unable to do it alone. Consequently, FLP created the Adopt-a-Site Program, whereby volunteers select a site to visit a few times during July and August in order to check and help maintain the condition of their chosen site as a complement to Marcel’s work. Volunteers often choose to make this an outing with their children, grandchildren or families, thus engendering a sense of responsibility of local stewardship in regard to the lake’s health in the next generation. The Adopt-a-Site Program was once again very successful in 2026 thanks to the following volunteers: Karen Butterfield, Brian Scott, Claudine Tremblay, Michèle Patry, Betsy and Greg Ball, Ross Millar, Caroline Phillips, Claire Poitras and Marc Dumont, John Booth, Peter and Susan Annis, David Lees, Pierre and Lisa Isabelle, John Hilbrich, Hilary Horan, Amy Harris, Nicole Laframboise, Wendy Patry, Rob Dies, Tracey Henderson, Joe Irvine, and Ménès and Leigh-Ann Pierre-Pierre. Your assisted stewardship in the management of the camping and picnic sites is invaluable in the maintenance of the lake’s health. It does indeed take a village. Let’s keep the energy going for 2027!

Sage Farm – Home of the “Beef Whisperer”

The off-season is a perfect time for exploring what the Vallée-de-la-Gatineau has to offer, from apple picking at Verger Merleau, to biking along the Véloroute des Draveurs (now paved all the way to Kazabazua!) and to the Kitigan Zibi Cultural Centre, featured in a previous newsletter. For people at the South end of Pemichangan especially, an easy and interesting fall activity could be a visit to the Sage Farm, in Lac-Sainte-Marie, to purchase local Red Angus grain-fed beef. The Cheryl Sage and Stan Christensen family has been raising Red Angus cattle in an idyllic location (near the Lac-Sainte-Marie golf course) since 1984. To know more about this impressive family business you can also read the in-depth article published by the Globe and Mail (subscribers only) as part of a series on the lives of Canadian farmers after the North American free-trade agreement was renegotiated, when beef farmers “faced challenges from bans on their products in major export markets”. Sound familiar? An interesting and easy place to “buy local” – directly from the “beef whisperer”, an expression aptly coined by the Globe reporter.