Shorelines are one of the most unique places on earth and people’s influences can have a huge impact on these delicate parts of our natural world. We may not think about it, but countless species of birds, fish, insects, and plants call these diverse ecosystems home — and even the slightest bit of human activity can forever disrupt the delicate balance found between land and water.
Daily actions by all individuals can help conserve our lakes and protect the wildlife that call them home. Keeping shorelines healthy and natural is the easiest way to protect water quality. This not only helps maintain or improve property values, but also provides cleaner, clearer water that will benefit future generations and wildlife.
A free program that kicked off last year is back, and is working together with local cottagers to improve the shorelines health of two local lakes. The Lakeland Alliance has partnered with the Centre of Sustainable Watersheds (CSW) and the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF) to assess the shoreline health of Chandos Lake and Lake Kasshabog as part of the “Love Your Lake” program.
Last summer, trained staff assessed the shorelines of Chandos Lake by boat on a property-by-property basis using a standardized assessment protocol. This spring, Chandos Lake property owners received a confidential and personalized property report about the state of their own shoreline. These reports included voluntary recommendations that landowners could undertake to improve their lake’s water quality.
Last year’s program was tremendously successful, and the point was proven that shoreline property owners truly do love their lakes. Love Your Lake provides both individuals and lake associations with the tools and information they need to improve their shorelines and ultimately make their lakes healthier.
For this season of the program, shoreline property owners on both Chandos and Kasshabog Lakes will receive a letter explaining Love Your Lake and when they can expect the project to begin. Once the entire shoreline has been surveyed and the information has been entered into the database, property owners will receive a coupon to go online and order their confidential personalized property report.
The report will contain information about the state of their unique shoreline with suggestions of voluntary actions they can take to improve the natural state of their shoreline and lake health. Lake organizations will also receive a lake-wide report which summarizes the data collected at the lake level and identifies opportunities for community stewardship activities.
Privacy is a big concern for many who own shoreline properties, and Love Your Lake has taken that into consideration. Program staff — including shoreline surveyors, program coordinators, boat drivers, and those who enter data — are all required to sign a confidentially agreement. All information contained in the individual landowner report and lake association report is completely confidential and non-regulatory.
“We’re excited to be back on Chandos this summer delivering two follow-up components to the property reports,” says Mike Gibbs, Coordinator of the Lakeland Alliance. “We will be providing the free consultative services of a Shoreline Advisor to interested cottagers, in addition to providing funding to a select number landowners to have their waterfronts naturalized.”
Love Your Lake
There are many ways that people can get involved in the Love Your Lake program, primarily by naturalizing their shoreline. Visitors of LoveYourLake.ca can take a shoreline self-assessment to determine the health of their shoreline. After which, they download an action checklist for simple yet meaningful actions to take to maintain or improve shoreline and lake health. Better yet: if you’re a shoreline property owner, get your lake involved in the program. Contact Kelsey Jensen at jensen@watersheds.ca for more details.
While only focusing locally on Chandos Lake in 2013, the program had a wide reach across the province. Last year, 17 lakes participated in the program in five regions including Renfrew, Eastern Ontario, Sudbury, Muskoka, and the Kawarthas. Within these regions, approximately 4,300 shorelines were surveyed through the Love Your Lake program. This year, it’s expected that over 4,100 shoreline properties on 15 individual lakes will be surveyed through the program.
The program has received generous support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Rogers Foundation, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada – Recreational Fisheries Conservation Partnerships Program.
If you’d like more information on Love Your Lake, visit www.lakelandalliance.net or get in touch with Mike Gibbs by phone at 705-745-3238 x207 or by email at lakelandalliance@cogeco.net.
Love Your Lake
Photos courtesy of Peterborough GreenUP
