We have heard from some members that their lakes have been drawn down this year significantly earlier, and at a quicker rate, than normal. For one member the newly communicated TSW forecasts enabled him to proactively get his dock out before it was too late. For another who had planned his usual timing, unfortunately his flotation dock is now grounded, awaiting a probable sad fate from the winter ice.
The morals of this story:
- the TSW lake level forecasts are very helpful, and need to be monitored.
- unexpected rapid lake level changes cause real problems – cost and safety.
- even under the current mandate of water level management, delaying to later in the fall the full draw down of the Reservoir Lakes would have substantial economic benefits to the region.
Let us know if you have had similar experiences.
We also found this year that once they started to draw the water there was a drastic change from week to week. Over the years we have learned that we have to take our boat out on the Labour Day Weekend or the next week it will be sitting high and dry. This was our plan again this year when we got up on the Labour Day Weekend we were shocked to see how much the water had dropped and it was an extremely difficult task to get our trailer in deep enough to be able to get our boat onto the trailer. It saddens me also to see the levels drop so much because we have a school of fish that live under our fixed dock each year and their habitat is constantly changing. Isn’t this why we as cottage owners aren’t supposed to change our shorelines, so why is it alright for our water to be pulled off for the Trent when it’s causing problems for the habitation of several species on our lakes?