Thursday, December 4, 2014

Brydon Lagoon Task Force Approved

For close to a decade, it has been known that Brydon Lagoon in the Nicomekl Floodplain needs attention; Brydon has been slowly degrading. This August up to 1,000 fish died in Brydon Lagoon. You can read more about this on a previous blog post.

Earlier this fall, the City of Langley’s Parks and Environmental Advisory Committee heard from various community groups urging something be done. The Parks Committee recommended that City Council take action to form a task force that would recommend how to move forward with restoring Brydon Lagoon.

The previously City Council called on the Parks Committee to work with City Staff and other community environmental groups to develop a terms of reference for the new task force. This terms of reference was presented to Council at their November 24th meeting. The last act of the previous council was to approve the terms of reference and move forward with creation of the task force.

The task force will review the Brydon Lagoon findings and recommendations section of the Dillon Consulting Pond Management Strategies Study dated March 2013, past reports, documentation, and local knowledge. The task force will also identify information gaps and discrepancies in collected information and make recommendations to resolve issues. Finally, the task force will identify which recommendations of the Pond Management Strategy and other recommendations should be advanced.

The task force must submit its recommendations to City Council by June 2015. If Council is supportive of the recommendations, they will approve funding to restore the lagoon. The earliest this could happen would be in 2016.

The task force will be comprised of:

2 Parks, Environment Advisory Committee designates
2 designates from Langley Field Naturalists and alternate
1 designate from Langley Environmental Partners Society and alternate
1 designate from the Nicomekl Enhancement Society and alternate
1 designate from Ducks Unlimited Canada and alternate
Up to 2 members of the general public

Restoring Brydon Lagoon is something I would like to see done. Hopefully the current City Council will take action to restore Brydon Lagoon.

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