Diane Orihel, former Director for the Coalition to Save the ELA, wrote a letter to Stephen Harper on Thursday in a final plea to save the Experimental Lakes Area.
She wrote, “Last week, federal funding for Canada’s world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) came to an end after forty-five years. Canada’s ELA was once a world-class science program dedicated to improving our understanding of the impacts of industry and other human activities on freshwater ecosystems. Through its unique, whole-ecosystem manipulation experiments and long-term ecological monitoring programs, ELA provided the best scientific evidence to guide the development of effective strategies to protect the health of Canada’s freshwater lakes and fish populations. The ELA brought Canada to the very forefront of aquatic science worldwide, and was instrumental in the development of sound environmental policies and best management practices in our country and around the globe. In short, the imprudent decision by the Government of Canada to no longer support the ELA program is an international disgrace that seriously threatens the health of Canada’s most essential resource – our freshwater. There are many things we can live without, but clean water is not one of them.”
To read the letter, click here.
