Fife Lake is a fresh water prairie lake in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

. It is in the south-central part of the province at the eastern end of the

Wood Mountain Hills Wood Mountain Hills are a hilly plateau in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The hills are located in the southern part of the province and are part of the Missouri Coteau, which is part of the Laurent ...

. The entire lake and its shoreline is designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) of Canada to protect the nationally endangered

piping plover The piping plover (''Charadrius melodus'') is a small sand-colored, Passerellidae, sparrow-sized wader, shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange-red legs, a black band acro ...

. While there are no communities along the lake's shore, there is a park and campground at the southern end. Nearby communities include Fife Lake,

Rockglen Rockglen is a town in the Burning Hills of the Wood Mountain Uplands, in Saskatchewan, Canada. It offers various amenities including a school, community hall, public library and five parks, as well a local service industry. The municipal offi ...

, and

Lisieux Lisieux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Calvados (department), Calvados Departments of France, department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy Regions of France, region in northwestern France. It is the capital of the Pa ...

. Access is from Highway 18.

Description

Fife Lake a is shallow, irregularly shaped prairie lake. Its primary inflow, Hay Meadow Creek, flows into the west end of the lake from the central part of the

. Girard Creek, the lake's outflow, is a tributary of the East Poplar River. The East Poplar River is a major tributary of the Poplar River, which connects to the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

. Being a shallow prairie lake, during drought years, Fife Lake water levels drop significantly. Lake water levels have been known to fluctuate by over . A record surface elevation high of was recorded in 1979 and a record low of was recorded in 1993. By 2011, the lake had stabilised at above sea level. Fife Lake had been known for great

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', Synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the walleyed pike, yellow pike, yellow pikeperch or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern ...

fishing, but the low water levels through the late 1980s and 1990s had caused caused the fish to die off. While the lake is known for significant seasonal water level changes, the Water Security Agency said that the extreme water level changes seen at that time were related to coal mining operations to the south-east, near Coronarch. In the spring of 2016, with water levels having recovered, the lake was re-stocked with 200,000 walleye.

Rockin Beach Regional Park

Rockin Beach Regional Park () is a recreational park on the southern shore of Fife Lake, about east of Rockglen. It is run by a

non-profit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

. The park has a campground, ball diamonds, volleyball courts, hiking trails, a motocross track, and lake access with a dock and a beach for swimming. The Rockin Beach Mud Bog event is held there every August.

Important Bird Area

The entirety of Fife Lake is part of the Fife Lake (SK 021)

(IBA) of Canada. It is considered a critical

habitat under the provincial Wildlife Habitat Protection Act. That designation protects the lake up to the high water mark from development. The IBA site itself totals of land with an elevation range of 800 metres to 823 metres above sea level. Besides the piping plover, other birds important to the lake include the

western grebe The western grebe (''Aechmophorus occidentalis'') is a species in the grebe family of water birds. Folk names include "dabchick", "swan grebe" and "swan-necked grebe". Western grebe fossils from the Late Pleistocene of southwest North America we ...

eared grebe The black-necked grebe or eared grebe (''Podiceps nigricollis'') is a member of the grebe family of water birds. It was described in 1831 by Christian Ludwig Brehm. Its breeding plumage features distinctive ochre-coloured feathers which extend ...

, and the

black-crowned night heron The black-crowned night heron (''Nycticorax nycticorax'') r black-capped night heron commonly shortened to just night heron in Eurasia, is a medium-sized heron found throughout a large part of the world, including parts of Europe, Asia, and Nort ...

Fish species

Fish commonly found in Fife Lake include

and

white sucker The white sucker (''Catostomus commersonii'') is a species of freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America, but it is also found as far south as Georgia and as far west as New Mexico. The fish is common ...

References

{{Authority control Lakes of Saskatchewan Important Bird Areas of Saskatchewan Poplar Valley No. 12, Saskatchewan Willow Bunch No. 42, Saskatchewan

Description

Rockin Beach Regional Park

Important Bird Area

Fish species

See also

References