By: Connor and Raquel

The Quetico Foundations’ biology team has just finished two backcountry trips into the
northern regions of the park for surveillance of an invasive plankton-eating species called the
spiny water flea (SWF). The purpose of these trips was to go to lakes that have no confirmed
cases of SWF and use weighted nets to collect plankton present in the water. If we identified
SWF in a sample, we would put them into a jar and preserve the specimen using ethanol for
future evidence of their spread. This information will be used to estimate the distribution of, and
damages caused by SWF within the park, and the proper environmental conditions for their
habitat to be viable.

Before going into the successes and findings of our trips, it is important to mention just
how devastating SWF is to the aquatic environments it invades. Spiny water flea is an invasive
zooplankton that was introduced into the Great Lakes around the 1980s, consequently spreading
throughout the connected bodies of water and eating all the phytoplankton and zooplankton it
could find. Erasing these small plankton may seem inconsequential at first, but many food chains
rely on them to take energy from the sun and produce food for smaller fish species. When these
phytoplankton and zooplankton disappear, the fish species that depend on them lower in
population because of their vanishing food source, which goes up the food chain and affects
larger species. This not only lowers the overall population of fish in these waters, affecting
recreational activities and ecological balance, but it also leads to increased algal bloom rates,
warmer water temperatures, and less diverse aquatic communities.

Our first trip was through Batchewaung Lake into the northern portion of the name chain,
going through Maria, Hamburg, Oriana, Jesse, Elizabeth, Halliday, Sturgeon, and Twin Lakes.
This portion of the park was beautiful, being broken up by friendly faces and high spirits. We
towed each lake several times and noticed no invasion of SWF in any of them, this information
shocked us, as most of these lakes had not been tested for upwards of 10 years. On our route we
stayed at gorgeous campsites on windy points, making for the bug-free afternoons that late July
to August camping is known for. Whilst the mosquitos were gone the amphibians were more
present than ever before! On every portage, we did were several tiny toads and foraging frogs
hopping from one side of the bush to the next. Many would sit defiantly in our way croaking in
attempts to scare us off, which, to them, must have seemed successful as we continued our way
down the trail to the next lake. The portages themselves, due to being far into the season, were
very well maintained and easy to traverse, making our travels overall smooth and unencumbered.
One portage, however, from Halliday to Sturgeon, tested our limits to the utmost caliber, we
recommend only those with great backcountry experience and tolerance to a buggy time take that
challenge on!

After that brutal portage, we were rewarded with easy travel up the Twin River and into
Twin Lake, where we then went into Doré and spent the night at one of the best campsites the
park has to offer. In the morning, as we were packing up to make our way to Stanton Bay for
pickup, we were visited by a large hare bursting from the tree line! This fully woke us up for the
paddling to be done that day and gave a great end to our 5-day trip looking for SWF.

Our second and final trip was through Beaverhouse Lake going to Cirrus, Soho,
Kasakokwog, and Quetico. We, like the last trip, also did not find SWF within these waters,
making the overall trip extremely productive with a wonderful outcome. On the first day we entered
Cirrus and did several tows on our route to camp outside of the Soho and Kasakokwog portages,
looking at the wonderful scenery and enjoying the sunny weather with every paddle stroke. As
we were setting up camp, we took note of two campers nearby who had a similar canoe to our
own but went to bed without further investigation. The next morning, we awoke to distant
chainsaws being used on a nearby portage, giving us an inkling that the campers we passed could
have been our friends on the portage crew. We went into Soho and Kasakokwog finding no SWF in
either, eventually making the final portage into Quetico Lake where these chainsaws were heard
once more. As we were approaching our next portage, we saw a member of the portage crew walk
out and greet us to both of our astonishment! That night we camped together on Quetico Lake
and enjoyed talking to one another, boosting our morale for the rest of the trip whilst also getting
directions to the nearby pictographs on the lake. As we departed on our route the next morning,
we made sure to take our time to view said pictographs, with their size and lush crimson colour
filling us with awe and rejuvenating us to protect these beautiful waters. We did several tows on
Quetico to find no SWF, with us camping on Beaverhouse Lake that same night near the
beautiful cliffs and pictographs of the lake houses. The next morning, we were on our way to be
picked up whilst appreciating the health of the ecosystems beneath our canoe, both for the safety
and wellbeing of the species within it, but also for the cultural health of having these clean
waters that people can use to witness the history of the region.