| White Bear (Carlyle) Lake | |
| Location: | White Bear 70, |
| Coords: | 49.7683°N -102.2665°W |
| Pushpin Map: | Saskatchewan#Canada |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Saskatchewan |
| Outflow: | None |
| Basin Countries: | Canada |
White Bear (Carlyle) Lake[1] is a closed-basin lake in the Moose Mountain Upland. It is the largest lake on the plateau, slightly larger than its neighbour, Kenosee Lake.[2] White Bear (Carlyle) Lake is within the White Bear 70 Indian reserve and Carlyle Lake Resort is along the southern shore. The lake and its amenities are accessed from Highway 9.
Originally the lake was named "Carlyle Lake" by the first European settlers to the area. In the late 1970s control of the lake was handed over to the White Bear First Nations and at that time the lake was renamed to White Bear (Carlyle) Lake.
Beaver are not native to Moose Mountain. In 1923, two breeding pairs from Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan were brought to nearby Kenosee Lake. The beavers flourished and soon dams were blocking not just inflow creeks to Kenosee, but to White Bear (Carlyle) Lake as well.[3] According to aerial photographs, the surface of White Bear (Carlyle) Lake in 1928 was asl. By 1945, it had dropped to . In 1954, four beaver dams in the area were destroyed, which helped raise lake levels. By the late 1950s, the lake recovered to . Without continued intervention regarding dams, the lake level began to fall again and by 2008, it had dropped to .[4]
In 2008, the Moose Mountain Water Resource Management Corp. partnered with Moose Mountain Provincial Park to control beavers in and around the park through trapping and by blasting beaver dams. Once again, lake levels began to rise. The eventual goal is to raise Kenosee Lake levels enough so that it flows into White Bear (Carlyle) Lake, which hasn't happened since 1928.[5]
The most common fish found in the lake is the walleye.[6] [7]