Aquatic Plants in Lake Scugog

Our choices can make all the difference.
Here is what you can do to protect Lake Scugog.
Residential Actions:
Agricultural Actions:
• Leave a buffer strip of natural vegetation along waterfronts
and stream banks to filter runoff and provide wildlife
habitat.
• Mow your lawn to no less than 3 inches in height. Longer
grass will absorb more moisture and reduce the need for
watering. Also, leave mulched clippings on the lawn to
decompose naturally and reduce the need for fertilizer.
• Eliminate chemical fertilizer use on lawns. Any runoff with
fertilizer stimulates aquatic plant growth.
• Clean up after your pets and don’t feed or encourage ducks
and geese. This will reduce the amount of runoff containing
nutrients and fecal matter, which may potentially contain
E. coli.
• Maintain your septic system to achieve optimum efficiency
and prevent leakage of nutrients and E. coli.
• Use phosphate free soaps and detergents to reduce the
amount of phosphorous in sewage.
• Take hazardous wastes to a hazardous waste disposal
facility. Call 905.668.7711 in Durham Region and 705.324.9411 in the City of Kawartha Lakes for locations.
• Make sure your well is properly dug or drilled. Have a
professional legally decommission unused wells. Old and
unsealed wells can provide a path for contamination to
enter your groundwater supply and eventually the lake. A
hidden, abandoned well can also be a safety and liability
concern.
• Practice nutrient management planning to ensure you apply nutrients
only when, where and in the amounts needed. This also helps reduce
fertilizer costs.
• Create alternate watering systems and fence livestock off from accessing
watercourses. This helps prevent stream bank erosion, loss of water
quality, degraded fish and wildlife habitat, and bacterial and nutrient
loading in streams and rivers. Poor water quality can also lead to livestock
health problems and lower production levels.
• Maintain a proper manure storage facility to reduce contaminated runoff.
• Incorporate site improvements, such as ditching, berms and vegetated
filter strips, to reduce the amount of contaminated runoff and seepage
from livestock waste storage and yards. Eavestroughing and other
upslope diversions will divert rain and snow melt away from sources of
contamination and reduce runoff.
• Leave a buffer strip of natural vegetation along waterfronts and stream
banks to filter runoff and provide wildlife habitat.
• Encourage vegetated buffers along fencerows as corridors for wildlife to
move from area to area.
• Maintain wetlands to filter and absorb water, prevent flooding, and takeup nutrients.
• Set aside areas for reforestation. Forests filter water, prevent erosion and
play a role in re-charging aquifers.
• Manage your woodlot by selective harvesting to promote a healthy,
productive woodlot.
• Undertake rural residential activities as needed.
Financial Incentives and Programs:
• Scugog WATER Fund – Financial assistance available to property owners in areas of Durham Region within the Kawartha Conservation
watershed for manure storage (up to $8,000), alternative watering systems (up to $8,000), exclusion fencing (up to $8,000), erosion control
(up to $2,000), clean water diversion (up to $1,000), other agricultural best management practices (up to $8,000), well decommissioning
(up to $1,500), well upgrades (up to $1,000) and septic system upgrades (up to $1,500). Contact Kawartha Conservation.
• Shoreline Naturalization Program – Free, no obligation consultations and financial incentives. Contact Kawartha Conservation.
• Conservation Land Tax Incentive Program – Stewardship of Ontario’s provincially significant conservation lands by providing 100 %
property tax relief to those landowners who agree to protect the natural heritage values of their property. Contact the Ministry of Natural
Resources, 1.800.268.8959, www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/CLTIP.
• Environmental Farm Plan – Individual projects are designed within an implementation plan, with federal and provincial funding provided
on a cost-share basis, to improve environmental and agricultural conditions. Contact the Ontario Soil and Crop Association, 705.374.4975,
www.ontariosoilcrop.org.
• Managed Forest Tax Incentive Program – Save up to 75 % on your property taxes through managed forestry. Contact the Ontario Forestry
Association, 1.800.387.0790, www.oforest.on.ca; or the Ontario Woodlot Association, 1.888.791.1103, http://www.ont-woodlot-assoc.
org/contact.html.
Additional Information Resources:
• Healthy Lawn Care and Private Sewage Systems – Durham Region, 905.985.4889, www.durham.ca
• A Shoreline Owner’s Guide to Lakeland Living – 705.328.2271, www.kawarthaconservation.com/pdf/Lakeland_Living_Guide.pdf
• Agricultural Best Management Practices – 1.800.668.9938, www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/environment/bmp/series.htm
• Durham Sustain Ability – Sustainability programs, 905.427.0061, www.sustain-ability.ca
Kawartha Conservation staff can answer your questions
and connect you to financial incentives, grants and resources.
705.328.2271
277 Kenrei Road, Lindsay ON K9V 4R1
[email protected]
www.kawarthaconservation.com
Aquatic Plants in Lake Scugog
What’s causing them and what you can do
One of the greatest issues facing Lake Scugog is
excessive aquatic plants
Sources of Phosphorous
Loading into Lake Scugog
average from 3 years
caused by an overabundance of nutrients such as:
Road, ditch and bridge maintenance and construction activities provide
opportunities for silt and sand particles to enter creeks, and
then enter Lake Scugog, contributing 6.4 % of the phosphorous in the lake.
Aquatic plants need different nutrients to grow, phosphorous being one of them. Currently, over 9 tonnes of phosphorous enter
Lake Scugog each year, and it takes just 1 tonne of phosphorous to promote the growth of 500 tonnes of aquatic plants. As the
least available nutrient in the environment, an increase in phosphorous will directly result in more aquatic plants, since most
other nutrients also needed by plants are already available in abundance. By reducing the amount of phosphorous entering the
lake, we can limit the amount of aquatic plant growth.
Port Perry Sewage Treatment Plant - 1.8 %
Effluent from the sewage treatment plant is another contributor of nutrients
and accounts for 1.8 % of the phosphorous loading in the lake.
Nitrogen
Septic Systems - 9.7 %
Nitrogen is another limiting nutrient in terms of aquatic plant growth. Like phosphorous, it contributes to their growth and can
cause excessive amounts of aquatic plants in the lake. While nitrogen is important, we mainly focus on phosphorous as an
example in this brochure.
Leaking, improperly sized and poorly maintained septic systems can result
in nutrients being released into the lake through groundwater and surface
water, such as creeks and rivers. Septic systems account for 9.7 % of the
phosphorous in the lake.
High nutrient levels, aquatic plant growth and shallow water that allows the sun to reach the lake bottom makes Lake Scugog
eutrophic. The process of eutrophication causes lakes to become shallower and gradually evolve into wetlands, a transition that
usually takes centuries. While this condition is natural for lakes such as Lake Scugog, increased nutrients and silt deposition from
human activity speed up the process.
Social
Environmental
Economic
Lake Scugog is an important
natural resource for cottagers and
residents who live on or near it.
Excess aquatic plants, combined
with siltation, have impacted
lake activities such as swimming,
boating and sport fishing.
A major risk associated with accelerated
eutrophication is the possible development
of toxic algae blooms. These algae blooms
and other excess aquatic plants interfere with
natural ecosystem functions. They consume
much of the oxygen in the water when
they respire at night or when they die and
decompose during the winter months under the
ice. This can lead to the death of fish, shellfish
and other aquatic organisms. This process also
reduces water depth as sediments accumulate
on the lake bottom.
Tourism is a major source of
income to communities around
Lake Scugog. Traditionally,
the lake has been a hotspot
for boating, sport fishing and
associated business. However, the
excessive amount of aquatic plants
could result in a decline of these
activities.
The erosion of stream banks and shorelines is another
contributor to nutrient loading. However, increased erosion
through human activity also increases the amount of nutrients entering
the lake. Currently, 21.4 % of the phosphorous in Lake Scugog comes from
natural sources.
Rural Road Runoff - 6.4 % (roads make up 1.56 % of land use)
Phosphorous
Excessive aquatic plants have
social, environmental and economic impacts
Natural Sources - 21.4 %
Agricultural Runoff - 23.5 % (agriculture makes up 53 % of land use)
Another contributor to nutrients in the lake is runoff from
agricultural areas. Nutrients from these sources are flushed into the lake
during rainfall events. Livestock that have direct access to creeks and
rivers can cause siltation from erosion, which adds to nutrient loading.
Agricultural runoff accounts for 23.5 % of the phosphorous load in the
lake.
Atmospheric
Deposition - 19 %
Air pollution and airborne
soil particles contribute to
nutrient loading in the
lake through atmospheric
deposits. Lake Scugog
receives 19 % of it’s
phosphorous
from the atmosphere.
Urban Runoff - 18.2 % (urban
areas make up 3.56 % of land use)
Runoff from streets and lawns
into storm sewers and
watercourses can carry nutrients
from fertilizers, pesticides
and animal waste into the
lake. In total, 18.2 % of the
phosphorous load in the lake
is attributed to urban runoff.
Urban areas comprise a small
area, but contribute a large
amount of nutrients.
Cover photo courtesy of Scugog Lake Stewards