State of the Lake Project 2015

During the weekend of October 3/4 a team of 4 ecological students from Fleming College in Lindsay were on our lake to complete a project that will provide us with a status of the state of our lake in a variety of categories.

The project summary is as follows:

Ecosystem Management Program, Fleming College

 

A condensed State of the Lake report to include:

• Summarized water chemistry data: conductivity, pH, alkalinity, suspended solids, turbidity, nitrates, nitrites, total phosphorus, dissolved oxygen, temperature.
•  Comparison of the above data to Muskoka averages, and Leech Lake data from 2010 – 14.

• Summarized data and analysis of: zooplankton and phytoplankton inventory.
•  Comparisons of data to historical Leech Lake data and Muskoka averages.

• Summarized data, analysis and conclusions about benthic (envertebrates/bug) census. Samples to be taken from two identified sites for comparison with Muskoka averages and historical Leech Lake data.

• Sample 20-30 sites around Leech Lake for ecoli.

• Develop a plan for re-naturalization of one to two demonstration sites on selected member properties. 

• Recommend elements of a plan to communicate the importance of natural shorelines and the potential impact for the demonstration sites. 

 

The Team consisted of (from l to r) Peter Krzeminski -Omemee ON, Kady Bilodeau, Old Fort Bay P.Q., Meagan Walsh Alliston ON, and Sierra Vandenberg Foxboro ON

 

Each of the team have undergraduate degrees from Canadian universities and are continuing their ecological studies at Fleming College.

 

Kudos to Murray Hall for assisting the team with their data collection and Christine and Larry Jacobs for hosting the team during the project