PATTERSON LAKE NEWSLETTER

May 2009

http://www.pattersonlake.ca

Meeting on the

Lake Management Plan, June 13, 2009

You are Invited!

Help us keep Patterson Lake the way we all want it. A meeting will be held on Saturday, June 13 at 2 PM at the hall in Watson's Corners. All lake residents are invited to spend a few hours to help us define the key elements of the Lake Management Plan. Please come and let us know what you want in the Plan and what are the key values you want to make sure are conserved.

Lake Management Plan Enters New Phase

by Ted Manning, President

Patterson Lake remains one of the cleanest and most pleasant lakes in Eastern Ontario. Over the last two years your Lake Association, with help from many members, has developed a thorough background on the lake. It includes a history of the lake, documentation of plant, animal and fish species in and near the Lake, exploration of the history of water management on the lake, the monitoring of water quality and quantity and the documentation of how we use the lake. The results of these are posted on the lake website. See the sections under LMP (Lake Management Plan) and Lake Data at our site at www.pattersonlake.ca.

The Association is particularly grateful to Lorne Bowerman for his extensive work regarding the natural and human history of the lake which can be found on this site. The Association has also polled all permanent and seasonal residents regarding their main concerns about the state of the lake and its future. These will inform any future discussions on the content and elements of the Lake Management Plan.

Now that we have accumulated the factual information, we enter the next phase of development of the Lake Management Plan and we wish to involve everyone on the lake to make sure that nothing is missed. The Association proposes to hold two short workshops this summer to help advance the Plan.

The first, to be held in June, will involve small groups discussing what they want in the plan and then sharing them with each other and the Lake Association executive. The results of this meeting will be put together and provided back to the participants to make sure that nothing is missed.

The second meeting will take place at the Annual General Meeting in September where again small groups will be asked to work on each of the key issues which have been identified, and to try to define solutions or areas of concern which will need to be addressed in the Lake Management Plan. We will also invite some experts from the Conservation Authority and other key players to be in attendance and participate.

We hope that you have a wonderful summer and find the time to help us put in place a Plan which will conserve and sustain the things which make Patterson Lake such a wonderful part of the world.

Mineral Rights

There are major changes to the Mining Act in Ontario going on now. The Minister announced that for Southern Ontario the law will be changed and those who own surface rights will also own the mineral rights. (Correction on publishing to the web: Not so! There is no unification of rights.). It may change but that is the intent of the legislation. Certainly one thing is consistent in the announcements. No longer will anyone whose has the mineral rights to your property have the right to stake claims on property where he or she does not have the surface rights.

It is still in progress. The website is:

http://www.mndm.gov.on.ca:80/news/NRView.asp?NRNUM=72&NRYear=2009&am p;NRLAN=EN&NRID=5423

Better still, go to the Patterson Lake website, click the Mineral Rights button and go from there.

Drafted by Lorne Bowerman, with Ted Manning and Howard Stanley, November 2008

(This is part of an information draft written for the Lake Management Plan)

If you want a lively discussion, raise the subject of summer water level on Patterson Lake. There is no arguments over the fall and spring water levels: in the fall there is agreement that the culverts should be kept completely open to drain the increased fall precipitation; in the spring the culverts have to be kept open to let as much water as possible, from the snow melt and spring rains, leave the lake quickly to protect the Concession 5 road over the culverts, some low lying properties, and the shoreline for the entire lake.

Longtime lake residents help us understand the progression of crossings over Fairs Creek, the only outlet for the lake. At first there was no crossing. In a 1934 air photo, discussed later, there is nothing over the creek. Then probably in the late 1960s a bridge made of logs was constructed providing crude access to the north side of the lake. The length of the logs is not known as we have no data to indicate the width or depth of the creek at that time. The next crossing installed in 1972 was two 24" culverts, then at some time in the late 1970s the present two 36" culverts were installed as the 24" culverts were probably too small to carry the spring flow.

Reference Point for Lake Level Measurement

In this paper, we will refer to the level of the lake in terms of its distance above or below the bottom of the entry side of the north culvert of the present 36" culverts, (it is the lower of the two culverts). As it is extremely difficult to get an accurate reading on a regular basis from a flowing culvert, a submerged base measurement rock was established in 1995 by Lorne Bowerman on a submerged rock in the lake which can be regularly measured.

When water level is even with the bottom of the culvert, the top of the rock is eight inches under the water. The rock is used to measure depth.

This 12" long by 8" wide base measurement rock is a flat topped anvil shaped protrusion from a large rock off the Crown point close to the 6th Concession line, which is probably better known today as 101 Lakeside Rd. The accuracy in reference to the north culvert was established by measuring water depth over the anvil shaped rock when the water had stopped flowing through the culvert.

This measurement was confirmed over several years with repeated measurements. The top of the anvil shaped rock is 7.87" below the bottom of the north culvert. For practical work, the value of 8" has been used.

Note that imperial units are used in this section as they are the most familiar to those discussing the subject in 2008.

Historic Water Levels

We have had highs in the past, and we have had lows in the past. What we can't show from any factual records is that the water was consistently much higher or consistently much lower in the past than it is now, whether we are talking about the spring, summer, or fall.

The spring level in 2008 was the highest recorded since 1995 and it almost filled the 36" diameter culverts. If the water level had been 5" higher, it would have taken the road out. If water levels had been consistently higher in the spring in the past, it is reasonable to assume that the culverts would have been replaced with larger ones, or another culvert would have been added. The culverts would have been changed because the risk of losing the township road and stranding the permanent residents on Hardwood Ridge Rd would be too high. This is probably what forced the change from the original 24" culverts to the 36" culverts.

Residents remember photos taken of kids sitting on the large shoal rock off Marys Island in the past that would indicate that water was probably lower than the recorded lows since 1995. The top of this large shoal rock is 16" above the bottom of the present 36" culverts. In summers when the water level was below the culvert bottom, that would have indicated about 16" or so was showing. Was that typical for levels in the past? We don't know.

We also have an air photo taken August 11, 1934 (A4551-24) from the collection of the National Air Photo Library that provides an indication of what the water level was at the time the photo was taken, and a scan of part of that photo has been included in this paper.

What can we conclude from the air photo? Vegetation shows up as medium gray. Water looking down from overhead shows up a darker gray to black, although reflections from the sun could show it light gray to white. Marshy and weedy areas show up as a lighter shades of gray. Rocks, sand, very shallow water, and hard shoreline show up light gray to white. The shoreline usually shows up as quite a sharp contrast between medium gray vegetation and the darker water colour. Shallow areas may be a lighter gray or white.

One indicator of water level at the particular time that the air photo was taken is the shoal off Mary's Island. We can safely assume that it has not changed much in the last 100 years. If the tip of the big shoal rock were showing, it would indicate a certain level. If all of the rock were showing, it indicate another lower level. If the whole shoal were showing, that would be another level again. Once you reach that conclusion you can go out to the shoal rock area, do some measurements and reach some conclusions.

It turns out that the shoal is an irregular elliptical shape about 30 feet long in the east-west orientation and about 20' across with the big shoal rock on the western end at about mid centre of the ellipse. The shoal falls off from the centre to the edges of the shoal.

The tip of the big shoal rock is 16" above the bottom of the present 36" north culvert (the lowest one) and the top of the shoal itself is about 14" below the culvert bottom. To say it in another way, from the tip of the shoal rock to top of the shoal itself is about 30" But bear in mind that the shoal is made up of irregular shaped rocks so exact measurements are not possible.

On August 11, 1934 there is a white area showing where the shoal is located which would indicate that the shoal was at or near the surface. There is a light gray area around it which would probably indicate shallow areas around it. This would lead to the conclusion that the water level could have been from as much as 10 to 15" below the present 36" culvert bottom. The range is because it is uncertain how much of the rocks just below the surface would show through a few inches of water. On that date in 1934 the water was low enough to have the shoal rocks showing.

Of significance in the air photo is that there is no vegetation on the shoal - it would be darker. The absence of vegetation indicates that the shoal was submerged for at least part of the year.

The higher fall levels is shown as well in a 1930s to 1940s photo of Purdons Beach in the Fall. (Note wearing clothes, no leaves on the tree, and leaves on the ground. The car is a 1934 Dodge.) The first cabin were built by Joe Purdom in 1934. The water level and shoreline appear much the same as today.

The Lake Association has tried to obtain additional information to understand past lake levels and variations. The group of six large unique shaped rocks in the channel to the east of the islands also help to understand depths at various times in the past

A drawing of the rocks has been included.

The end of the rock closest to the surface has a 6' x 6'square top that is 10" below the present 36" culvert bottom. There is also the 4' eastern part of this rock that slopes to the bottom. The next closest to the surface rock is rectangular shaped and is 16" below the present culvert bottom. There is a square rock that is 18" below the present culvert bottom; a rectangular rock at 20" below the present culvert bottom, and an oval shaped rock at 20" below as well below the present culvert bottom. If we look at the air photo, we can see what rocks are showing and it can give an indication about the level at that time relative to today.

Only the large 6' square top is showing which probably indicates that the level at that time between 8" to 16" below that present culvert bottom. Like the shoal estimate, it is difficult to say how much rocks just below the surface would show up as whitish in the photo. By the way the other whitish areas around the islands are rocks showing or just below the surface. They are there today. The darker areas are aquatic vegetation.  In contrast, in August 2008 there was 14 inches of water over the large rock. Because of the location of these rocks, and the risk to boaters, these rocks are now marked by a property owner with a buoy during the summer season.

Membership Dues

The 2008-2009 membership dues were set at $20 per property owner.

Please send your cheque to our Treasurer at the address below. Make cheques payable to the Patterson Lake Association. :Receipts will be sent out in Newsletters.

Howard Stanley

313 Hinchey Ave

Ottawa, ON K1Y 1M1

Newsletter

This Newsletter was written by Lorne Bowerman. As usual, Connie did the proof reading and polishing Comments, suggestions, or articles are welcome.

613-225-7904 lorne@bowerman.ca