Disclaimer & Copyright Notices; Optimized for the MS Internet Explorer
Snapshot summary of our accomplishments
Soil & Water Conservation Society of Metro Halifax (SWCSMH)
April 27, 2008 
Compliments received
Narrative on Lakes/Rivers Focus is now on biological monitoring and chironomid mentum deformities!
Contents:
Monitoring of the Sackville River watershed
We monitored the Little Sackville River at sub-watershed critical points for around seven (7) non-consecutive years, as needed, as well as aspects to do with the Middle Sackville Landfill dating back to the mid-1980s.
Impromptu construction monitoring
We carried out impromptu construction monitoring, and this was primarily for TSS and/or Turbidity during select major construction events, mostly in the urban HRM area for this phase of our activities, and concentrated on major construction projects in Dartmouth and Cole Harbour and other fringe urban areas.
Educational television shows
During the years 1988 to 1996, we produced three hundred and twenty three (323) weekly, mostly educational and scientific, Community Cable Tv shows under the banners of "In Harmony With Nature", "Science Is Your World", and "Science & Nature".
Public presentations
We held approximately twenty (20) extensive educational presentations all around HRM and its previous municipalities during the 1990s to which the public was cordially invited through media adverts and in a few cases by house-to-house distribution of pamphlets. The best attended was in the Hubley area when around one hundred (100) people attended and the least attended was in Waverley where only five (5) attended; but the Waverley one was the second one as the first presentation at Waverley was attended by around twenty (20) residents!
- We made three (3) by_invitation_only presentations to the Nova Scotia Dept. of Environment at their Terminal Road HQ, and approx. ten (10) other by_invitation_only presentations at various offices/buildings of the HRM!
Physical cleanups of lakes
We are not all wrapped up in scientific aspects exclusively though; during the National Environment Weeks (always first week of June), we spearheaded significant littoral and the underwater physical cleanups of the following lakes:--
Kearney Lake in Halifax on June 02, 1991
Settle Lake in Dartmouth on June 04, 1994
Maynard Lake in Dartmouth on June 01, 2002, and on June 05, 2004
- ......... local residents also took considerable leadership! We have participated in community physical cleanups organized by others as well.
We have spearheaded the first ever BST at a lake in Nova Scotia in partnership with the Environmental Management Services (EMS) of HRM. This is to establish the primary source of fecal pollution at the Maynard Lake Beach!
Tangible benefits derived by various entities from our research
Entities: Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM); N.S. Dept. of the Environment (NSEL); Stakeholder groups and other agencies; Select consultants; and Undergraduate and graduate students!
Significant benefits to the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) as well as to the former Halifax County Municipality:
See also, Select dealings with the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM)
Our scientific contributions to the HRM per letter d/April 24, 2008 to Mayor Peter Kelly 
A sampling from the sixty (60) of the emails received from HRM’s staff asking for info from Applied Limnologist, Shalom M. Mandaville; many of them needed extensive follow-up emails and discussions by phone and in personal meetings, all pro bono!
Benefits derived by the Nova Scotia Environment (NSE):
See also, Select dealings with the Nova Scotia Environment (NSE)
Our scientific contributions to the NSE per letter d/April 27 2008 to Hon. Mark Parent PhD
A sampling from the thirty (30) of the emails received from NSEL’s staff asking for info from applied limnologist, Shalom M. Mandaville; some of them needed extensive follow-up emails and extensive discussions by phone and in personal meetings, all pro bono!
Benefits to stakeholder groups and other agencies:
Various local stakeholder groups operating (or operated) within HRM districts 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22, and 23, and/or university students/professors or vocational school students working (or worked) for them as well as other Government agencies (e.g, the DFO; Environment Canada) have also used our scientific reports and data for their benefit; example undeleted emails that are still in our possession, not all, have been placed in our web space:
- A significant example has been the Woodens River Watershed Environmental Organisation (WRWEO) in their recent attempts to carry out a hypolimnetic aeration of Sheldrake Lake
- Examples of other stakeholder groups that have been beneficiaries (to various degrees) that we are aware of have been the Friends of McIntosh Run, Spryfield; Springfield Lake Watch, Middle Sackville; Second Lake Park group, Sackville; Williams Lake Conservation Society, Jollymore
- University students working on partnership projects for the Sackville Rivers Association (SRA) have also been the beneficiaries
Benefits derived by select consultants:
Use of our formal studies as well as of our extensive archive data by professional consultants and by university professors/institutes acting as paid consultants:
- Several professional engineering and planning consulting firms working for the HRM and its previous municipal units have used some of our formal reports and select extensive archive data in their formal studies for the municipalities; e.g., CBCL Consultants, Porter Dillon, Dillon, Inc., Loucks Oceanography, Griffiths Muecke & Assocs., Jacques Environmental, among those we are aware of!
- The Centre for Water Resources Studies (CWRS) of Dalhousie University has also used our reports and data extensively in some of their consulting jobs.
Most enquiries received have been via extensive phone calls. A sampling from the emails received from consultants asking for info from applied limnologist, Shalom M. Mandaville; some of them needed extensive follow-up emails and extensive discussions by phone, all pro bono!
Assistance to undergraduate and graduate students:
Several requests we received since 1990 were by phone, but there have been some via emails; example emails have been placed in our web space!
- We provided considerable assistance to over 100 students by providing data, reports and sometimes financial assistance in meeting out of pocket assistance; this has been mostly to students in the Departments of Biology, the School for Resource and Environmental Studies (SRES), and the Marine Affairs Program at Dalhousie University, and to a lesser extent at St. Mary's University.
- At the invitation of various professors, we have given formal lectures in Limnology, principally at Dalhousie University.
Our objectives
- (a) To research, synthesize and compile scientific literature, carry out monitoring programs, carry out case studies, carry out public education programs on the visual as well as the printed media, lobby regulatory agencies, and others on a voluntary/partnership basis. In addition, if time and opportunity permit, to carry out research on a scientific as well as a technical basis independently, and/or in collaboration with private and public institutions, and
- (b) To assist and advice individuals, groups, organizations, cities and towns, and county, and provincial, federal, and international governments in reducing the costly waste of land and water resources and in putting to good use these assets.
And primarily concentrate in Theoretical/Applied Limnology (i.e. scientific study of lakes and running waters) as well as in Lake Management and Freshwater Benthic Ecology. Also entering the domain of sustainable development (freshwater/marine eco-systems).
Our invitations to numerous entities to partner with us on a pragmatic level followed by decadal similar invites:
Attempts at pragmatic partnerships with Government agencies and local universities:
Unfortunately, Dr. John Underwood resigned from the NSEL during early 1990, and the `master plan for pragmatic partnership' with all relevant Government Departments did not materialize as originally envisaged during the fateful year of 1989. No Government agency inclusive of the major research labs of the Department of Fisheries & Oceans (DFO), namely the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO), were interested in pragmatic research, especially in Applied Limnology!
Although the well reputed Prof. Dr. Gordon Ogden III of the Dalhousie University Biology Department was one of our founding subscribing members, he was unable as well to develop any meaningful partnership with them (Prof. Ogden III himself was, more or less, reaching his retirement then).
Notwithstanding, there were certain sporadic, mostly minor, events of partnership, especially with the Nova Scotia Dept. of Environment & Labour (NSEL), and with Environment Canada (through our membership on the latter's staff) for which we are eternally greatful! Their partnership have indeed been acknowledged in our various formal reports.
We continued our invitations, over the decades, to various Government agencies as well as to the Dalhousie University Biology Department, the latest as recent as August of 2004, but there was no interest! This was inspite of the fact that all of them benefited from our selfless research as outlined in this web page (see summary)!
Several invitations to local municipal watershed advisory boards (WABS):
We had also sent the aformentioned invitation to both the Chair and the Vice Chair of all the three municipal watershed advisory board at the time, namely the Dartmouth Lakes Advisory Board (DLAB), the Bedford Waters Advisory Committee (BWAC), and the the Halifax Lakes and Waterways Committee, but no one responded to our RSVP, alas! It was also advertised in the local media as well!
Further, throughout the 1990s inclusive of year 2003, we invited Don Gordon PhD, a BIO-DFO oceanographer and a long time member on the Dartmouth Lakes Advisory Board (DLAB), to participate with us on a pragmatic scientific level; he declined each time, always gracefully! While some of our invites were verbal, a few were in written format to which he was kind enough to decline twice in writing: October 26, 1994, and August 18, 1999! We thank Dr. Gordon for his honesty!
We had also invited the Bedford Waters Advisory Committee (BWAC) on occasions during the time of long time former Chairman, Dalhousie University's Marvin Silver PhD, but no interest was expressed.
We have been one of the founding members of the Halifax Watershed Advisory Board (HWAB) as can be seen in the ROOTS! We had invited some of our colleagues to `partner' with us pragmatically on a scientific level, but there was never any interest; we presume they had their own priorities and we wish everyone Godspeed!
We salute the Chebucto Community Net (CCN) of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada for hosting our web site, and we applaud its volunteers for their devotion in making `CCN' the best community net in the world!
