Have you been voting for the Love Your Lake Shoreline Project?
Last week I had the opportunity to do some training on a lake in Renfrew County for this project and saw first-hand what the shoreline technicians will be looking for as they perform their shoreline property assessments.
They’ll be classifying shorelines; looking at different structures such as decks, boat launches, boat slips, and sheds; also checking out docks; retaining walls; erosion; aquatic cover; and aquatic substrate. Besides noting what property owners are doing well they will also be providing some restoration recommendations that will help improve the health of the lake.
As an example, shorelines can be classified into four categories: natural, regenerative, ornamental and degraded. Below are two examples of different shoreline types:
While you can’t see the entire shoreline, this shoreline was classified as 90% ornamental, 10% regenerative
This was an undeveloped section of shoreline so it would be classified as 100% Natural
You can see how great having a portion of your shoreline like this would be for fish and other wildlife!
And I just couldn’t resist taking a picture of these mergansers. Now, that’s a lot of young!
Terri-Lee Reid
Terri-Lee Reid is a Freshwater Conservation Researcher at the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF). She leads initiatives in researching, designing and delivering freshwater programs and advocating CWF’s freshwater positions to government, the public and other stakeholders.
