Madge Lake

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Madge Lake is located in eastern Saskatchewan, 18km east of the town of Kamsack and just a few kilometres west of the province's eastern boundary. It is centered near coordinates 51° 40' N, 101° 38' W. Road access to the lake is via Saskatchewan Highway 57, which passes by the south shore of Madge Lake as it connects Saskatchwan Highway 5 to Manitoba Highway 83.

Madge Lake is the largest body of water in Saskatchewan's Duck Mountain Provincial Park. The lake measures approximately 5km by 5km for a total surface area of 21 square kilometres.

Duck Mountain is a rise of forested (formerly glaciated) land between the Saskatchewan prairie to the west and the Manitoba lowlands to the east. It is some 200m higher than the floor of the Assiniboine River valley to the west, and some 400m higher than the Manitoba lowlands. The area represents the southern limit of the boreal forest, in its transition zone to aspen parkland. The park's soils are stony and the landscape is rolling, with numerous ponds and creek channels. The flatter land areas surrounding the park have almost entirely been converted to cereal grain farmland, making the park (and the contiquous Manitoba Duck Mountain Provincial Forest) an environmental refuge for such large animals as wapiti, moose, black bear, lynx, bobcat, and grey wolf. Other animals, such as white-tailed deer and coyote, are also found in abundance in the forest, but roam more freely into the surrounding agricultural lands and are thus less reliant on the park. The forest trees include white spruce, black spruce, tamarack larch, quaking aspen, balsam poplar, and paper birch. The park also has a fair number of balsam fir, even though it is at the extreme western limit of the natural range of that species.

Madge Lake serves as the park's central tourist attraction. Seasonal recreational activities in and around the lake include: fishing; hunting; hiking; bicycling; swimming; boating; water, downhill, and cross country skiing; snowmobile riding; horseback riding; tobagganing; and miniature and 18-hole golf. The area also provides abundant wildlife viewing opportunities, especially in the immensely large local breeding flock of ducks and other waterfowl.

There are three species of game fish in the lake; walleye (locally known as pickerel), northern pike (locally known as jackfish), and yellow perch. The lake also has a large population of white suckers and many smaller fish species. Fish catches are augmented with the stocking of walleye. However fishing pressure is high and catches remain moderate by local standards. The lake produces very few trophy fish. Few of the other smaller lakes and ponds that surround Madge Lake support fish populations because of winter dieoff, but Jackfish Lake, 500m south of highway 57, has been stocked with trout and is aerated in winter to support the oxygen levels under the ice.

The climate of eastern Saskatchewan features extreme seasonal variation, with winter temperatures below -30C and summer temperatures above +30C not uncommon. The lake therefore has very distinct seasons. It is ice covered in winter, usually from mid November to mid April. And the ice is thick enough to walk on, snowmobile on, and even drive vehicles on, from mid December to early March. During this winter season, snowmobile riding and ice fishing are primary recreations on the lake, while the surrounding park has facilities for both downhill and cross country skiing. Approximately 70cm of snow accumulates in the area through the winter, slowly building depth until it begins to actively melt in early March. The "summer season" traditionally starts on Victoria Day weekend (late May), and ends on Canadian Labour Day weekend (early September). The lake is warm enough for comfortable swimming from early July to late August, although hardy souls may extend this season by several weeks. The spring and fall seasons (March and April, and October and November, respectively) are the quietest times on the lake, as neither summer (water) or winter (snow) recreational activities are practical in those seasons.

Duck Mountain Lodge operates as a year-round resort hotel in the park, and a large (summer) seasonal campground and rental cabins are also in the park. Over 300 private vacation residences (cottages) can also be found around the lake. There are two public swimming beaches (Ministik Beach and Pickerel Point Beach) constructed with artifically supplied sand. An 18-hole golf course, a downhill ski hill, riding stables, and other commercial facilities are also near the lake, concentrated along the south shore.

The large amount of tourism development in the park is the cause of growing environmental concern. Winter time use of the park has especially increased with the development of the year-round lodge. The lake simply isn't as quiet as it used to be. The park is now regarded as having reached its development potential and there exists considerable opposition to further development. Some proposed development projects - such as the increase in the number of cottages in Benito subdivision - have been shelved, and probably abandoned.

Also of concern is the lake's fluctuating water level, which as of 2006 is approximately 50cm lower than historic high levels of the 1940s and 1950s. The lake, being located on a rise of land, has a very small cachement area and so its level is very susceptible to variations in annual rainfall. The lake is also relatively shallow with a largely flat bottom, making even a small change in water level noticable at the lakeshore. The shoreline has become disagreeably mucky as a result of the decline in water level. And an outlet stream draining the lake to the north ceased flowing in the early 1970s, increasing concerns of eutrophication and stagnation of the lake water. However, the lake had by the late 1990s risen again by some 40cm from its lowest levels of the late 1970s and the 1980s. While welcome, this rise drowned many young trees along the water edge, particularily on the north shore which is now clothed in dead saplings. Emergent marsh plants (notably Scirpus, Typha, and Phragmites) have also overtaken much shore line with the resubmergence of formerly dry lake bottom.

The variable water level has also caused other recent changes to the lake. At the time of lowest water level in the late 1970s, the lake's largest island, Spruce Island, was connected by dry land to the mainland, and a large gravel bar in the lake's north basin was exposed. Now, however, the land corridor to Spruce Island is bisected by a stretch of marsh. The gravel bar has similarily been resubmerged, becoming a hazard to boating and unfortunately extirpating the colony of common terns and herring gulls that bred there. These two species are no longer commonly seen on the lake now that their breeding site has drowned, but the recent rise in water level is to the apparent benefit of the lake's common loon, red-necked grebe, and beaver populations. Ducks are also thriving in the stretches of now-marshy shoreline. And fish catches have improved markedly since the low water days of the late 1970s and 1980s.

The lake level is down again (as of 2006) by about 15cm from the peak achieved in 1998, having dropped during the very dry year of 2001.

Madge Lake's hydrology remains fairly isolated at its current water level. However, a series of ponds and a heavily beaver-damned creek allows the slow, largely seasonal, drainage of its waters to the north despite the current lack of an obvious drainage outlet. Lake water eventually enters Bear Head Lake at the north-eastern corner of Duck Mountain Provincial Park. Bear Head Lake is then in turn drained by Bear Head Creek, which continues north-east, crossing the Manitoba boundary, to join the Swan River on its journey to Swan Lake. Madge Lake is therefore part of the Swan River drainage basin, rather than the watershed of the nearby Assiniboine River.

The lake water is slightly eutrophic and also moderately hard and alkaline, with a limestone-buffered pH of about 8.2. The water clarity in summer is limited by phytoplankton growth and wave-agitation of the calcareous clay bottom. A Secchi disk depth of as little as 1 metre is not uncommon after windy days. Water quality is however considered to still be good, and in fact, among the best in Saskatchwan's parks.

The forest immediately surrounding the lake was last burned over in the late 1800s, and so is now over 100 years old and approaching climax. White spruce and balsam fir are now the dominant tree species on the shores of the lake. The lakeshore population of paper birch and trembling aspen is in decline, and deciduous trees are now fairly inconspicuous except in isolated pockets. This is a fairly recent development, as the deciduous trees that sprouted after the fires only started dieing off in numbers in the 1980s. Spruce Island is so named because it escaped the fires, and so it has the oldest forest visible from the lake. For much of the 20th century it had a conspicuous evergreen forest in contrast to the younger deciduous forest of the surrounding shore, and thus it received its name. However, the aging of the lakeshore forest means Spruce Island's forest is no longer visually distinctive.

North Shore of Madge Lake, showing drowned young trees along the water edge
photo by Saskatchewan Environment

[edit] External links

• Duck Mountain Lodge
• Duck Mountain Park
• Duck Mountain Ski Area
• Madge Lake Golf Resort