While the overall health of Muskoka’s watershed remains exceptional, there are troubling trends on a number of fronts.
That was the message from Dr. Peter Sale, Chair of the Muskoka Watershed Council (MWC), when he addressed the Bracebridge General Committee this week.
Sale said the health of the watershed was in “remarkably good health” but “it continues to deteriorate in a number of ways.”
Sale took councillors through a number of graphs indicating challenges facing the area. A major issue is that the lakes within the Muskoka watershed continue to increase in salinity year after year. Sale said 68 lakes (25%) of 275 lakes sampled are now above the maximum threshold of 10 mg/L, wherein levels become potentially lethal to some organisms.
Lakes in the region also continue to decrease in calcium levels annually. That calcium is required to help creatures create their skeleton, among other things, said Sale.
Since 1923 Muskoka now receives 36 more days of rain annually, and since 1965 has experienced 20 fewer days of ice cover, said Sale. This affects everything from construction on the lakes and winter recreation to the health of the lakes.
Blue-green algae blooms are also an increasing concern and a phenomenon which simply did not exist in Muskoka until relatively recently.
Sale said there is a potential solution to the problem in the form of integrated watershed management. Such a solution would need to involve all of the area municipalities working together in a coordinated fashion, aligned with water and forestry management sectors.
“You need to participate as a partner in a collaboration over the next decade to bring different kinds of management,” said Sale. “It will take time and money.”
Sale said the MWC is currently in the process of searching out funding and visiting every municipality in Muskoka to seek contributions.
Councillors were generally receptive to the idea of an integrated water management system and called the presentation an “eye-opener.”
Sale said he will return later in the year with a more specific ask for funding.
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Jeff Postma says
I wonder about all the salt water pools that get drained every fall into the Muskoka watershed. I know the dilution rate is significant but I would assume it would also contribute to the elevated salinity that is being measured.