September 2023 Newsletter
https://bit.ly/KWEFSept2023Newsletter
Included in this issue:
Reflecting on Recent Environmental Success Stories
Love Your Lake© / NOT Hardening your Shoreline
Wildfires & FireSmart™ & A Local Wildfire
Reflecting on Recent Environmental Success Stories
Lately, the environmental news we see is often discouraging; it is encouraging to remember that there have been some major accomplishments on the environmental front.
There was an interesting recently published opinion article by Norman Yan, PhD, a retired and highly respected environmental scientist and Bracebridge resident. He is the founder and a current Director of Friends of the Muskoka Watershed, https://fotmw.org.
The article reflected that all is not lost on the environmental front.
There were five lessons that gave hope:
1. Widespread complex environmental damage can be reversed with the patient and persistent application of fact-based knowledge; but
2. The knowledge must be generated through support of environmental science, and
3. The knowledge must be communicated to politicians and policymakers but especially to the public in order to generate the will for action.
4. We all can and should be part of these solutions; so…
5. Play your part; whatever part or place needs your help to leave your children a healthier world than you inherited from your parents.
The full article can be read by following this link: https://www.muskokaregion.com/opinion/rain-in-muskoka-is-40-times-less-acidic-reflecting-on-recent-environmental-success-stories/article_01d186ff-eae2-5a39-8ad8-c845415fdd70.html
Love Your Lake© / NOT Hardening your Shoreline
A healthy lake starts with healthy shorelines.
Love Your Lake© is a shoreline evaluation program designed to encourage lakefront property owners to take proactive steps toward improving lake health by creating and maintaining healthier shorelines.
If you are wondering if your shoreline is healthy, Love Your Lake© has as a shoreline self-assessment survey. By answering a few simple questions you’ll get lots of helpful tips right away on improving your shoreline health. Here is a link to their survey: https://loveyourlake.ca/self-assessment
In addition, their website, https://loveyourlake.ca/, has numerous resources to help you naturalize your shoreline, including information on invasive species, landscaping for wildlife, permits & approvals, responsible shoreline development, and shoreline restoration, amongst others.
NOT Hardening your shoreline Hard shores are dead shores.
Retaining walls actually cause erosion and do more harm than good. When waves hit a retaining wall, they under-cut the structure, and contribute to its deterioration. A retaining wall also deflects the wave energy to the sides causing erosion problems further along the shoreline and scouring away any sediment and plants near the base of the wall, resulting in exposed shoreline and more erosion. Letting native growth like alder come back on their own as a vegetative buffer is the best way to go.
Source: Cottage Life and Love Your Lake©
Wildfires & FireSmart™ & A Local Wildfire
FireSmart™ Canada is a national program that helps Canadians increase neighborhood resilience to wildfire and minimize its negative impacts. With a changing climate, the threat of wildfire has increased significantly for everyone. FireSmart™ Canada has developed practical, effective, and science-based programs that provide you with tools to be better prepared when wildfire occurs, with numerous resources to help protect your home, including construction and landscaping, and:
Tips to Make Your Home & Property Fire Smart:
1. Remove combustible material from under decks
2. Keep a 1.5 metre non-combustible zone around your house and deck
3. Clean and maintain gutters and roofs
4. Keep decks and balconies clear of leaves and debris
5. Keep grass and weeds cut below 10 cm
6. Prune trees to create a 2 metre clearance from the ground
7. Move firewood at least 10 metres away from your home
8. Have a wildfire evacuation plan and prepare an emergency supply kit
Kearney Fire Permit Regulations
The Town of Kearney requires that all property owners and camping visitors obtain a fire permit before proceeding with any outdoor fires regardless of whether you are burning at home, or at a designated campground. Anyone burning without a permit may be subject to fines.
Three-day and seasonal fire permits are available. Here is a link to further information:
A Local Wildfire
By Mike Peace, Lynx Lake
Sometime on the weekend of August 26/27 some unknown people entered the uninhabited island on the northwest end of Lynx Lake and apparently lit a small campfire in stone-encircled pit. This island is covered with many mature White Pine and Hemlock trees and because of that, the ground consists of over 30 cm (12") of dried, compacted needles and small branches.
It would appear that the persons responsible made some effort to extinguish their fire, as the charred remains of their wood could be seen inside the ring. But...
On Monday August 28, when investigating the rancid smoke emanating from the island, it was found that the ground itself (leaf/needle litter) was smoldering below the surface. The mentioned stone ring now sat in the centre of a blackened pit about 2 metres, (6.5 feet) across and 25 cm (10 inches) deep with whiffs of smoke rising from the surrounding unburned litter.
We dumped several pails of water soaking the burned area but, being unsure if all the underground fire was extinguished, the Kearney Fire Department were contacted which resulted in a Ministry of Natural Resources crew attending with a portable pump and shovels to soak down the entire area.
Fortunately, there were no high winds which could have ignited the smoldering ground into a full-fledged wildfire or, of equal danger, continued smoldering, which could have spread underground across the entire island, eliminating the minimal nutrient value thus killing it's entire covering of mature trees and becoming a barren scar for decades or longer.
Hopefully those reading of this event will pass on the information to their children, teens and any visitors or renters. Fires should only be lit on barren mineral soil base, in a proper fireplace and in areas where permitted by the owners, and always TOTALLY extinguished.
