From: Shalom M. Mandaville
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2005 11:49 AM

To: Mayor Peter Kelly (kellyp@halifax.ca); Premier John Hamm MD (premier@gov.ns.ca); Tom Traves (President-Dalhousie University) (Tom.Traves@Dal.Ca); Lynda Baiden (NSEL) (baidenls@gov.ns.ca); Keith Colwell (Liberal Environment Critic) (colwelkw@gov.ns.ca); Joan Massey (Opposition Environment Critic) (joanmasseymla@ns.aliantzinc.ca); Water Line (NS Environment & Labour) (delwater@gov.ns.ca)

Cc: Stephane Dion (Minister-Environment Canada) (stephane.dion@ec.gc.ca); Geoff Regan (Minister-DFO-Canada) (Regan.G@parl.gc.ca); Lesley Barnes (Chair-Senate Committee on Plagiarism-Dalhousie) (Lesley.Barnes@dal.ca)

Subject: Professional Lake Management and strong encouragement to obtain formal accreditation in lake management for those of you who feel have the scientific credibility on a practical level!

  …… with SALUTATIONS to several professionals, lake stakeholders, local academia, and other government officials numbering over four hundred (400) that are addressed and/or Bcc’d here:

 

 

Very important:--  Kindly remember that most government agencies (municipal, provincial, and federal); some hired consultants paid for by the HRM and/or by the Province; numerous local academia and/or their grad and undergrad students; as well as a whopping number of independent stakeholder and/or ratepayer groups located within the following political districts of HRM, 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23, have all utilized, for their benefit, parts of my personal Intellectual Property (IP) and other research as well as portions of the combined limnological research of my team, the Soil & Water Conservation Society of Metro Halifax with the Master Homepage URL of http://lakes.chebucto.org/!

 

In return, none of us received any tangible benefits with just three minor exceptions only, alas!

 

It is akin to politicians and bureaucrats as well as well paid professors working for totally free in perpetuity!

 

In the case of stakeholder and/or ratepayer groups, as time unravels, I am finding (mostly indirectly) that some/lot of their scientific work is carried out by university students supervised by their professors and not by the volunteers themselves (volunteers just provide some local mechanical support); some of that academia in turn used parts of our IP research, even that which carries strict restrictive “LEGAL COVENANTS” which anyone with a Grade-12 English education must and should understand!

 

Only a handful took my permission as required per the attached `legal covenants’ to the portion which is my `IP’!

 

That also includes a major predictive TP/Cha model that I developed single-handedly that seems to have been utilized in the latest study for BEDFORD WEST which is on HRM’s Regional Planning web page; perhaps that is why, the Dalhousie University research team contacted me a few times during years 2003 and 2004 for info on my predictive modelling and I have records of the emails as well as of even lengthy phone conversations!

 

Proper predictive modelling (not just for TP/Cha but also for other stressors) is mandatory since what is the point in crying after the fact?!!

 

Pragmatic restoration of lakes to their pre-development `natural background values’ is never guaranteed in perpetuity and may be uneconomic in almost all the cases, anyway!

 

Further, the vast number of `professional municipal/provincial regulators’ are NOT getting it at all about the inter-dependant chemical and biological processes that take place in a lake!!

 

(This email is not about fecal coliforms, though, which can vary day-to-day, from one part of the lake to the other, as any good environmental microbiologist can tell you)!

 

It is not some professional civil engineering or planning disciplines at all!!

 

The only way to understand it all, as I said numerous times since as long back as 1987, is to obtain professional accreditation in LAKE MANAGEMENT!

 

It is not enough for a person to even possess a doctoral degree in whatever discipline, that does not make an expert in practical lake management! It is not theoretical science though theory is a pre-requisite!

 

There are various professional levels that one obtain within the domain of lake management; most independent non-Government bodies that give such accreditations exist in the USA and more in Europe.

 

But some do allow taking exams and being PEER-REVIEWED by mail!

 

What these institutions will do is check in detail one’s formal university transcripts as well as practical experience in lake restoration/management!

 

====  I SUGGEST ALL OF YOU EITHER ENCOURAGE OTHERS OR TRY YOURSELVES TO OBTAIN SUCH ACCREDITATIONS!  ====

 

Further some scientific societies do give accreditations at various levels/degrees of specialty as well, not all at a super high level!

 

 

PS:  I am not alluding here to some world class research by famous and multiple-award winning scientists like Dave Schindler, Bob Wetzel, Gene Likens, Noel Hynes, Richard Vollenweider, and others who are an exception. I am referring more to day-to-day aspects!

 

 

 

 

Shalom M. Mandaville Post-Grad Dip., Professional Lake Manage.

Chair & Scientific Director (902-463-7777)

Soil & Water Conservation Society of Metro Halifax (SWCSMH)

http://lakes.chebucto.org