Lake shorelines in Renfrew County are to be assessed over the next two summers thanks to a $140,000 grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

The first lake to have its shoreline evaluated in the Love Your Lake! Shoreline Program is Lake Clear. The project is a joint venture between the Centre for Sustainable Watersheds (CSW) the Renfrew County Stewardship Council (RCSC) and the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF).

“It will be beneficial to our lakes and the people who live around them,” said Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MPP John Yakabuski.

Program organizers stress the survey is not mandatory and lake home owners do not have to participate.

However, the Lake Clear Lake Association jumped at the opportunity to have its lake assessed. At its last annual general meeting, program organizers attended and presented the project to the association membership.

“We had 67 people in attendance and 66 voted in favour,” said year-round resident and association vice-president Phillip Lancanster.

Shoreline technician Katrinna Demers and shoreline student technician Emily Hawkins will be visiting five lakes in the county to assess the shoreline.

The ladies will be noting vegetation, erosion, type of docks and anything that affects the water quality.

“We are looking at water and waterways to make suggestions on how the residents could improve the health of the lake,” explained Ms. Demers.

The chairwoman of the Bonnechere River Watershed Project, Kathy Lindsay was on hand for the announcement at the Opeongo Mountain Resort on Lake Clear on June 26. The lake is part of the Bonnechere River watershed. Ms. Lindsay said her organization has been studying the health of the creeks flowing in and out of the lake.

“We go out and sample the critters living in the stream. From what we find we rate the health of the stream into three classes: good, fair and poor,” explained Ms. Lindsay.

The purpose of the rating the streams is to understand what is happening in the county’s waterways and to find out what is responsible for the waterways’ deteriorating conditions.

“The conditions on the shoreline affects the stream conditions,” said Ms. Lindsay, which is happening at Lake Clear.

She added, “we are very excited the centre is starting here and we are pleased that the association is on board. It will add to our knowledge base about the shoreline.”

Barb King, executive director for CSW noted, “sometimes there is a disconnect between values and actions.”

Stressing participation is volunteer, the idea behind the project is to suggest solutions to improve the overall health of the counties’ waterways to people that live along the water.

The shoreline technicians will be out in a boat assessing the lakes this summer. They will delivering letters by hand to residents residing on the lakes.

To date Leeds, Lanark and Frontenac Counties have participated in the program.

Cyndi Mills is a Daily Observer multimedia journalist

cyndi.mills@sunmedia.ca