4 | 2017 LAKE STEWARDS NEWSLETTER Changes in Cottage Country by Terry Rees FOCA Executive Director The information I’m sharing today is based on 50+ years of FOCA’s experience as an organization, on the long-term water quality data collected through more than 600 volunteers in the Lake Partner Program, and FOCA’s connections with science, risk management and environmental organizations across North America. We need to make our communities and our homes more RESILIENT. Increasingly we are learning how intact, thriving and functioning natural systems provide cost- effective protection—insurance, if you will. We know through our work with the Ontario Biodiversity Council that our wild spaces, our thriving natural areas, are facing three major threats, which can combine and aggravate one another: • habitat loss • invasive species • a changing climate. NASA’s recent research using satellite and direct lake measurements provides a broadviewoflaketemperatures acrosstheglobe,indicatingthat lakes in northern climates are losing their ice cover earlier in the spring, and many areas of the world have less cloud cover, exposing their waters more tothesun’swarmingrays.Researchpresentedrecentlybythe Muskoka Watershed Council suggests that, by the year 2050, the typical year in Muskoka could have seven times more summer days over 30°C than presently, and only about half the number of really cold winter nights (-20°C), with around four times as many winter nights remaining above freezing. We can expect several effects from this, including: warming air and water, wetter winters, more evaporation in late spring and early fall, and summers where rains come less predictably, in fewer but larger storm events. Soils, wetlands and streams may dry out, and lake levels may end up lower than what we have become accustomed to in the past. Climate warming appears to be the new “threat multiplier.” Most of us are in cottage country because we love the out-of-doors and all the critters in and around our lakes. Changing conditions will present challenges for some species. Gardeners may have longer growing seasons, and some species will do well. Bass will thrive and spread, while walleye may be at risk of disappearing as smallmouth bass out-compete them in places where they weren’t prevalent previously. We should also expect to see increases in algae blooms as water warms, as well as increased periods of drought, with higher threat of fires. Additionally, we can expect pests and disease to spread into new areas: such as Lyme disease via black legged ticks whose range is spreading from the south. Learn more about potential fish and algae impacts on the following pages. A poor system can degrade water supplies and reduce property values oowa.org Find resources, like this checklist, here: https://foca.on.ca/climate- change-and-waterfront-ontario/