Gamiing Nature Centre

THE ISSUES

Much of our efforts focus on environmental enhancement at the water's edge because so much of our lake's shoreline has been impacted by human activity.

Many landowners cut their lawns to the water's edge, reducing the stability of the shoreline since grass cannot hold the soil with its shallow†roots. Because of the constant wave action caused by wind and boat wakes, shoreline soil is worn away, adding silt to the lake, which impacts water quality and fish habitat.

It also eats away at the shore,†providing a never-ending reduction of property and setting in place continuous environmental impacts.

Landowners who face this issue often fertilize their lawns to excess, in an effort to strengthen their shoreline plants. Unfortunately, this effort is wasted: grass can only absorb so much fertilizer, and chemical fertilizers actually reduce the effectiveness of naturally occurring processes that help plants grow.

The consequent runoff of fertilizer causes excess growth of aquatic algae, which leads to oxygen reduction in the water when the plants die; the impact on fish and other aquatic animals is enormous, and can be tied directly to reductions of game fish that have been documented over the past 20 years or more.

Those who follow this type of lawn management†often use pesticides to control the types of plants that grow in their lawns. Once they start on this path, however, they create an imbalance in the natural soil conditions, which again leads to soil erosion.

There is also an impact on the natural plants that border landowners' properties, reducing the food and habitat available to wildlife. And though many pesticides become inactive shortly after they contact soil and water, they can still have some impact on terrestrial and aquatic plants and animals before they break down.

However, there are better ways to manage our shorelines and actually improve the quality†of our lakes.

By using nature as our guide, we can stabilize our shorelines and provide aquatic habitat and clean water. This is the message we provide our shoreline partners: let's learn from nature to find the best ways to maintain habitat and water quality.