THe photographs that make up the Seven Wonders of Kahshe Lake can be seen by clicking here.

A summary of the survey conducted during the summer of 2009 is available in the Member Zone.  You must log on to view it.

Here is a link to the Gravenhurst Banner article by Allyson Snelling about the revised Gravenhurst ward boundaries: http://www.bracebridgeexaminer.com/article/148423

The KLRA community collected more than a quarter of the petition signatures necessary for this review to take place.

The Government of Ontario has implemented a ban on the use of cosmetic pesticides, the type commonly used to control weeds.  You can read more about the legislation, and the background for it, on the Ontario Website at http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/land/pesticides/.

Several years ago, Gary MacLean provided the following article, which has been on the KLRA Website.  The Government's ban is merely catching up with knowledge that has been in the public domain for a long time.

Pesticides (Part 1)
The following information is drawn from papers published by the Workers Health. & Safety Centre, The Toronto Star, World Wild Life, and the Department of Environmental Biology, University of Guelph.

What are pesticides?

Pesticides are substances designed kill, injure, repel and neuter living organisms that some have determined to be pests. These pests might include insects, plants, fungi, molds and/or rodents. The term pesticides refers to a wide range of products, including herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. They are available in a variety of formulations including sprays, dusts, powders, granulars, concentrates, liquids, pastes, pellets, pressurized products and tablets.

There are approximately 6,000 pesticide products registered for use in Canada. Most came into the market following the World War II. The World Wildlife Fund has calculated that at least 50 million kilograms of these products are used in Canada each year, at a reported value of one billion dollars a year. They are used in agriculture, in fish farming, in homes, in day cares, in parks and recreational fields, on residential lawns, on golf courses, on pets, and even on children to combat head lice. They are also used widely in industries such as food service and textile industries.

What are the health effects?

Acute or short-term effects of pesticides can result in the following:

Long term health consequences can also be devastating. A recent study of individuals newly diagnosed with Parkinson's disease has found that home pesticide use and exposure is associated with a substantially increased risk of developing this disease.

Previous studies have also found a relationship between pesticide exposure and neurological disorders, negative effects to the immune system, liver and kidney damage, respiratory ailments, infertility and cancers, including brain, lung, prostate and breast cancers.

How are children affected?

Children from conception to sexual maturity are most vulnerable to pesticides. The Environmental Health Committee of the Ontario College of Family Physicians report a higher incidence of leukemia, brain cancer and soft tissue sarcomas in children exposed to herbicides and insecticides. Emerging science has also linked wide variety of health problems in children to their parent's exposure to pesticides, including birth defects, premature birth, learning and behavioural problems.

Some Statistics:

To eliminate broadleaf weeds many people use a product containing 2-4-D. Here are some facts:

Municipalities have the right to implement by-laws protecting public health and safety. So ruled the Supreme Court of Canada last June (2001) in their landmark decision upholding a by-law passed in Hudson, Quebec that banned the cosmetic use of pesticides within municipal boundaries.

What is happening locally?

Pressed by health, safety and environmental activists many Canadian municipalities are not waiting for other government jurisdictions. They have already moved to protect their workers, environments and citizens by passing bylaws to reduce or outright ban the use of pesticides for cosmetic purposes. Most are limited to uses on public property, but with the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding a municipality's right to implement measures protecting the health of citizens, up to and including restrictions on private property, others are looking to broaden their approach.

 

Pesticides - Designed to Kill (Part 2)

by Gary MacLean The following information is drawn from papers published by the Workers Health & Safety Centre, The Toronto Star, World Wild Life and the Department of Environmental Biology, University of Guelph

Alternatives to Pesticides

Lawn Care:

If you must have a lawn you may avoid the use of dangerous pesticides by following these guidelines.

1.	Choose grasses or ground covers and plants that are well adapted to your general climate and that are suitable for the specific site.
2.	Mow the lawn frequently with sharp blades set as high as possible.
3.	Leave grass clippings on the lawn.
4.	Water (if you must) slowly and deeply, preferably in the evening.
5.	Use organic slow release fertilizers.
6.	Over-seeding is another important strategy. You can attain excellent results by casting a mix of drought-tolerant grub resistant grasses. eg. perennial rye with white clover. Mix the seed into soil and throw over existing lawn.
7.	Remove weeds by hand.

Insect infestations:

Ants: Apply bone meal or diatomaceous earth at the burrow opening. Encircle the point of entry with a line of red chili powder, paprika or dried peppermint leaves. Diatomaceous earth is the material used in swimming pool filtration systems. A caution when using this material- it also kills butterflies, honeybees and other beneficial insects.

Aphids: In a blender, mix garlic, green onions and half a teaspoon of Tabasco sauce. Strain and mix with soapy water. Spray the garden, wait a half and hour and rinse off affected plants.

Slugs, snails or earwigs: Place a dish of stale beer in the garden. Insects will enter and drown.

Grubs: Spray lawn with soapy water and turn over areas of sod infested with grubs allowing birds to eat them. Alternatively, apply nematodes, a natural predator of grubs, to the affected areas.

Fungus control: Use natural methods such as compost. There is a general movement to ban insecticides and herbicides for cosmetic purposes throughout Muskoka. The Town of Gravenhurst is doing their part by not using pesticides on Town-owned parks and properties. They are accomplishing their goals by over-seeding and the use of natural compost.

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Are you doing your part? Remember that these chemicals can exist in the ground (as well as in your living room rug) for a long time . They also enter the water table and run off into steams, gutters and eventually the lake. These poisons and nutrients can only cause damage to the natural state of our lakes.

2007 - Benthic Monitoring: Year Four

Herb Grossman, Kahshe Lake Steward, received the following letter after the 2007 benthic monitoring took place. Herb asked for feedback on the health of the lake in layman’s terms, and this is the result.

Benthic monitoring involves the identification and counting of species found at the bottom of the lake. The process takes place yearly and the results gain significance if the testing takes place over a period of time. 2007 was the 4th year on Kahshe.

Hello Herb,
I can understand the need for feedback in layman's terms and have attached some files the District put together, which you may have already received.

The jist of those documents is that Lakes in Muskoka, include Kahshe Lake are in excellent condition and therefore deemed "reference sites". Data that we collect from these lakes are used to compare negatively impacted lakes all over Ontario too, through a new network called Ontario's Benthic Biomonitoring Network (OBBN).

For instance a lake that has been negatively altered would not be as healthy, so benthic populations and species composition would differ. This information is helpful in court cases were ecologists now have hard data to say that a water body is being negatively altered and is suffering "adverse effects" ( a legislation term that was almost useless until this protocol was able to establish what is normal for a lake in pristine condition). Therefore making calculations regarding Kahshe Lake status is not nessaccary, it has already been determined to be in excellent condition.

This is not to say that the data tells us nothing about the Lake. Since Kahshe Lake has tested two sites so far, we can tell that it is rich in biodiversity, because of the changing richness levels between the sites. Also there is different hilsenhoff index averages between the two site which also indicates that there is several aquatic environments (microclimates) on the lake which adds to the biodiversity of life on Kahshe Lake.

Also I can tell without even seeing the Lake that the shoreline vegetation is in good condition and is offering the a large amount of decaying material to feed the shredders in the lake. A lake with a high amount of shredders is a good indication that your shoreline has not suffered shoreline vegetation removal, such as those lakes in southern Ontario.

The presents of Caddisflies and Mayflies is an indication of good water quality and little if any pollution in the water, since they just would not survive those conditions. Likewise the lack of leeches backs that up since they would indicate higher than normal pollution.

I hope this quick analyses of the data helps with the newsletter, and drums up support for the ongoing monitoring on the lake. As time goes by we will be able to make more determinations of what the data means for Kahshe Lake in particular. If the numbers start to change for the worse we will be able to catch it. In the meantime Kahshe Lake residents can feel good about helping lakes similar to Kahshe, overcome the burdens they face in the light of human development.

Thanks for your continued interest and efforts to keep you lake beautiful

Sincerely,
Maggie Braun
Ecological Monitoring Technician
District Municipality of Muskoka 70 Pine Street Bracebridge, Ontario P1L 1N3
(705) 645-2231 ext. 332

2006 - Benthic Monitoring Year Three: Volunteers Count Bugs Again!

On August 3, volunteers carried out a count of living organisms from a sample taken from the bottom of Kahshe Lake.

Here is a list of some of the organisms they are looking for in the picture below: Caddis Flies, Mayflies, Dobsonflies, Crayfish, Sowbugs, Scuds, Alderflies, Damselflies, Craneflies, Dragonflies, Clams, Aquatic Worms, Midges, Blackflies, Leeches.



Bet you didn’t know they were there!

The volunteers are industriously counting living organisms from a sample taken from the bottom of Kahshe Lake near the shore as part of a Ministry of the Environment testing program under the supervision of Sarah Sinclair, Biological Monitoring Technician, District of Muskoka and Herb Grossman, Kahshe Lake Steward.


After the local count takes place, the District of Muskoka reports to the Lake Steward on the count, which will be compared with the counts taken the last two years (2004 and 2005) and the counts in future years. This form of monitoring of life in the water tells a great deal about the health of the lake over a period of time.

Benthic Monitoring - Terms of Reference

August 29, 2005

Dear Lake Steward,
Thank you for your participation in the District of Muskoka Biological Monitoring program this season. Your time and dedication is appreciated and we look forward to your continued participation in this beneficial program.

A copy of the data collected during your workshop has been included with this letter for your records. This information will now be submitted to the Dorset Environmental Science Centre to be used as reference site data for the Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network database. We are in the process of gathering baseline data that will be combined with data from similar sites to define the normal condition for your shoreline type. This will enable you to compare and analyze samples from degraded sites in the future.

Although no analysis of the data has been done at this time, there are general inferences that can be made about the quality of your lake’s water. Below is a chart describing the sensitivity of various benthos, which will allow you to make a general characterization about the quality of your lake’s water

Sensitive	Somewhat Sensitive	Tolerant
• Caddis Flies   • Mayflies   • Dobsonflies	• Crayfish   • Sowbugs   • Scuds   • Alderflies   • Damselflies   • Craneflies   • Dragonflies   • Clams	• Aquatic Worms   • Midges   • Blackflies   • Leeches

Please remember that you must resample your site at the same time every year to ensure that the data can be accurately compared from year to year. Please call early May 2006 to set up your 2006 sampling workshop. Next season, you may decided to set up or start sampling a new site on your lake, which would allow you to make a more accurate assessment of the water and habitat quality of your lake. This matter can be discussed with the Biological Monitoring Technician when you call to book your appointment.

If you have any further questions about your results, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thanks again for a great workshop!

Sarah Sinclair
Biological Monitoring Technician
District of Muskoka
biotech@muskoka.on.ca
705-645-2231 ext 332