This beautiful stretch of water, some 20 miles long from Young's Point to the lake's eastern shores encompasses over 1,000 islands and half a dozen 19th century settlements.
The term "LakePlan" has taken hold in our community and we
want to retain this connection and work group, while integrating with the
Stoney Lake Environment Council which was instrumental in initiating the LakePlan
process. We are thus evolved and, accordingly, re-named the Clear/Stoney/White (CSW) Lake Plan EnvironmentCouncil
Your
CSW Lake Plan Environment Council is pleased to report the following outcomes
for fall and early winter, 2009:
1 - Last year one of our members was
invited to sit on a joint Citizen-Councillor Committee in North
Kawartha to redraft municipal Official Plan By-laws. Concurrently,
Douro-Dummer Council suggested that we try to bring all Councils together with
the County of Peterborough Planning Department to review the “fit” between
Official Plans and the LakePlan.Preliminary
meetings were held with our 4 municipalities last fall for discussion of implementing
specific LakePlan recommendations pertaining to
Official Plans, water quality, shoreline conservation and development issues.
2
- A subsequent meeting was held with the
County of Peterborough Planning Dept.,Otonabee Region Conservation Authority and Ontario
Ministry of Natural Resources. The focus of this multi-stakeholder
gathering was preservation of
natural heritage in near-shore forested areas and associated diminishing
habitat for Species at Risk, including birds, amphibians, andmammals
Both of the above processes inform our
dialogue with local, county and regional governments. Your Lake Plan Council will
thus be in a stronger position to make formal, more realistic recommendations
to both provincialand county
governments for changes in the Provincial Policy Statement (planning
legislation) and Official Plans.These
changes will afford greater protection for our lakes’ water quality and natural
heritage.This process will take place
over the next few years in keeping with the legislative reform process. We will
keep you updated on progress.
3
- Wetland evaluations began in 2007 with
the goal of completing thorough scientific evaluations of our aquatic and
land-based wetlands. This project aims to provide protection for
disappearing wetlands, lost yearly to development and shoreline alteration.
Wetlands cleanse and filter the water and provide critical habitat for many
species, including muskellunge, bass, amphibians and waterfowl.In many cases, these species depend entirely
on wetland habitat for their very survival. To date, we have raised $22,000 combined
from the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Stony Lake Heritage
Foundation to support the hiring of professional biologists to conduct this
field work, prepare digital maps and submit to the Ministry of Natural
Resources for approval and final formal designation. Approved mapping is then
submitted to the municipalities for inclusion in their Official Plans as a
guideline for protection of wetlands.To date, over 300 hectares of wetland In
South Bay and Hull Bay have been completed and designated as Provincially
Significant, affording the highest level of legal protection due in part to
the presence of high-quality fish habitat and Species at Risk and their
interconnectedness to Provincially Significant land-based wetlands.An additional 600 hectares of wetland remain
to be evaluated. Work is ongoing in 2010, and we await word fromregional,federal and provincial funders for 2010 budget.
4-Improving
communications and information flow is an important LakePlan
implementation action
The
first-ever meeting of Presidents of the five lake associations on our three
lakes was held in early October to share concerns and ideas.Last July we hosted a seminar on septic
system maintenance and legislation, providing information and a heads-up that a
compulsory reinspection programme may be forthcoming.
5
-Consultations are underway with other
lake planning groups in our region in promoting shared efforts to conserve
our lakes
Even
while the snow flies, your Lake
Plan committee members
are hard at work. Here’s a brief summary of work undertaken since last
summer:
A planning meeting focused on next steps was held last fall; another
one is scheduled for early April. New lake resident volunteers have offered to
work on various activities. This is
extremely important as there is lots to be done! The
need for volunteers is ever-present.
Our Lake Plan committee members, Michael Harper,
Mike Stedman and Rob Little are working together
with the municipalities of North Kawartha and Douro Dummer in ensuring that
important zoning and environmental
issues are considered in the municipal planning and by-law amendment
process.
The Lake Plan
committee has joined the local Chamber
of Commerce in keeping with our mandate to work cooperatively with business
stakeholders.
Important wetland and fisheries spawning mapping has been completed and
forwarded on to Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Federal agency which, along
with the Stony Lake Heritage Foundation, helped to fund this portion of the
large project. Notably, the recent use of the updated mapping as reference
material has served to define environmental constraints in deterring a proposal
for a large development on the lake. Additional funding is being sought to
continue with this wetland mapping project in 2009-2010.
A workshop, supporting
Lake Plan recommendations on water
quality and focused on septic
maintenance, has been arranged for all lake residents on July 23rd Click on the link to see more info on this seminar (Caring for your Septic System Seminar )
Lake Plan Complete Action Plans Taking Shape – Fall, 2008
The lake plan was completed in the summer of 2008 and action plans are starting to take shape. Here is an article written for the USLA Bulletin about the current state of the Lake Plan.
to view some of the links above. You can obtain it by click 