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Bluffs, Erosion and Climate Change

When it comes to what people can do to deal with climate change, it boils down to two approaches: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation is about reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the point where they no longer negatively pose a threat to our climate. Adaptation is about people adapting to changing conditions, and developing coping strategies. In the absence of strong leadership to work toward climate mitigation (reducing ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions), local communities are wise to plan adaptation measures to deal with the results of ensuing climate variability. The Great Lakes region needs to prepare for important changes that will affect coastal areas. This article describes one specific coastal ecosystem that the Coastal Centre has recently researched  to better understand what to expect, and how best to plan ahead.

In 2014, the Coastal Centre initiated a research project looking at the impacts of climate change to Lake Huron shorelines – specifically bluffs and gullies. This research study looked at what influence climate variability will have on this type of shoreline, and what communities should be prepared for. Bluffs and gullies were of particular research interest because of their vulnerabilities to erosion and slope de-stabilization.

The study looked at historical trends in precipitation, temperature, lake levels, ice patterns and erosion history to gain some insight into how these factors are projected to change, and how this will affect bluff and gully conditions.

Overall precipitation in the lake basin is expected to increase by 12%, but the pattern of rain and snow is expected to reduce in frequency but increase in intensity. That means that, while we may not get as many rain or snow storms, their intensity will increase. Heavier, intense rain storms will create higher runoff from the land, with a corresponding increase in erosive force.

The study also looked at temperature trends that suggested an overall trend toward higher average temperatures.  This could mean milder winters, which could affect the timing of when ice forms in fall and leaves in spring. Ice formation along the shore protects the shore from erosion, particularly during the fall/winter storm season. Ice formation later in the season could expose shorelines to increased erosion, since this is typically the period of year when the greatest wave energy is present.

Our winters are anticipated to be milder, meaning that those nostalgic winters where it snows in November and stays until April, may be less frequent. More common will be winters with multiple freeze-thaw cycles: snow-melt-runoff-repeat.  This will be problematic in bluff areas for a couple of reasons. First, multiple snow melt and runoff events will increase overland surface runoff causing erosion. Second, repeated freezing and thawing can be destabilizing to slopes, as water gets into deep soil cracks, freezes and expands, prying the soil mass further apart, and weakening the structure of the soil

The report also suggests that how people interact with and manage the lakeshore can and will influence the degree of bluff and gully erosion. Vegetation is fundamental to slowing erosion and providing slope stability. There are many instances where people have removed vegetation far in excess of what should have been removed (often to get a better view of the lake), and this has unfortunately contributed to increasing the erosion process in these areas. This study helps to underscore how such activities will be much riskier under the changing climate.

While the process of erosion is a fact of life along the lakeshore, the changing climate may present us with greater erosion in many locations. Some of this erosion is part of a long term recession process, largely unstoppable in practical and ecological terms. On the other hand, there are areas where the erosion process may be slowed, simply by following some stewardship practices aimed at prevention:

• Care for the natural vegetation on bluffs and gullies.
• If you use a septic system, water conservation is important in order to minimize the contribution of water to the bluff area. Too much water to the bluff adds substantial weight to the top of the slope making it top heavy, and the effluent can lubricate the soil particles contributing to slope failures.
• Managing storm water runoff in a manner that prevents unnecessary erosion and controls the water flow from top of bluff to the beach will help to prevent gullying and slope failures. 

Planning for what’s ahead, and being able to adapt to changing conditions should help local communities better cope with erosion risk in the future. As history informs us, bluff erosion is often met with panicked reaction, where poor and costly choices sometimes get made. ’Plan for the worst, and hope for the best’ – wise words of our elders.  Perhaps this research will help inform the path forward in living with the new realities of our coast.

[Article by Geoff Peach, Coastal Resources Manager. Based on the science report by Jasmine Bhurji, Coastal Geohazard Intern with the Coastal Centre, funded through Environment Canada’s Science Horizons Youth Internship Program.]
 
View the full report here
 
More on Bluff Stewardship

 

Keeping Watch

The Coastal Centre’s “Coast Watchers” volunteer monitoring program is gearing up for another year of information collection on lake conditions. This citizen science program relies on volunteers who dedicate some of their time to collect observational and/or measured data, and report this information back to the Coastal Centre. The information from all Coast Watchers is analyzed and presented in an annual report that is posted on our website.

Coast Watchers are selected from volunters who live along the Lake Huron coastline from Sarnia to Tobermory. We currently have gaps in the Grand Bend to Sarnia area. Anyone wishing to participate in the program from this area should contact Karen Alexander, Education & Outreach Coordinator at the Coastal Centre’s Goderich office (226) 421-3029.  A training webinar is scheduled for April 22nd. Contact Karen to register by phone or email:  karen.alexander@lakehuron.on.ca

 
For more information on Coast Watchers, click here.
 

Speaking of volunteers, Stewardship Grey Bruce is looking for interested people to become part of the Piping Plover Guardian program. For the past eight years on Lake Huron, the endangered Piping Plover has successfully nested on beaches at Wasaga Beach, Sauble Beach, Oliphant’s Sandy Bay and Port Elgin’s main beach. Volunteers are needed to monitor anticipated nesting sites.

Orientation sessions for volunteers will be held on April 30 (2 pm), & June 4 (7 pm) at Sauble Beach’s Community Centre.

To sign up,email:   volunteer@ploverlover.com

Help give these little birds a fighting chance.

Is There Anything Better?

Ah, Spring on Lake Huron – is there anything better? Well, except for maybe Summer on Lake Huron. And Fall can be pretty nice too. The point is that, it’s always great on Lake Huron.

Celebrate Lake Huron’s greatness with a donation to an organization that is dedicated to helping our lake: The Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation. An organization for ALL seasons.
 

To make a donation click here.

The Great Plastic Lakes

Plastic pollution in the Great Lakes is something we’ve reported on in past editions of E-news. It’s a story in which the Coastal Centre made national news coverage in 2010 when plastic pellets began appearing on Lake Huron beaches. The story was covered on CBC’s The National, The Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, and many media outlets across the country. It was a story that caught people’s attention as they wondered why plastics were appearing in Lake Huron and then began asking  about the scope of the problem.

As more research was done to look closer into the issue, it became increasingly clear … plastic in the Great Lakes was becoming an emerging issue bigger than most people could imagine. U.S. researchers began trolling the waters of the open lakes and found alarming concentrations of micro-plastics (small particles less than 5 mm. in diameter) floating in the water. Some of these micro-plastics were discovered to have originated from cosmetic products, like soaps, exfoliating creams, toothpaste, and other common products. These barely visible particles (termed micro-beads) were concerning because they were so small, they were passing through filters at sewage treatment plants and getting into the lakes. Neither Canada, nor the United States, has regulations affecting sewage plant discharge of micro-plastics.

Politicians have become aware of the issue. Two U.S. states (Illinois and New Jersey) have already passed legislation banning products with plastic microbeads. Bill 75, The Microbead Elimination and Monitoring Act, has been introduced in Ontario and has passed second reading. The Coastal Centre has written to the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change in support of this Bill. In addition to the proposed provincial legislation, a federal motion was made in Parliament to consider these micro-plastics to be a toxic substance.

In addition to the above, the Coastal Centre also reviewed data on plastic material gathered during beach cleanups. The range and amount of plastic litter on Lake Huron beaches was significant. In 2014, for example, community volunteers helped remove over 10,000 plastic articles from nearly 40 kilometres of beaches. The articles ranged from small fragments to larger ones, including intact beach toys and disposable plastic water bottles.  The number one litter item was cigarette filters, which are composed of plastic fibres.

To gain a better perspective on the magnitude of the plastic pollution issue, the Coastal Centre partnered with a team of graduate students from Western University. The report from this analysis can be found here.

Most recently, a research team from the University of Waterloo published an article titled, “Plastic Debris in the Laurentian Great Lakes: a Review” in the Journal of Great Lakes Research. It looks at all available data, threats to the lakes ecosystems, including links to human health.

Some of the threats raised include:

Micro-plastics act as a sponge that can absorb toxins, like PCBs and heavy metals.

• Plastic can become ingested by aquatic wildlife, which can cause malnutrition, and accumulation of toxins in tissues.
• Fish and birds can become entangled in plastic fishing lines and nets that have been discarded or lost in the lake.
• Plastic can take thousands of years to degrade. In the meantime, accumulations of plastic in the lake environment could become very costly to clean up.

To move toward addressing at least part of this issue, the Coastal Centre, with funding from the provincial Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund, will begin a beach clean-up campaign in selected communities along Lake Huron.  The aim will be to encourage communities to participate in local beach clean-up programs, connected to the national Great Canadian Shoreline Clean-up program, that measure and analyze the plastic debris collected and report back to the community. This is debris that gets discarded by people, and burdens communities with collection, clean-up and landfill costs. This Centre project is aimed toward building some awareness of the issue, and encouraging active involvement in local solutions along the coast. 

This spring, Coastal Centre staff worked with Bruce Power and the Bruce County Museum to deliver the Bruce Power Eco-Mentors Program. Coastal Centre staff taught students in Bruce County about plastic pollution and responsible waste management. This educational unit was made possible through funding from Bruce Power, and helped begin the awareness of the prevalence of this issue on our local shores.

In the longer view, the economic and environmental costs of plastic pollution  will hopefully compel residents in the Great Lakes to re-examine their relationship with plastic, in what we use and what we buy.

Article by Geoff Peach, Coastal Resources Manager

More on Plastics in the Great Lakes – NOAA Technical Memorandum on Marine Debris Action Plan in the Great Lakes

Coastal Centre to Public: “Get Your Butts Off Our Beaches”

There. We said it. We want your butts off Lake Huron’s beaches. Permanently.

We probably should have prefaced the above comments by indicating that we are referring to cigarette filters. Our apologies for the double entendre.

That fact of the matter is that cigarette filters are the top waste discarded on our beaches. And further to our previous article on plastic, it should be known that cigarette filters are composed of plastic fibres. So, these butts are adding to our micro-plastic pollution problem. Not only that, but these filters pose a risk to shore wildlife who mistake the filters for food, and to the younger humanoids that play on our beaches, who can be exposed to toxins within the filters. Most would agree that this waste has no business being on our beaches.
 

(Coastal Centre staffs nephew surrounded by butts (red circles) on the beach, summer 2014. The butts were removed from his hands seconds before he tried to taste them.) 

This summer, the Coastal Centre will be taking its “Butt Free Beach” campaign to Sarnia’s Canatara Park, Goderich waterfront beaches and Sauble Beach. People visiting these communities will be greeted with information signs that explain the concerns with cigarette filters on beaches, and makes available cardboard ash trays that form into cones that the user fills with sand to extinguish their butts, and when they are done, pours the sand out of the funnel end of the cone leaving the butts in the cone. Then the user can take the filters to the nearest waste receptacle for proper disposal as they leave the beach.  

“Butt Free Beach” was first piloted by the Coastal Centre last summer at Grand Bend and Kincardine. The results were very positive among users, and brought a greater awareness of the issue to many beach-goers.

For more information on the Coastal Centre’s Butt Free Beach program, click here.

Victoria Day, Water Quality and the Coastal Centre

Victoria Day weekend is the traditional start of the cottage season on Lake Huron. Many people commemorate this event by enjoying their favourite beverage. The basis of all quenchables, whether it’s beer coolers, lemonade or even the ice you use to chill it, is WATER. We depend on good water quality for our beverages, and we work, as one of our four priorities, to protect water quality. Ergo, the Coastal Centre protects the quality of your beverages. (Do you like how we constructed that logic?)

To help ensure the future quality of your libations, consider a donation to the Coastal Centre to help our conservation work. Paying it forward for a good drink.

To make a donation click here.

Cutting Trees from Bluff Slopes Somebody Didn't Get the "MEMO"

TO:  Inexperienced Lakeshore Landowners

FROM:  The Coastal Centre
DATE:  June 2015
SUBJECT:  Stop Clear Cutting Trees from Bluffs

It’s a recurring issue: clear-cutting trees from bluff slopes along the Huron County shoreline. It suggests that there are still a few people who haven’t gotten the memo. So here it is. Again!!!

Clear cutting trees from a bluff slope to gain a better view of the lake will lead to erosion, possibly even catastrophic slope failure.

Now here’s why: 

The science is in. There is a cause and effect relationship between woodland clear cutting and mass slope failure.
 
Cutting of trees on slopes leads to a gradual decrease in  stability as a result of the decay of roots that previously acted as tensile reinforcements in the slope. Root decay can also lead to the formation of underground crevices and channels, called "pipes" in a slope that promote erosion by groundwater seepage. Groundwater seepage is often a catalyst for large scale slope failures. Seepage of groundwater from a bluff is very complex, and very expensive to attempt remediation.
 
The removal of tree canopy results in the loss of evapo-transpiration (trees expel a lot of groundwater through their leaves). The loss of trees tends to promote wetter and less secure slopes. Removal of tree cover (canopy)  also results in the direct impact of rainfall to the soil surface, since the tree cover protects the soil by intercepting rain drops  before they hit the surface. Trees also help to reduce surface water runoff velocities, which can erode soil from the face of the slope.
 
One of the troubling things about the removal of large number of trees from coastal slopes is that it typically takes 8 to 10 years for roots to decay, removing that critical stabilization benefit. This long time period can lead people to believe initially that no harm has been done.  But the adverse effects become evident several years later, and the resulting erosion cannot only affect the property on which the trees were removed, but affect neighbouring properties as well.
 
What to do if you want a view:

1. Forget about that panoramic vista that you’ve seen on postcards. It doesn’t work well on Lake Huron. The trees provide stability to the slope, increasing the lifespan of your property.

2. You can establish a lake view by opening up a “window,” selectively cutting tree branches.  You’ll get a view, but also retain the trees for slope stability and wind protection.

3. Hiring a qualified arborist is likely worth the investment to make sure the work is done safely, and without any collateral damage.

4. Read more on bluff stewardship here.

5. For information on current shoreline regulations and by-laws, contact your local conservation authority or municipality.

The Coastal Centre has a large array of shore-related information available to all shoreline landowners, but particularly valuable to newcomers to Lake Huron. Understanding our lake and coastal processes is a good investment for long, happy enjoyment of your property.
 
Article by Geoff Peach, Coastal Resources Manager

Be Careful Out There

With beach season underway, being aware of potential dangers is important to a safe and relaxing day on the shore.
 
We’ve talked before about rip currents in past issues, but it’s good to remind yourself of what they are, where they might occur and how to escape if you get caught in one. Check out the Centre’s Beach Safety page, and learn simple tips at the Be Current Smart website. Structures, such as piers and jetties, are notorious places for dangerous currents to occur. Many drownings have occurred around these kinds of structures. Check out this video, “In Over Your Head: a 3-step process for saving your life.”
 
Be cautious of water temperature. Extensive ice cover  over the past couple of winters means that the lake will take longer to warm up. Cold water can zap your energy quickly, and can lead to hypothermia. Know where to find lifesaving equipment  at the beach. Certified Blue Flag beaches are required to have life saving equipment. Only a small number of public beaches on Lake Huron have qualified lifeguards on duty (Sarnia, Goderich  Rotary Cove and Grand Bend).
 
Water quality information is usually available online through local Public Health Units. Links to area Health Units can be found on our Beach Safety page. SwimGuide is a Smart Phone app that may be a useful tool, too.

Oui, We

This June 24, celebrate St. Jean Baptiste Day. He is the patron saint of coastal stewardship. At least, I think I read that somewhere.

To honour this saint, consider donating to the Coastal Centre. We do coastal stewardship. Oui, we!

To make a donation click here.

Mayflies When You're Having Fun

One of our cottage rituals each summer growing up was to head outside after breakfast with a broom to sweep the mayflies off the side of the cottage. There would often be hundreds of them each morning. I thought they were kind of a nuisance (mainly because I was the one doing the sweeping). But my father told me of their importance as a food source to fish. Another common name for these insects is fishflies —although that has more to do with the smell emitted when you get large masses of the dead and decaying carcasses.

Mayfly (Hexagenia ephemeroptera — "Ephemeroptera" means "short-lived").

Mayflies,  which are about an inch long, are part of the food web for both fish and many birds. They constitute one of the most important groups of bottom-dwelling animals in streams and rivers throughout the world. They are also found in ponds and  lakebed sediments.

They live most of their lives as small nymphs underwater in lake sediments. While the larvae (nymphs) live in water, the adults are delicate flying insects. Adults usually lack a mouth and so are incapable of eating (or biting). They generally live less than three days after emergence.  In fact, not only do adult mayflies lack mouths, they have no digestive tracts. Their adult bodies are designed for mating: they truly are love machines.
 
Mating normally occurs the same day these insects reach adulthood. Females release as many as 8,000 fertile, oval eggs over the water, scattering them or, in some species, laying them in mass in a suitable place. After depositing eggs on the water surface, the flies die, often falling to the water and floating, sometimes drifting onto beaches in nuisance piles. Others are strongly attracted to and congregate under  lights at night.

Eggs laid on the water surface gradually sink to the bottom and, after a few days or several months, hatch into tiny aquatic nymphs well adapted for living at the bottom of quiet bodies of water or rapidly flowing streams. Some species burrow into the lake sediment to feed on algae, diatoms, aquatic vegetation, other aquatic insects, etc.The naiads spend four or five years on the lake bottom growing before leaving for their day or two of swarming and mating.

Mayflies are a vital link in the food web of freshwater ecosystems, making energy stored in algae and other aquatic plants available to higher consumers (other invertebrates, fish, birds, etc.). Their healthy population means good water quality.
 
Some people think of mayfly hatches as a nuisance, and they can be a bit annoying when they are swarming, especially if you are trying to waterski! But mayflies are a good thing. They are rarely found in degraded bodies of water because their external gills in the nymph stage are very vulnerable to silting and pollution. Mayflies are  used by scientists as an indicator species when testing for environmental quality, and their presence reflects the good quality of the habitat from which they hatched.
 
So the next time you are charged with sweeping off the cottage, or are walking along the beach one evening, trying not to ingest mayflies as they swarm the shore, think to yourself: ‘this may be hell, but at least the water quality is good.’

Article by Geoff Peach, Coastal Resources Manager

Caring for Our Coast

The coastline of Lambton County, which includes Pinery Provincial Park, is blessed with great beaches of high quality. Keeping them that way is becoming a greater challenge as we face issues such as dune destruction, invasive species infestations, and threats to endangered species, to name a few.

To help maintain a high quality shore, the Coastal Centre has produced a new booklet for landowners and shore users called “Caring for Our Coast.” It contains a range of stewardship tips aimed at averting a degraded shoreline and at improving conditions for wildlife species and people.

Some key tips:

• Protect sand dunes. They contribute greatly to the high quality of our beaches. Take care not to damage dune vegetation, and use designated pathways or cross-overs as you make your way to the beach.
• Whatever you bring to the beach, be sure to take back home with you.  Litter, especially plastic waste, can be dangerous to wildlife.
• Keep motorized vehicles off beaches and dunes. They can be extremely destructive to these ecosystems, can pollute air and water and can contribute to the spread of invasive plants along the shore.

 

To access a copy of the 24-page booklet, visit the Centre’s website (www.lakehuron.ca) or email us at coastalcentre@lakehuron.on.ca

Canada Day on Lake Huron

To make a donation click here.

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Looks Like a Good Day to Swim, or Is It?

We often get calls every summer from people wondering if it’s safe to swim at one particular beach or another. It can be a tricky question, since  water quality testing is  not universal. What you may think is a public beach might not be considered to be “public” by local public health authorities interpreting provincial guidelines.  Plus, current water testing techniques take water samples, test them in the lab, and produce results usually 24 hours after taking the sample. Conditions can change quickly in 24 hours, so a good test result taken on a Friday doesn’t necessarily mean that swimming on a Saturday is in the same quality of water. A rainfall or increase in wave activity can alter water quality results quickly.

So there are several tools you can use to better inform yourself about the best places to go for a swim.  A relatively new way in Ontario  is to locate a “Blue Flag” beach. Many beaches on Lake Huron have what is referred to as a Blue Flag designation. This is an international program intended to identify beaches that have met a certain set of water quality, environmental, and safety criteria. Going to one of these beaches can at least assure you that a certain standard is being met, and that there is some third-party oversight in how the beach is being managed.

Another way is to use the SwimGuide app for Smartphones. This is a resource that uses water quality data from public health authorities around the Great Lakes. Again, test results are only as good as the  conditions under which the samples were taken.

Public Health Units also post swimming guidelines on their websites. We have linked to the relevant Lake Huron health units on our website here. Each unit determines where it does water testing, so never assume a beach is being tested just because there are a lot of people using it. And while water test results may be out of date before you step in the water, they are useful when the data are taken over a longer time period (several days or weeks) if they show a trend, whether it be good or bad. Some agencies in the US have been working on models to help speed up the process of providing beach quality information to the public by synthesizing testing data with lake conditions.

While apps and flags and test data can help you on your way to determining a safe choice, an additional method to help you verify a good swimming site is to observe conditions. If it has rained in your area within the last couple of days, chances are that bacteria levels will be higher. This is particularly true in places where agriculture is a predominant land use. Wavy conditions should also tell you that lake bottom and beach sediments, which can harbour pathogens like E. coli.,  have been stirred up and re-suspended in the water. Rule of thumb: If you can wade in up to your waist and still see your feet, it should be OK to swim.

There are numerous agencies and organizations in the Lake Huron region working to improve water quality in the Lake Huron watershed. It’s a long and ongoing process. While progress is being made, some people still don’t get it. Whether it’s leaving dog feces on the beach, or ignoring a malfunctioning septic system, there is still much work to do in linking personal responsibility with lake quality. So while people want assurance of water safety, good, consistent water quality on Lake Huron will take time and cooperation.
 

So, if you're a beach goer looking for a good place to swim, using some good judgement, and the above tools, you can make an informed choice for you and your family. And one day, with everyone’s help, Lake Huron’s waters will be, without question, the best and cleanest in Ontario.

Article by Geoff Peach, Coastal Resources Manager

My Beach is Still Missing, Dude

As a sequel to the original “Dude, Where’s My Beach” article from last year, this article provides an update to lake level conditions.

Last year, we explained that the lack of walkable beaches was due to rapidly rising lake levels, converging with vegetation growth that had aided the build-up of dunes and beach sand over the preceding 14 years of below-average lake levels. We forecast then that fall storms and wave erosion would help readjust beaches, barring any further increases in lake levels. Well, as it happened, levels continued to increase, and beaches remained narrow this summer. In fact, a doubling of June’s average precipitation over the region caused Lake Huron’s levels to increase in July and into August, when typically early July is the start of the decline in the annual cycle.

Levels are over 30 centimetres above what they were at this time last year.  And where levels typically begin to decline over summer months, their continued rise means narrow beaches continue to narrow. Where levels will go from here is anyone’s guess, but beaches will continue to adjust as waves erode the shore and move sand around. The dune erosion that occurs provides sand to the beach and nearshore lakebed, and this helps to lessen the wave energy that erodes the shore. The build-up of sand in the dunes that occurred over the past 14 years is providing the shore protection we need now.

So, dude, how wide your beach is next summer will depend on what happens during the storm season this fall, and whether water levels continue to climb.  Levels will climb if we continue to receive high amounts of precipitation, and lower evaporation if lake water remains cool and we get another cold, icy winter.
 
Background:

Lake Michigan-Huron, (these 2 lakes behave as one big lake hydrologically), saw a rise in water levels from the record-low experienced in January 2013 through December 2014. It was a remarkable one metre increase that almost tied the record rise set in 1950-1951.

Perspective

As we reach the first of August, some might lament that the summer is half over. But we say “we’ve got half the summer left!” That’s the kind of positivity the Centre uses to approach its conservation work. How can you go wrong donating to an organization  that works on hope and optimism, founded on science and informed stewardship?

A donation to the Coastal Centre is a positive, life-affirming act of greatness.

To make a donation, click here.