PATTERSON LAKE NEWSLETTER

October 2006

www.pattersonlake.bowerman.ca

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Our biggest news is that on June 27, 2006 we became incorporated in the Province of Ontario as a not for profit corporation. Our official name is now the "Patterson Lake Association of Lanark Highlands".

We held our first AGM at the Watsons Corners Hall on September 3, 2006. It was a good meeting. We have many different viewpoints and these were expressed in a congenial manner. The minutes of the AGM are posted on our website, however a copy comes along with this newsletter.

Board of Directors

At our AGM, our first Directors were elected. These were: Jack Hobbs from Porcupine Way, Lorne Bowerman from Lakeside Rd, Ted Manning from Hardwood Ridge Rd, Patrick Gilliland from 5th Concession B, Howard Stanley from Fairs Way, and Rhodena Bell from Nelsons Way.

At our first meeting of the Board on October 1, 2006, Lorne Bowerman was elected as President, Howard Stanley as Treasurer, and Rhodena Bell as Secretary.

Board News

Although our minutes are published on our website, there are some who do not have Internet to look at them. The highlights of the meeting were the election of officers as noted above, the appointment of Bud Kern of 101 Lakeside Rd as Auditor, the approval of an interim set of Articles and Bylaws, and the decision to set into motion the development of a lake management plan.

We also decided to do a mailing to everyone around mid-October 2006.

We have 105 who could be members. Of those, 49 paid the Association dues. So that decision meant we will send the mailing out to those who did not pay their dues. The feeling of the Board was that we want everyone involved and we hope to convince everyone that the $20 is well spent.

Summer Lake Level

One thing that was started prior to incorporation was a Survey proposal to retain about 8" of water above the bottom of the north culvert during July and August. At the present the water level goes from a high of 24" above the bottom of the north culvert in the Spring to a low of zero depth in the Summer. We had 69 replies with 59 agreeing and 10 not agreeing. We had a good discussion about this at our AGM. The meeting felt they would like to have more information on impact of this decision.

More importantly a motion was made during the discussion to determine whether the Lake Association should research and find a good way to manage the lake as part of the Association's duties. This was carried unanimously with two abstentions. That was a very strong direction from the AGM. The Board was listening. That is why we have set in motion the development of a lake management plan.

Lake Management Plan

You have probably seen these words quite a few times in the last year. It is big news around Tay Township and Otty Lake. What you may not know is what it is all about.

When the first lake management plans were done they were done from the political level and imposed on a lake community. That did not sit well with a lake community, so in the end the plans sat on a shelf gathering dust.

However, the next generation of lake management plans started with the lake community and focused on how the lake community wished to have their lake managed

Now obviously a lake community cannot on its own develop a plan in isolation. There are a number of civic and government organizations that have an interest. A lake management plan involves input from the municipality, conservation authority, Ministry of Environment and Lake Partners Program for ground and surface water quality, Ministry of Natural Resources, and the OPP if there is boat safety involved. There may be involvement by other Provincial departments or the Federal government.

If you do a Google search on the words "lake management plan" and limit it to Canada, you will get thousands of responses. The top of the list is the work being done in Tay Township on Otty Lake with Sheanna Timlin's name (from the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority) coming up a number of times.

Well Sheanna has her office in Manotick which is just down the road from me. So I sent an email telling her of our decision to do a lake management plan and to ask her if she could point us in the right direction. A few minutes after I sent the message my phone rang and it was Sheanna. I told her she did not have to jump when I spoke, but she said she is always delighted when a lake decides to do a plan. Sheanna's enthusiasm is contagious and I ended up working all day on what she sent me.

In a nutshell, lake management plans usually take up to four years to complete. They start with a lake community defining what it wants the lake to be like, in say twenty years, usually by a couple of questionnaire and lots of meetings. Once that is done, information is gathered on where the lake community is now and this is compared to where it wants to be. From this a lake management plan is developed with input from the civic authority (e.g. township), conservation authority, MNR, and perhaps other agencies that may have an interest. The completed product has status like an official plan.

Included along with this newsletter is a start on the process for us. Share your vision. Be part of shaping what we will look like.

I'll end this section with a quotation taken from Bass Lake website attributed to the Haida Nation:

We don't inherit our land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

Boat Speed - by Mary Elizabeth James

On Sept. 3, at the Patterson Lake annual general meeting, I raised my concerns regarding the speed at which boaters travel on Patterson Lake and their proximity to the shore. (The law states that if a boat is within 30 meters of shore then the speed limit is 10 k an hour.) The primary concern is safety. Traveling at high speeds close to shore could result in a swimmer being seriously hurt. - and consequently, takes away ease of mind of someone in the water .The waves also contributes to shore erosion, the gas to pollution and the noise detracts from peace of mind. I have seen Seadoos race up and down the lake and at times "hot-dogging" so closely to shore that swimming really is potentially dangerous. It's also not unusual to see a Seadoo pulling "tubers" without a "spotter" - putting at jeopardy other boaters and swimmers - to say nothing of the person being towed.

I would suggest then that the west end of the lake is not the safest place to ski, "hotdog", or tube; but rather the wider part of the lake near Mary's Island.

I confess my bias - that speed boats "take" you places, whereas the purpose of low horsepower motors, kayaks, canoes, rowboats (non motorized boats) are meant " …to muck about in the water…" I humbly ask, where is there to go at such high speeds on Patterson Lake? I personally don't understand the thrill of racing up and down a two and a half mile lake. People say it's fun and I wonder, at what cost?

Newsletter

This Newsletter was produced by Lorne Bowerman. Comments, suggestions, or articles are welcome. (Yea, Mary Elizabeth, the first to provide an article. More. More.).

Next newsletter: Spring 2007 or sooner,