Located in Treaty 8 Territory

Lesser Slave Watershed has long been a meeting place for Indigenous peoples. 
It is home to the Kapawe’no First Nation, Sucker Creek First Nation, Driftpile Cree Nation, the Swan River First Nation, and the Sawridge First Nation, as well as the Métis settlements of East Prairie, Peavine, and Gift Lake.

The name of the lake refers to the original inhabitants of the land near the lake, the Slavey people. In more recent times, the lakeshore was and continues to be inhabited by the Cree people, and then later on, by fur traders who set up fur trading posts throughout the lake’s watershed and settlers soon followed. 

The Lesser Slave Lake

The Lesser Slave Lake (LSL) is the third largest lake in the province and is the central feature of the watershed. It is a popular tourist destination and a designated Important Bird Area. The lake is a source of water for agriculture, domestic and municipal uses, forestry and recreation/tourism. It is considered a eutrophic lake, meaning it is naturally high in nutrients. The main sport fish are northern pike (Esox lucius), yellow perch (Perca flavescens), walleye (Sander vitreus), burbot (Lota lota), and lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis). Lake trout used to be abundant in the lake, but were extirpated from the lake in the early 1990s.

The Lake has a surface area of 1,160 km², with a moderate maximum depth of 20.5m in the centre of the east basin, and an average depth of 11.4m. It is fed by various tributary rivers including the East and West Prairie Rivers, South Heart, Driftpile and Swan Rivers. Many small creeks and intermittent streams also flow into the lake.

Lesser Slave Lake has a large drainage basin covering an area of 12,400km² mostly to the south, west, and northwest of the lake. The main outlet, the Lesser Slave River, flows from the southeast end of the lake to the Athabasca River, approximately 70km downstream.

Wetlands

Wetlands are defined as land that is saturated with water long enough to promote wetland or aquatic processes as indicated by poorly drained soils, vegetation and other biological activity adapted to a wet environment.

Habitats

The Lesser Slave Watershed is situated within portions of both the Foothills and Boreal Natural Regions of Alberta (Figure 6). The Foothills Natural Region extends along the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains including an easterly extension into the Swan Hills area, the Marten Hills and Pelican Mountains located within the Lesser Slave River subbasin, and the Saddle Hills north of Grande Prairie (NRC, 2006). The Boreal Natural Region is the largest, covering 58% of the province, and encompasses the majority of Northern Alberta.