Quill Lakes
Location
Saskatchewan, Canada
Category
International
Basis for Designation
Supports more than 100,000 shorebirds annually, including 5% of the world population of Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus).
Size
63,500 hectares (156,912 acres)
Date Designated
February 1994
Site Owner
Provincial Crown land. Flooded areas administered by Ministry of Agriculture (Lands Branch). Uplands surrounding the basin are either Private or Crown land administered by Ministry of Agriculture (Lands Branch) or the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency (formerly the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority).
Site Partners
Ducks Unlimited Canada
Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture – Lands Branch
Saskatchewan Water Security Agency
Overview
The Quill Lakes are a series of three large saline lakes in a mixed grassland ecosystem. Big Quill Lake is 3x saltier than the ocean. Wind action on these shallow lakes creates large expanses of fresh mudflats which are utilized by shorebirds for feeding. Large open marsh complexes are situated adjacent to the lakes and used by staging and breeding shorebirds and other water-associated birds.
The Quill Lakes are an important feeding and roosting site during spring and fall migrations. Spring migration begins approximately the second week of May and is complete by the second week of June. Fall migration begins the second week of July and extends well into September in most years.
Once supporting 25% of the Canadian population of Piping Plover, no Piping Plovers have been recorded nesting at the lakes since the lakes rose over 6 meters starting in 2007.
Ecology and Conservation
Cattle ranching, cereal grain farming, potassium sulfate mining, recreation (bird watching and hunting) are the primary land uses at the site.
Current threats at the site include high water levels and unregulated and unlicensed wetland drainage into the Quill Lakes from surrounding agricultural lands. Because the lakes have no natural outlet inflows into the lake continue to cause the lakes to remain flooded.
Monitoring of Piping Plovers and Shorebirds by the Canadian Wildlife Service has not occurred since the lakes rose over 6 meters in 2010.
