Prairie residents often lament their shrinking and disappearing lakes, remembering a shoreline now hundreds of metres away from the beaches where they paddled as children. Speculation about a dwindling water supply appears frequently in the media, with shrinking glaciers and a warming climate cast as villains that threaten prairie agriculture, the economy, and a sustainable supply of freshwater for public consumption. (EnvironmentCanada, 2006).
Marie Buschmann has spent the last four months watching her Waldsea Lake cabin disappear into the rising water. Now she fears it will have to be demolished along with 24 other Waldsea Lake cabins damaged irreparably by the floodwaters. (Wallace, 2007b)