Waterfront homeowners on Three Mile Lake in Armour Township are taking part in a program that helps improve their shoreline and keeps the lake healthy.
The program is called Love Your Lake and was developed by Watersheds Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Federation.
Since 2013 the program has assessed more than 44,000 shoreline properties on about 150 Ontario lakes.
Tammy Ward, who owns a home on Three Mile Lake along with her husband, helped introduce the program.
She says the shoreline assessments are done by three people on a boat where one person pilots the vessel and the other two map and record all the shoreline data.
Ward says the crew records lots of information.
“What they look at is erosion, the amount of shoreline that's covered with docks, retaining walls, and trees that overhang the water which helps to cool the lake,” Ward said.
“They also look at native plants to see whether they are still intact or have been restored.”
Ward says what's also assessed is deforestation of the property, the number of structures on the property, and also how much of the property has been left in a natural state.
She says sometimes homeowners introduce urban-type landscaping where they bring in landscapers who add structures like paved driveways.
This means removing part of the natural landscape and Ward says sometimes people aren't aware that doing this is not good for a lake.
The shoreline assessment for Three Mile Lake is being carried out over the summer months and involves 3.3 kilometres of shoreline spread across 252 properties including a parcel of land owned by the municipality.
Following the assessments, the collected data is compiled into a report the homeowners receive next spring.
“That report contains voluntary suggestions on how they can improve the shoreline so that it also helps improve the lake,” Ward said. “Healthy shorelines mean healthy lakes. When you take your shoreline out or erode it, everything coming down that property goes into the lake. That adds things like phosphorus, nitrogen and salt into the lake which go into creating more aquatic plant life and algae.”
The assessments being carried out over the summer are not costing the homeowners anything.
Because Three Mile Lake has more than 250 properties, the residents qualified for a $5,000 grant from Love Your Lake which covers the cost of the assessment and the spring report.
Ward says the Three Mile Lake Community Club will receive a summary of how much of the shoreline remains natural and has been restored and also the type of work that's necessary so that a healthy lake strategy can be created.
Ward notes the club will not receive any information about the status of any specific individual property, adding this data remains confidential and is known only to the property owner.
Once the report is in the hands of the individual homeowners it's up to each property owner to act on the recommendations.
Ward says acting on the recommendations means applying to the Canadian Wildlife Federation for a grant to carry out the rehabilitative work.
With a limited amount of funds available, Ward says the federation can approve only so many grants each summer.
The local club has data on the lake going back to 1972 and Ward says this allows the club to “look at trends in water quality”.
Ward says Three Mile Lake remains healthy but in recent years has become more densely populated with homes and faces pressures not present in the past. She says the goal is to make sure today's pressures don't become a risk to the lake's health in the future.
Rocco Frangione is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the North Bay Nugget. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
