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The Shore Primer

Making Amends: Ways to Restore an Altered Shore

The trouble with the natural shore is there isn't as much as there used to be. The extravagant native greenery that once sprawled along the waterfront has been cut down, boxed in, built over, and otherwise shoved aside on many lakes, only to be replaced by the ordered and angular world of docks, grass, beaches, and breakwalls. Yet a "developed" shore is not a lost cause. Restoring the beauty and integrity of your waterfront need not cost a lot of money or require a lot of labour - after all, working with nature is cheaper and easier than working against it.

Because each stretch of shore is distinct, there is no one generic prescription for bringing an altered waterfront back to health. But the following scenarios and suggestions will help you begin to make amends with your shore.

Before You Restore: The Approvals Process

At least six federal and provincial laws affect shore work in Ontario, not including additional regulations enacted by municipalities or Conservation Authorities. Whether you want to restore your shore, or build from scratch, check with the government experts before tinkering with the waterfront, just to see whether you require a permit. Remember, according to the federal Fisheries Act, the onus is on cottagers and other landowners to ensure that shoreline work does not "harmfully alter, disrupt, or destroy" fish habitat. Having a paper trail that includes a permit application will be helpful if there is any dispute down the line with the authorities. Start with your local Conservation Authority (CA) or, if you don't have one, the nearest Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) office. For landowners who have property fronting on the Rideau Canal, Trent-Severn Waterway, or other federal lands, call the folks at Parks Canada. Another handy source is the local office of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Projects that involve hard materials such as stone, steel, or concrete are more apt to become tangled in shoreline regulations, but it's a good idea to call the government experts even if you're mulling over a restoration. The folks in the know can guide you through the approvals process, toss around some options, and help select the best approaches for your shore, saving you much time and money later.

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How to Prepare for Your Project:

Make a plan for your shore-friendly property, including an inventory of existing plants and features, the different waterfront zones it will involve, and a notion of your final objectives. Find some graph paper (the kind divided into little squares, to make it easier to draw to scale) and draw up a map of your property, including buildings and structures, the shoreline, high and low water points, water intake, vegetation on the land and in the water, wildlife habitat (bass nests, areas where ducklings swim), and prevailing winds and currents. (You'll need this map later when you submit a work application, so make several photocopies.)

Next, note problem areas on your shore: places that have been clear-cut, eroding banks, failing breakwalls, ailing docks, and so on. Include high-activity areas such as the patch of lawn that acts as the badminton or volleyball court, and the pathways to the shore. Brainstorm with your family, other knowledgeable cottagers, and shore-care experts to find natural, environmentally friendly solutions.

When you've come up with the best approach, discuss it with the CA, MNR, Parks Canada, or Fisheries and Oceans Canada. If you need to make a formal application (as you may if you're replacing a dock, for example), include:

• Your name, address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address.
• Your water body's name and location, including lot and concession number, municipality, county or district, and even the latitude and longitude coordinates, if you have them. (The coordinates are available off a good topographic map or a Global Positioning System receiver.)
• A copy of your hand-drawn lot map, signed and dated.
• An outline of your plans, including construction details, schedule, techniques, materials, and goals. (If the experts know what you are trying to fix or achieve, they can often come up with solutions that are cheaper and easier than your building or landscape contractor might propose.)
• Photos of the work site and the surrounding shore are also a good idea. Photos throughout the seasons (summer, winter, and during spring breakup) may be helpful.

Give the regulators at least three months to consider your plans. Better still, do your planning the summer before you want to begin work, and file your application in the fall. That way, you'll have all the paperwork taken care of in time for the spring thaw.

What happens if you ignore all this good advice? That won't be a problem for the upstanding, salt-of-the-earth types who wouldn't dream of cutting corners or destroying shore habitat. But in case you know a shiftless brother-in-law who might consider such a stunt, warn him that the Fisheries Actpacks a maximum fine of $300,000 for first offenders, and possible jail time for subsequent convictions. As well, the courts often order restoration of the property to its original state.

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Restoration #1: Lessening your lawn's impact

How many lawns can you count around your lake? Probably more than you used to, as increasing numbers of people are retiring to live full time at their cottages. While turf has its place (baseball parks come to mind), lakes and lawns have a relationship that is uneasy at best, and poisonous at worst. Indolent things that they are, lawns displace the hard-working native plants that protect the lake. When a heavy rain comes, the foppish blades lay down and let the rain beat all over them, eroding the topsoil and carrying it into the lake. According to one study, 90 per cent of the rain falling on a natural shore is absorbed before reaching the water, while up to 55 per cent of the rain falling on hard surfaces, including lawns, flows right into the lake.

All that runoff hastens erosion, sending a stream of silt coursing into the water where it damages spawning areas. Pesticides and fertilizers lavished on the lawn also play havoc with the aquatic ecosystem. Weed and bug killers may harm fish or destroy the plants and insects fish feed on, and fertilizers promote algae growth, leading to a greener, murkier lake. A kilogram of phosphorus fertilizer washed off the lawn and into the lake fuels the growth of 500 kg of aquatic plants, snaring boat propellers and choking shorelines.

If you must have a lawn (over the septic bed, for example), don't make it a putting green by chemically feeding and weeding it. Try leaving the grass clippings on the sward to mulch and fertilize the sod, but only if the lawn is far enough from the water that the clippings won't be washed into the lake. Let the grass grow at least seven centimetres long between trimmings, to conserve soil moisture. Another option is to let the grass grow all season; knocking it down once a year with a trimmer or scythe will keep trees and shrubs out, while permitting wildflowers to put down roots. Tell your lawn to grow up and start looking after itself for a change.

Buffering Your Lawn from the Lake:

Because lawns are the last thing a lake wants beside it, you'd be doing the shore and yourself a big favour by getting rid of the tidy plot once and for all. But if that's too radical a notion for first-time restorationists, take the next best step: Keep them apart with a buffer zone of natural vegetation, to filter contaminants in runoff, provide homes for wildlife, and enhance your cottage privacy. (For more detail on its function, see "The Riparian And Upland Zones: The Lake's Doormat".)

The wider a buffer is, the better it works. As a rough rule of thumb, a buffer extending back 30 metres from the top of the bank is sufficient for most cold-water lakes (whose fish suffer more from nutrient runoff), while 15 metres will protect a warm-water lake. The natural area should be even deeper on properties with steep, erosion-prone slopes. The key thing to remember is any amount of buffer is better than none at all. If 30 metres sounds like too much, consider going au naturel in stages, adding a bit more each year by working back from the shoreline in two-to-three metre strips.

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How to Build a Buffer:

The easiest approach, especially for lots with patches of healthy native vegetation or erosion-prone soils, is to stop mowing the lawn. Native grasses, shrubs, and trees will colonize the area, with the wildflowers and grasses moving in the first year, and shrubs and trees following a year or two later. Troublesome invaders, such as garlic mustard or burdock, can be selectively cut or hand pulled.

Restoring a heavily clear-cut area is a little tougher, but not beyond the skills of anyone who can handle a shovel and a watering can. Start by looking at the foliage covering natural areas of the lake, and try to duplicate it on your lot. By planting a mix of native plants and shrubs - elderberry, meadowsweet, shrub willows, red osier dogwood, Virginia creeper, and sweet gale - in the riparian zone, you can protect the soil, buffer the waterfront, and entice birds and other wildlife. In the upland area, you can add species that thrive on well-drained slopes, such as sugar maple, white birch, white pine, and white ash. Avoid pilfering wild plants (unless they're going to be built on or paved over) because you're simply denuding one area to clothe another. But do make sure that the species you purchase are, in fact, native to your area - consult with the various government shore experts, as well as local gardening centres, horticultural societies, and naturalists' clubs.

A natural area often looks more appealing to the eye if you plan a transition zone between it and the more manicured areas of your property. If you like, consider softening the shift from lawn and gardens to the wilder-looking buffer with a mix of showy native plants, such as black-eyed Susan, bee balm, blazing star, and cardinal flower. Adopt flowing, curving borders rather than straight lines to promote this natural aesthetic. Preserve a view of the water through judicious pruning, grouping taller trees to allow sightlines, or building an elevated viewing deck behind the cottage.

Use a meandering trail - angled along the slope, not running straight down to the shore - to lead visitors from the cottage to the dock. The path will look more natural and allow rainwater to infiltrate the soil if it's covered with pea gravel or bark chips. Another option is a wood walkway, with slats wide enough to let rain and sunlight through. Creative types might also consider adding an elevated walkway or bridge over sensitive areas, built on posts rising 15 " 30 cm above the ground. The bridge protects vegetation and provides cover for ground-hugging woodland creatures such as frogs, toads, snakes, and salamanders. On slopes, it's best to opt for raised wooden stairs built on posts. Cutting into the slope to install steps only encourages erosion. Concrete steps and sidewalks will circumvent your buffer by channelling runoff towards the lake.

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Restoration #2: Switching to a Shore-Friendly Dock

A Hard Edge

A New Slant

A Soft Touch

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Docks are so much a part of lakeside living, you probably see them as extensions of the shore. The truth is, ill-designed shoreline structures fragment the habitat so critical to lakeside creatures. When the time comes to replace the rickety old dock you've inherited, select one that suits your purposes but also does the least harm to the lake. Cottagers can find all they need to know about shore-friendly structures in The Dock Primer, but here are a few key factors to keep in mind:

• Type of dock: A floating dock is among the top environmental choices because it causes the least disturbance to the lake bottom, provides some fish cover, rides out fluctuating lake levels, and doesn't alter water currents. But it isn't perfect. Floating docks shade some of the littoral zone, reducing the aquatic life that many fish, insects, and animals depend on. They also pose problems for ducklings. The waterfowl cling to the shore as they learn to paddle, and may shun an area where they have to circumnavigate a lot of docks jammed up against the land. You can easily fix this problem by pushing the dock a bit further out and using a gangplank to bridge the short stretch of water between it and the shore. This gives mama duck and her brood a marine underpass, while you can walk the plank - as it were - to the dock.
  
  Pipe or pile docks may be an equally good option for lakes with more stable water levels. Because they rest mostly out of water on pipes or posts, these docks have a very small footprint on the littoral zone, provide some structural habitat, and allow more sunlight through to the lake bottom. Cantilever, suspension, and lift docks are anchored by their base to the shore and overhang the water. They're gentle on the environment, but they're expensive and fairly complex to build. A crib dock, usually built on a base of square-cut timbers filled with stones, creates some habitat, but not enough to compensate for the damage done by covering a section of the littoral zone. Last and definitely least, a concrete pier is a disaster in environmental terms, crushing the life in the littoral zone.
  
  
• Building materials: The safest option for waterfront construction is untreated wood, such as cedar, fir, Western hemlock, and tamarack. Plastic wood, if installed properly, offers long life, but may sag between spans or split during installation if you're not careful.
  
  Treated wood is definitely a second choice. Wood preservatives kill the organisms that cause rot, but what destroys fungi can also harm other critters (including you, if you breathe in too much sawdust or get too much preservative on your skin). If you must go this route, buy lumber that's pressure treated at the factory rather than doing it yourself with a paintbrush, or buying old railway ties, which are heavily creosoted. (You'll still have to paint the exposed ends yourself. Be sure to do this well away from the water.) Pressure-treated wood is manufactured to strict quality-control and environmental standards, so it should provide more protection while limiting environmental risk.
  
  
• Sensitive siting: You can reduce the impact of waterfront development by selecting dock or boathouse sites with little or no vegetation, and developing 25 per cent or less of your total frontage. If, for example, you own 30 metres of lakefront, pick the three to eight metres where development will do the least harm, and set that section aside for a dock, swimming area, and so on. Keep the fish, ducks, and other wildlife happy by leaving the rest in its natural state.

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Restoration #3: Softening a Hardened Shoreline

Take a look along your waterfront - wherever you see a breakwall, that stretch of shore looks almost lifeless, doesn't it? "Hardened" shorelines are like hardened arteries: Left without treatment, they can have serious health consequences. When a shoreline is girded with concrete, steel, or stone, the flow of life along the waterfront is constricted. In serious cases, the waterfront has a kind of cardiac arrest, as plant habitat is destroyed, and fish, birds, and amphibians move on.

Worse still, hardened shorelines are only a temporary fix for an erosion problem usually caused by removing shoreline vegetation. When wave action slams against a vertical wall, the energy is deflected upwards, where the wave breaks against the top of the wall, and downwards, where currents scour out the earth at its base. As the ground beneath it washes away, the wall begins to list and break up. Eventually, it topples right over.

If you own a breakwall, there are a few things you can do to reduce the pounding it takes and improve habitat along the shore. First, plant a buffer zone (see "How to Build a Buffer"), including lots of deep-rooted native shrubs to hold the soil together and prevent gullies from opening up behind the wall. The next step, which requires the approval of government authorities, is to improve the habitat in the littoral zone. Stones piled at a 45-degree angle in front of the wall will add more places for fish to hide and feed, and may trap enough sediment to encourage the growth of aquatic plants. As a bonus, the stones will also absorb much of the force of the waves, extending the life of the wall. "Shore ladders," made by piling up enough stones to reach from the lake bed to the top of the wall, allow frogs, snakes, and mink to travel back and forth from land to water.

If the breakwall is already falling apart, view it as an opportunity to replace the crumbling eyesore with a new, more natural shore. After receiving the appropriate approvals and advice, dig out the bank behind the failing wall to restore a slope of 25 degrees or less, and line it with geotextile filter cloth to keep the soil in place. Ideally, you should remove the breakwall, but if that's not practical, you can pull it back onto the new slope and break the concrete into cobble-sized pieces of rubble. Be sure to add a veneer of additional stones known as "rip-rap" (usually 15-20 cm in diameter) to cover the filter cloth, and plant woody vines and shrubs, such as willow, dogwood, sweet gale, Virginia creeper, and riverbank grape, just behind the rip-rap. Eventually, the vines and plants will grow into the spaces between the stones. You'll have a shore-friendly waterfront that controls erosion and provides wildlife habitat.

Most shores can be held together by their natural vegetation. In erosion-prone areas, the existing plants can be augmented by shrub willows (which are as easy to plant as shoving a stick in the mud). CAs can also explain how to "bio-engineer" a shore to resist erosion with a though and resilient combination of stones, wood, willow, and poplar cuttings.

Finally, if you have a serious erosion problem - particularly if you're on one of the Great Lakes - you'll need good advice on protecting your shore. Check with your local CA or MNR office, and consider weighing your options with a coastal engineer. Well-engineered erosion controls that balance shoreline protection and habitat maintenance will cost more than a do-it-yourself job, but the investment pays off in longevity, peace of mind, and preservation of the waterfront environment.

The New-Look Waterfront

Depending how developed your lake is, with lawns, breakwalls, and the like, a cottager opting for the "natural" look may be viewed by the neighbours with varying degrees of interest, curiosity, and bemusement ("Hmm, how come he's lying in that comfy hammock instead of mowing the grass?").

As you begin your restoration project, get other lake residents onside by explaining why you're forsaking the lawn in favour of dogwood and black-eyed Susan, and perhaps offering them a copy of this booklet. Explain that you're concerned about the health of the waterfront, and that you want to preserve the lake and its creatures for your kids - or their kids - to enjoy. On a wider scale, try contacting like-minded lake lovers through the local lake association. Forming an unofficial shore support group is a good way to share shore restoration information. Some associations even sponsor shore restoration programs, with prizes for the most improved lots.

Then, having ensured your reputation as a thoughtful, concerned lakeside resident - maybe even a visionary! - you can climb back in the hammock and let nature do the work.

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