In June of 2016, the Seymour Lake Conservation Society was created. The main lake management concern at that time was that an invasive weed called floating heart was spreading, primarily on the eastern side of the lake.  The main objective of the SLCS was to control the spread of floating heart because of its threat to Seymour Lake and potentially to other lakes in the region. 

The exact date that floating heart was introduced into Seymour Lake is unknown, but we do know that it was planted by a landowner sometime around 2000.  In 2013, the floating heart population expanded dramatically.  According to Allen Banner, the first SLCS president, the expansion may have been "partly due to attempts by landowners to control the plant by hand harvesting" (Banner, 2013).  In order to get help in dealing with the floating heart problem, the SLCS developed partnerships with the province through the Ministry of Forests, Natural Resources and Lands,  and Rural Development) and with the Northwest Invasive Plant Council. 

The floating heart management plan that was implemented in 2020 provided funding for at least one person to survey the floating heart and to do some root cutting for several weeks each summer.  The SLCS engaged in grant writing (huge thanks to Poppy Dubar), so that we could employ a few more people to work with government employee on the root cutting. 

The cutting plan was not intensive enough to eradicate the floating heart.  It continued to slowly spread.  In 2023, a surveyor was sent to collect data on the floating heart spread, but the government announced that it would not fund any more cutting.  At the same time, the provincial government's Early Detection and Rapid Response program announced its intention to apply for the pesticide use permit (P.U.P.) to put a chemical called ProcellaCOR into Seymour Lake to eradicate floating heart.  In response to this news, the SLCS formed a ProcellaCOR research team.  The results of that research caused the SLCS to ask the EDRR to press pause on their ProcellaCOR plan.  The EDRR paused their plan.  

This brings us to the present.  Since the EDRR stopped cutting floating heart on Seymour Lake, the weed has significantly spread around the edges of the lake. The EDRR plans on applying for the P.U.P. in winter of 2025.  Prior to doing so, they have agreed to engage the SLCS in discussions and share the research that is guiding them to believe and ProcellaCOR is a chemical that is safe for humans, is safe for the environment, and that it will actually eradicate floating heart.  

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The focus of the SLCS has shifted to include other important issues facing Seymour Lake such as finding ways to mitigate the risk of another cyanobacteria bloom like the one that we experienced in the Fall of 2024, monitoring the lake water level, and doing water quality testing.

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