Since our Annual Communications meeting, your CEWF Executive Committee has held monthly meetings, as well as discussions with the management of the TSW. The major discussions with TSW have been with respect to the amounts and form of precipitation, water flow levels on the Gull and Burnt Rivers, current lake levels, and possible action plans with respect to log manipulation. And above all, using this year’s data and comparing with prior years.
As you will recall, the late 2020 fall was fairly dry with a below normal amount of rain. The ground then froze, and since then, there has been a significant amount of snow and an absence of winter rain or winter thaw events until very recently. The TSW water management team continuously monitors conditions using their networks of water level and flow gauges, weather stations and snow water equivalent gauges. Based on their analysis and weather forecasts they may soon begin to replace logs in dams on headwater lakes that can be difficult to fill. Given our experience with extreme spring rainfall events in many recent years, it is expected that with the snowmelt they will bring lake levels up to below the full level and maintain some storage capacity as insurance against extreme events. The goal will be to fill the reservoirs and the Kawartha Lakes before the end of May.
When more specific TSW water management action plans are made available to us, the CEWF will pass along the message to you.
One of the Executive Committee’s actions has been to establish our priorities for 2021. To view the Summary click here. (and it can always be viewed on our home page left side)
If you have any questions or comments, we would be pleased to hear from you – cewfca@gmail.com.