Third Online Conference, & Hopes For A Human Touch

Jeff Green | Nov 02, 2022

Watersheds Canada, as well as regional conservation authorities, the Federation of Ontario Cottage Associations, and other conservation oriented groups and individuals, have put on Lake Links in late October since 2001.

Until 2020, the one day series of presentations was also an important networking event for participants, held most years at the Perth Civitan Club.

Since 2020, however, it has been a virtual event, making it less effective in terms of networking, but remaining a good source of information about a variety of topics.

It was also a cherished annual gathering of Gord Rodgers, who worked with lake associations on lake plans, was the chair of the Frontenac Stewardship Council, and lived on Thirteen Island Lake with his wife Barb.

After Gord died of cancer, an award in his honour has been presented annually at the Lake Links conference as part of the conference.

Because the conference focuses on issues pertaining to lakes in Eastern Ontario, the topics tend to be relevant to the lakes in the Frontenac County region, and this year was no Ecosystems in Response to Environmental Change'' looked first at the onset of what geologists are calling the Anthropocene era, which began in around 1950. Anthropocene exception.

This year, there were four presentations.

The first was by Dr. Jesse Vermaire of the Carleton University Geography and Environmental Sciences Department. His wide ranging talk, titled “Promoting Ecological Resilience in Lake'' refers to an era where the main driver of geological changes, for the first time in the planet's history, is human activity.

“The dramatic changes in the planet that have happened within the lifespan of a person, 70 years or so, are unprecedented, certainly in human history,” he said.

Before geologists officially declare the onset of the Anthropocene Era, they are considering whether the changes that are occurring will be apparent when sediments are looked at a million years from now, and said that determination is close to being made.

“There were 1.8 billion people on the planet in 1913, and there are 8 billion now, there were 1.1 million motor vehicles, then and there are 1 billion now. There were no commercial air flights, and there are now 9 million each year in the United States alone,” he said, to illustrate some of the changes.

A lot of the changes in human society that have taken place have had positive impacts for people. In terms of levels of nutrition, lifespan, and quality of life generally across the planet, there have been dramatic improvements, he said.

“But of course there have been negative impacts, and a major one is climate change,” he said. “If we are entering the Anthropocene, it does not mean that we are going to have this dystopian future of devastation, however. We have a lot of knowledge of what needs to be done for a good Anthropocene, if we can make use of it.”

When looking at lakes and watersheds, he said that the factors that will determine their health, the first is Resistance, the ability of the ecosystem to protect against changes. The second is Resilience, the ability to recover from disturbances, and the third is Response, how the lake responds to stressors.

He then discussed two issues that are familiar to lakes in our region, algae blooms and the invasive Eurasian milfoil.

He talked about studies that look at Dog and Cranberry lakes in South Frontenac, which have been dealing with algae blooms over the past decade.

Whale phosphorous levels have remained steady, the amount of ice free days each year and water temperatures in the summer have increased, leading to the conclusion water temperature is causing the increased frequency and severity of algal blooms.

The main drivers of the blooms are phosphorus (30%) and water temperature, (38.5%) he said, “but unfortunately the only factor that can be locally controlled is the phosphorus levels.”

He also looked briefly at efforts to abate the expansion of Eurasian milfoil, referring to Malcolm and Ardoch Lakes, and the use of burlap to attempt to diminish the milfoil spread while encouraging other more beneficial aquatic plants to return.

The second presentation dealt directly with Asian milfoil.

Fred McConnel is from the Wollaston Lake Property Owners Association. Wollaston Lake is located in Hastings County, near Bancroft. It has some large swaths of Asian milfoil on shallow parts of the lake.

One of the things his association is doing, using drone technology, is to track the spread of the milfoil.

They are also using mechanical means to remove milfoil, monitoring the impact of that effort, which has a risk factor if the method of removal results in fragmentation, whereby small fragments of the plant are released, only to float away and begin a new cycle of growth.

They are also experimenting with some large-scale use of burlap to block out the milfoil at the bottom of the lake, hopefully to be replaced by native plants that will emerge from beneath the burlap when it biodegrades.

The key to success, according to McConnel, is education.

“We need to educate, educate, educate. To do that we must involve local stakeholders, including municipal governments, to keep other invasives out, and partner with experts to integrate our efforts into a broader lake health plan,” he said.

The final two presentations at Lake Links explored the municipal connections that are important for efforts to ensure water and ecosystem health in lakes. One was by the Big Rideau Lake Association about relations with local municipalities bordering Big Rideau Lake, and the final one was about the South Frontenac Lake Ecosystem Advisory Committee.

The committee is relatively young, and is designed to provide a forum for ecosystem issues to be brought to council, and to support a grant program for local ecological efforts.

Christine Woods, senior planner for the township, was one of the presenters.

She said that South Frontenac is “trying to balance growth requirements with an intent to go slow and maintain the lifestyle that makes the township attractive to the people who live here.

There are 120 named lakes in South Frontenac, 19,000 permanent and 11,000 seasonal residents, and a population density that has grown by fifteen percent. Ninety two percent of the seasonal residents, and twenty seven percent of the permanent residents live on the waterfront.”

The Lake Ecosystem Committee was approved in April of 2020 and after developing a terms of reference, it held its first meeting in November of the same year, two years ago this month. The committee is made up of two councillors, the mayor, and six community appointees.

One of the committee members, Gillian Lash, said that the committee has an educational role for both the public and council, and in addition to working on the grant program it has been a good way to leverage the “knowledge and skills of the local community for the benefit of the township as a whole”.

She said the commitment of Council has been crucial.”

“The mayor and councillors have been to every single meeting of the committee, which demonstrates their commitment, and with what I call the gene pool of the community members, there is a lot of potential to leverage knowledge and skills,” she said.

“The common threat on the committee is a passion and desire for positive change.”