Shoreline Planting
🌿 Natural Shorelines Protect Our Lakes
A natural shoreline protects not only the plants and animals that depend on the important ribbon of life between land and water — it also protects your enjoyment of the lake.
When too many shoreline plants and trees are removed, erosion is more likely to occur. The resulting sediment pollution can lead to:
💧 Increased costs for treating drinking water
🏊 Less enjoyable swimming conditions
🌱 Loss of aquatic plants due to reduced sunlight
🐟 Fish spawning beds being covered and eggs destroyed
🦐 Destruction of small aquatic creatures that fish depend on for food
🚤 Boats becoming stuck in heavily sedimented channels
🌱 The Good News
Even highly disturbed shorelines can often be successfully rehabilitated, and there are excellent local resources and programs available to help.
🌿 The Natural Edge Program
One such program is the Natural Edge Program offered through the Muskoka Watershed Council.
Participants receive:
✅ A free site visit from a shoreline restoration and native plant expert
✅ A customized shoreline re-naturalization planting plan
🌾 Up to 50 native plants
🟫 Fibre pads to reduce grass growth around new plantings
🌳 Tree guards for deciduous trees
🍂 Mulch for wildflowers
📘 Plant care, habitat creation, and wildflower garden guides
💵 If property owners choose to proceed with the recommended planting plan, there is a one-time fee of $300.
🌲 Lake Vernon Success Stories
Many Lake Vernon property owners have taken advantage of this program to help restore and naturalize their shorelines.
In 2020 and 2021, the Lake Vernon Association Environment Committee worked with the owner of Gallaugher Island, with assistance from the Natural Edge Program, to help stabilize and re-naturalize the heavily eroded shoreline of the island.
🙋♀️ If you are planning a shoreline planting project and would like volunteer assistance, please contact:
Kevin Laframboise
📧 laframboisekj@gmail.com
🌿 Another Easy Restoration Technique
Another simple and effective way to restore eroded shoreline banks is to plant live stakes of dogwood or willow in late fall or early spring.
🌱 Check out information on live staking if you would like to try this easy shoreline restoration project yourself.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CGCEJWlCJeYyX1vgoAxIDbCRK3ITZpbXeKwGsIwz3f0/edit?usp=sharing
Well Wise Tips
Is this what a good well should look like? – NO!
We all understand that we need to do a bit of maintenance on our car in order to keep it running properly, but most people don’t recognize that your water well also needs regular maintenance.
Based on results from outreach programs, it has been shown that 89% of wells across Ontario are in need of repair. Wells in Ontario are aging; there are 10, 000 – 20,000 new wells installed every year, but the majority of homeowners have wells that were installed before provincial standards were put in place.
Well owners need to understand what to do to keep their wells in good working order and how to ensure that their water is safe and sustainable.
Wells should be finished above ground to keep surface water and debris from entering through the top of the well. The area around the well needs to be managed to protect the structure and the water supply. Many people don’t like the look of their well so they try to disguise the well by putting a structure over it, by altering the well or by growing gardens or bushes around the well. It is really important to recognize that there is a connection between the well itself and the water quality that you can expect. Many times I have removed structures or tarps placed around wells only to find that mice, snakes or other littler critters have created a home directly on top of or adjacent to the well. I have also often come across critters that have fallen directly into the well. You need to keep an eye on your well and remove anything that could encourage critters to move in and possibly impact your water supply.
Another important way to keep an eye on your water supply is by testing your water regularly. The Ministry of Health suggests testing for bacteria through their complimentary service 3 times a year. This is a good recommendation. However, a number of people have told me that they think that this complimentary test screens for a wide variety of impurities. That is not the case. If you want to understand what other impurities might be in your water you need to specifically test for them. For example, nitrate and sodium are two other impurities that have commonly been found in rural water supplies.
If you have an old well on your property, you need to have a licensed contractor plug and seal the well. Wells must be maintained or properly decommissioned. Well contractors use special sealants and machinery to ensure that the old well will no longer be a structural risk or a conduit that could impact the quality of groundwater.
For more information on how to care for your well check out the Ontario Ground Water Association website.
by Mary Jane Conboy, Hydrogeologist for the Ontario Federation of Agriculture
Bubblers
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