Winds from the poles reaching lakes beyond the western border (6)
I believe the answer is:
snakes
'winds' is the definition.
(snaking is a kind of winding)
'the poles reaching lakes beyond the western border' is the wordplay.
'the poles' becomes 'sn' (North and South poles).
'reaching' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'beyond the western border' means to remove the first letter.
'lakes' with its initial letter taken away is 'akes'.
'sn'+'akes'='SNAKES'
'from' is the link.
(Other definitions for snakes that I've seen before include "Limbless reptiles" , "Serpents" , "Reptiles, some venomous" , "[CREES]" , "Adders, cobras, rattlers etc" .)