Author: stonylake

The Stony Lake Heritage Foundation has recently agreed to support the Environment Council for Clear, Ston(e)y and White Lakes on a new, broadly based aquatic ecosystem monitoring initiative. The purpose of the initiative is to promote understanding, awareness and response to reduce the spread and mitigate the impacts of invasive species in Clear, Ston(e)y and White Lakes. The program will inspire and engage youth to engage in collecting and reporting wildlife observations, including species at risk.

Clear, Ston(e)y and White Lakes are subject to growing pressures from shoreline alterations and development, water level fluctuation and drawdowns, nutrient and chemical inputs impacting water quality, and climate change. Each stressor has multiple impacts. An ecosystem approach to monitoring is required to quantify and mitigate impacts on an ecosystem scale.

The project is a long-term one and will require significant collaboration and engagement with public, private and educational partners. Significant linkages have already been formed in this regard, and more capacity is steadily being added.

Due to Covid-19 there are limited opportunities for students to gain field experience in environmental programs.  This project engages student volunteers as Lake Guardians to provide them invaluable training and field experience while collecting data to support long term ecosystem monitoring objectives.

The Heritage Foundation is delighted to support this project through operational funding support and through support for youth environmental bursary awards towards the cost of post-secondary education in related fields. Youth participating in the program will be eligible to apply for these bursaries.

Further information about the Lake Guardians and the Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Project is available At EnvironmentCouncil.ca or by contacting Ed Paleczny (Stoneylaketimber@gmail.com). 

We’re delighted to announce that at the Annual Meeting of the Foundation, held on June 27 in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Association of Stoney Lake Cottagers, Cindy Sibold and Katharine Dalton were elected as directors of the Foundation. Welcome, Cindy and Katharine, to the board of the Foundation!

For the benefit of any Members who may have missed the Annual Meeting, here is a copy of our Annual Report for 2019.

The Heritage Foundation and the Stoney Lake Sprint are working together to raise funds for the benefit of the Stony Lake Trails, maintained by Kawartha Land Trust (KLT).   The Foundation has offered  to match all funds raised by the 2019 Sprint to a maximum of $3,000.  The combined proceeds of up to $6,000 will be donated to KLT to cover the cost of certain improvements that KLT would like to make in the near future to the trails.  We encourage everyone interested to take part in and to support the Sprint, as a participant or a volunteer!   Mark your calendar now: Saturday, July 13, at Viamede, and enjoy running or walking on the Stony Lake Trails.   For more information please visit www.stoneylakesprint.ca.

 

The Stony Lake Heritage Foundation is deeply grateful to the Stony Lake community for its ongoing support for the work of the Foundation.  During 2018 your gifts to the Foundation allowed us to work with key partners on two major projects.   We made a three year commitment to the Kawartha Land Trust to assist with the costs of acquiring and protecting lands at the eastern end of the Stony Lake Trails network on the north shore of Stony Lake.   We financed the final stage of a project to obtain and analyze core samples from the bed of Stony Lake with a view to understanding longer term changes in lake nutrients that can drive the production of algal blooms and other nuisance algae.  And we continued to pay for the cost of water quality monitoring on Stony Lake.  We stand ready to continue to protect the heritage buildings at Juniper Island as the need arises.

To help us continue this work, please consider joining me in making a donation to the Foundation this holiday season.    To all of you who contributed to the Foundation during 2018, please accept our deepest thanks.  An easy way to donate is through the following website:  www.canadahelps.org  You are also welcome to mail a gift to us at Stony Lake Heritage Foundation, Box 146, Lakefield ON K0L 2H0.

We wish you Season’s Greetings of every kind – Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Solstice, and a happy New Year however you choose to celebrate it.

Blair Mackenzie

Chair

The Heritage Foundation has long supported the work of Kawartha Lakes Stewards Association in its volunteer-run program of sampling and testing water quality in Stony, Upper Stoney and Clear lakes.    This year the Foundation has also agreed to fund research into the chemistry of the water in our lakes.  Dr. Paul Frost of Trent University is heading up this research, which is expected to provide information on a variety of chemicals along with temperature gradients from surface to depth.  The results will be published through a brief annual report.  The data collected is expected to be valuable in understanding and responding to issues of climate change.

On June 30, 2018 the Foundation held its annual general meeting at the Pavilion, Juniper Island, Stony Lake.    Here is a copy of the report to the membership, including our financial report for the year ended December 31,2017:  SLHF ann mtg booklet 2018.    On behalf of the Foundation, Blair Mackenzie expressed gratitude to the Stoney Lake Sprint in particular for its ongoing support of the Foundation.