Mark your calendars for Saturday August 23rd, 2014. That’s the date of the Statutory Public Meeting concerning the condominium development proposal for the Fraser Wetlands.

1 pm Open House – during which the developer and his team will display their plans

2 pm Meeting – during which concerned citizens can express their reservations and objections

Wilson Park Community Centre, Northey’s Bay Road, just off Highway 28

Registering online to vote in the upcoming municipal election is quick and easy. Just click on the following link for full instructions and rules about eligibility. But please note, the deadline to register is coming up fast. Online registration must be completed by August 14th.

If there was ever a time to vote, this is it! On October 27th, we encourage every Stony Lake property owner to vote — for the sake of the Fraser Wetlands..

www.stonylake.on.ca/news/320-voter-registration.html

Come to an ALL CANDIDATES MEETING this Sunday, August 3rd, 4 pm at Viamede.

This is an election year, and this meeting is a terrific opportunity to hear from candidates for North Kawartha, Selwyn and Duoro-Dummer about a variety of issues relevant to Stony Lakers, including the proposed development of the Fraser Wetlands.

Stony Lake property owners are eligible to vote!

Please plan to spend at hour at this important meeting.

See you there!

Today, a massive, $320-million, multi-decade plan to save Lake Winnipeg is underway, but environmentalists and even Manitoba’s Conservation Minister Gordon Mackintosh say the lake’s contamination would never have reached existing levels if its surrounding wetlands had been left untouched.

Instead, with 75 per cent of the wetlands drained in the name of development and industry, the waterways’ natural ability to retain, release and refresh water over time was compromised and excess phosphorous allowed to flourish.

 

Closer to Home

With algae blooms already identified in Upper Stoney and Clear Lakes, and in Pigeon Lake – where in 2011 a Peterborough Country-City Health alert advised residents to find alternative sources of water for all purposes, including drinking, washing dishes and clothes, bathing, and providing water to pets — it’s a story we should all be paying attention to.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/massive-plan-to-save-lake-winnipeg-protect-wetlands-unveiled-1.2671843

www.cbc.ca/news/technology/how-blue-green-algae-is-taking-over-canadian-lakes-1.1326761

 

 

 

Today! 3 p.m. at Viamede (meeting room, first floor). Learn about outreach and fundraising initiatives. All are welcome!

My Wetlands

Between my low, flat island and my neighbours’ larger island are our own wetlands. Some would call it a swamp, full of lily pads and weeds. But for me it is a place of life and beauty.

In the daytime the dragonflies, who in their hundreds have struggled out of their nymph husks attached to my boathouse walls, swoop low in pursuit of mosquitoes, the ducks dive bottom up for snails, the osprey, teaching their young how to fly and catch fish, scream their high-pitched calls. Turtles bask on the rocks, slipping swiftly into the water even if I paddle by silently. At night the bullfrogs croak lugubriously while the loons give their plaintive cries.

This May-June the high water made my island a temporary wetland, and even now the mink and otters treat it as an extension of their territory, fearlessly crossing my path. Herons perch on the docks, patiently searching for fish.

Of course we have geese too, though I saw one trumpeter swan chase about twenty geese out of the bay. Another fascinating sight in June is the carp spawning, with great splashing and swirling in shallow, muddy water. Bass guard their young in round, carefully swept nests in the shallows. And a proud mother duck leads her troop of 9 or 10 ducklings in and out of the weeds on the shoreline.

All this life exists because of one small wetland, where the waters are undisturbed by motorboats and the shore is left in its natural state. One could wish that other wetlands could remain to help purify the water and foster the wildlife at Stony Lake. – Christie Bentham

Come and meet with the Friends this Sunday at 3 p.m. at Viamede. Everyone is welcome!

It’s almost always the first reaction when a cottager learns of the proposal to develop the Fraser Estate on Stony Lake into a gated community with 60 housing units, recreational facilities, docks and boats: “But the lake is already so busy!”

It may seem that way, particularly to cottagers who’ve been on the lake long enough to recall a time when paddling across open water on a long weekend didn’t mean taking your life in your hands, but is it really that busy?

According to the Trent Severn Waterway folks, the number of boats travelling through the system has dropped in recent years. But what of lake-generated boat traffic?

In an effort to document the real numbers, Jen Lewis of the Friends of the Fraser Wetlands devised a survey to catalogue the number and kinds of boats on the water during specific times and in specific areas of the lake.  Jen was the first fill out the survey, devoting several hours on the July long weekend to counting the boats that passed in view of her cottage on Fairy Lake Island.

The results? Between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Sunday June 29th, Jen counted 310 boats! They included:

• 43 open boats under 25 hp

• 24 open boats over 25 hp

• 119 larger outboards or inboards

• 34 cabin cruisers

• 10 houseboats

• 47 jet skis

• 23 pontoon boats

• 1 tour boat

• 3 airplanes

• 6 kayaks or canoes

This seemed remarkable, even to those of us who’ve argued that boat traffic on the lake is reaching a critical point. So on Monday, June 30th – a seemingly quiet but sunny day on the lake – I decided to use Jen’s template to do my own count of the traffic in front of my family cottage, which is on the Burleigh Shore at the entrance to Juniper Point – the area of highest density on the lake, and a stone’s throw from the Fraser Estate.

I had only an hour to spare, and didn’t expect to count many boats. I was shocked that at the end of the hour – having endeavoured not to count any boats more than once (in other words if someone went past our place 10 times dragging kids on skis or tubes, I would only count them once) – I logged 75 boats! In one hour.

This is only one measure of the pressure we’re placing on our water, but these kinds of numbers beg the question: How much is too much? And will another (potential) 120 boats on the lake, in an area of the lake that boasts the highest density of development, make for safe waters?

What do you think?

– Jennifer David