Ontario ‘Automatically’ Okays Permits That Harm At-risk Species

What we have suspected for some time, that Ontario’s Ministry of Environment is “essentially facilitating development rather than protecting species at risk”, has now been independently confirmed by Ontario’s Auditor-General. Below an excerpt and link to the report on this scandal in the Globe and Mail:

‘Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment automatically approves permits for developments expected to harm at-risk species, the province’s Auditor-General says in a series of reports that also chastise the government for failing to recoup millions in costs for investigating toxic spills, and for breaking its own law on public consultations.

In an annual batch of environmental reports tabled on Monday, Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk said the province is failing to protect wildlife from developers and resource industries. The Environment Ministry, she added, is “essentially facilitating development rather than protecting species at risk.”’

Read more in the Globe and Mail, Tue Nov 23rd, 2021.

Night Lights: Outdoor Lighting is Changing Rural Areas

From www.foca.on.ca (reproduced with permission)

The attractions of cottage country include green and blue vistas during the day, and the soundscapes and starry skies of late evening. But the latter attraction is quickly changing, and the culprit is a “green” lighting technology. I refer to the proliferation of white-light LED fixtures. They are marketed as low energy and cheap; however, these attributes promote outdoor lighting where previously there was none. LED fixtures consume so little energy compared to the older incandescent lights that many cottagers leave them on all night and even when their cottage is vacant.

What was once a dark countryside has now become illuminated as an extension of urban lighting patterns shifts across the landscape. For example, compare these two satellite images of light proliferation in Lanark County, Eastern Ontario over a  few short years. The dark  areas  are being overtaken by roadway and residential lighting. Something modest becomes a blight when multiplied by thousands of residences.

It is ironic that a product developed to save energy and preserve the environment is having the opposite effect: LEDs are causing a 2.2% per year increase in outdoor lighting! Within your lifetime, the sky will be twice as bright, and we will be using twice the energy for lighting.

Why does this matter? How can something as simple as a door light affect the night?

First, outdoor lighting fundamentally changes the aesthetics of the night. The night sky is featureless “black” when we are next to bright lights. It reduces the visibility for both people and animals.

Many animals don’t want outdoor lighting. It makes foraging animals vulnerable to predators. Although moonlight illuminates the countryside for about a week each month, the rest of the time there are long periods of darkness when the animals can gather food in relative safety, and star gazers and late-night walkers can enjoy the night darkness, free from glare.

The proliferation of light is caused by outdoor lights on buildings, along laneways and shoreline lighting. Whether used for landscaping or waterfront “enhancement”, outdoor lighting changes the night environment and disrupts the ecology of wildlife. It also undermines the enjoyment for those who may prefer the natural night they can’t get in the city.

Practical Solutions

1. Changing White to Amber: White is the most impactful colour of nighttime lighting. The glare from white light appears about 5 times brighter than amber light for the same wattage of lamp. Since bugs are not attracted as much by amber light, you will also reduce the pesky bugs on your property. Simply swapping out the white lamp for an amber bug light will reduce the impact of the glare.

For LEDs, white light is the combination of blue plus amber. So, you can add a filter to block the blue light components. Inexpensive amber film can be used to line the inside of light fixtures such as coach lights. At the relatively low light levels after dark, our eyes perceive this colour as candlelight.

You can buy a very inexpensive sheet of filter material by Roscolux (Deep Straw #15) online for less than $10. Line the inside of the light fixture window or diffuser with one or two layers to achieve amber light.

2. Shielding Exterior Building Lights

An unshielded door light can be seen for miles, yet only a fraction of the emitted light will illuminate your entrance or steps. The problem is solved by purchasing downward facing fixtures, or creating a simple DIY reflective shield. If you use the pattern found at http://csbg.ca/BLOG. HTM#22, this project is suitable for your kids or grandkids. 

Important notes:

·       Use this only for florescent or LED light bulbs (not incandescent or other bulbs that get hot when lit).

·       If the bulb uses more than 60W, the material used should be metal, not cardboard.

3. Modifying a Coach Light

Coach lights are designed to look good in the daytime, but at night they produce a lot of glare and light trespass. Depending on the specific design, these can be modified to produce very little glare and to more uniformly light the area, which increases the visibility over the area.

As an example: visit https://foca.on.ca/light-pollution/ to see images of a typical fixture that has the lamp in the lower half, and the light shines out through glass in the upper and lower sections. We modified it by using a screw- in plug receptacle from a local hardware store that raised the lamp into the upper section. We then cut reflective material to block the upper windows. More light is now reflected through the lower windows and onto the ground. The owner can use lower wattage lamps. During the day, the fixture did not look like it was modified but at night this modest shielding cut glare and light trespass, while increasing visibility around the entrance.

How you can help

Light pollution can be easily reduced with some simple solutions:

1.     Shield your light fixtures so light shines where you need it, not over your neighbour’s property. Everyone will see better without the glare.

2.     Use amber “bug lights” – not white light. Amber will reduce the impact of glare and will also attract fewer mosquitoes.

3.     Use lower wattage lamps. To judge how much light you need, go for a walk at night and approach your lights after becoming dark-adapted. This will be what the animals see. If your lights are bright, dim them down or use a lower wattage bulb.

4.     Turn off your outdoor lights when you don’t want to have visitors, when you go to bed, and certainly when you are away. We’ve been told to use light to make our homes safer, but without an active security system, outdoor lighting won’t protect your property, it just puts it on display for thieves and vandals.

To read up on more lighting tricks, the colour of light and illumination levels, visit my blog: www.csbg.ca/truths- myths.htm

About the author: Robert Dick is a principal in the Canadian light company CSbG EcoLights. He wrote the original chapter on light pollution in FOCA’s 2009 publication, “Take the Plunge.”

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One Municipal Example: 

Worried about the impacts of light pollution in your area? You might bring this example to the attention of your municipality: the Township of Muskoka Lakes has had a dark sky lighting bylaw in place since 2014, intended to “ensure responsible lighting, light pollution mitigation and conservation of the dark sky environment.”

As of January 1, 2024, residents will be responsible for ensuring their property is dark-sky compliant, including the provision that all outdoor lighting— even on docks and boathouses—be “properly shielded with full cut-off fixtures” that only shine below the horizontal line of the shield, not outward or upwards.

Chloride Levels in Loughborough Lake

The lake association has taken water samples for years and reported them in the newsletters that have been distributed to the lake association members. These water samples have been sent to Dorset, Ontario for analysis at the Environmental Science Centre located there, a Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks facility. They have reported on Secchi Disk measurements along with levels of phosphorous and calcium in the water. Recently they added chloride levels to their test reports, so this information can now be passed on.

Chlorides are salts and the new data reports on the amount of saltiness in the lake. Chlorides can be naturally occurring – limestone bedded lakes will be higher in chlorides - as well as coming from human produced sources like farm runoff, manufacturing discharge and road salt. Not surprisingly, Loughborough Lake levels are higher than its surrounding granite bedded lakes. Looking through the six years of data, you can see that Collins Lake, another lake set in limestone, shows similar chloride values to Loughborough.

The levels of chloride are relatively consistent over the years, with a slight downward trend. The data in the graph below is shown for west basin and east basin values.

So how salty is the lake? For comparison purposes, sea water is about 19,400 mg/L. While Loughborough Lake is nowhere near sea water chloride levels, it is important to note that chlorides, in low levels, are required for plant and animal life. However, chloride levels higher than 250 mg/L are not permissible for public drinking water sources in the US and have been known to contribute to corrosion in pipes.

Useful links...

BLLA Survey Summary Report

The BLLA Board of Directors launched another membership survey early in the new year to learn about the initiatives our membership would like us to pursue. This is what you said:

Respondents: 53% are full-time residents, 42% are seasonal, 94% are BLLA members and 6% unsure

Association Initiatives:

Survey results for Association Initiatives, 2021

BLLA social media: Only 65% of respondents were aware of the BLLA social media pages. 83% said they would prefer to receive BLLA information, such as articles, stories and pictures, digitally.

Comments and Suggestions:

Survey results, Comments and Suggestions, 2021

We thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us and encourage you to stay in touch. For those of you not aware of our social media platforms, please take a minute to find and follow us on Facebook and Instagram. We are pleased to make the transition from paper and post to digital, in response to the survey. If you haven't already shared your email address with us, please do so at presidentblla63@gmail.com.

Buckthorn - Don't forget about our Extractigators

Last year, you may recall, our invasive species focus was on Buckthorn and its removal using our newly acquired ‘Extratigators’. Our Lake Association was able to purchase two Extractigator tools thanks to a grant from Watersheds Canada and the Daniel & Susan Gottloeb Foundation. These Extractigators make removal of the highly invasive Buckthorn shrubs much easier and are available to borrow at no cost to our members by
emailing your request to presidentblla63@gmail.com.

Extractigator tool

Need help identifying Buckthorn or just want more information, try these two links:

https://www.ontario.ca/page/common-buckthorn

https://www.invasivespeciescentre.ca/invasive-species/meet-the-species/invasive-plants/buckthorn/

Johnston Point – Environmental Rights Nowhere in Sight

Enshrined in our Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR) is the right of all Ontarians to participate in decisions that significantly impact our natural environment and our future. Sadly, never in the history of our Lake Association has there been a more environmentally significant provincial decision rendered so environmentally insignificant. Public participation in decision-making on Johnston Point over the course of the last seven years has been fueled by the conviction that if this Plan of Condominium is allowed with the multiple layers of provincial protection and diversity of species at risk for the mere sake of 15 houses, then NO place in Ontario is sacred from development.

The County’s granting of a 3rd extension for Johnston Point this past January speaks volumes. The public was refused a County delegation and Township Council was forced into a situation of not formally commenting under threat of “potential litigation and liability exposure if there is anything done to try and prevent this from moving forward.” That is not to say that Township Council did not comment. The public recording of their council discussion clearly captures their frustration and exasperation as they are explicitly advised to “not make a motion against the application or against the extension.” As summed up by one councillor, “History has shown that in this particular file the County of Frontenac seems to be more than happy to extend draft plan approval as many times as they wish, without referencing this body at all.” Jan 12, 2021 Township Council Meeting

Johnston Point is home to six independently documented species at risk on the Ontario list - Butternut (endangered), Myotis Bat (endangered), Blanding’s Turtle (threatened), Gray Ratsnake (threatened), Eastern Whippoorwill (threatened) and Snapping Turtle (special concern). The Township’s independent expert peer review noted suitable habitat for nine other species at risk that have never been independently assessed - Cerulean Warbler, Least Bittern, Eastern Wood-PeWee, Wood Thrush, Golden- winged Warbler, Milksnake, Eastern Ribbonsnake, Northern Map Turtle and Broad Beech Fern. Species at risk habitat on Johnston Point is part Provincially Significant Wetland, Provincially Significant Woodland, Provincially Significant Wildlife Habitat and Fish Habitat, and Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI) identified and recommended for protection by the MNRF in 1993. (All species at risk and the ANSI designation had been overlooked in the developer’s environmental assessments of Johnston Point). As stated in the Natural Heritage Reference Manual: “ANSIs play an important role in the protection of Ontario’s natural heritage, since they best represent the full spectrum of biological communities, natural landforms and environments across Ontario outside of provincial parks and conservation reserves.”

There is global significance too. Loughborough Lake and surrounding area was designated in 2002 as an UNESCO (Organization) Biosphere Reserve known as the Frontenac Arch. Ironically, in the weeks prior to the County’s granting of the 3rd extension, Johnston Point was featured in Striking Balance, a documentary series on Canada’s Biosphere Reserves, to spotlight development that threatens the Frontenac Arch’s connectivity, biodiversity and species at risk, which is the essence of the biosphere.

“Environmental standards could not be more elevated. It is unfortunate and regrettable and deplorable that the project, and those standards have not been respected here before...... all your comments which are completely justified and make perfect sense.” (Gavin Marshall, Principal, Magenta Waterfront Development Corp. June 4, 2019). 

This was the developer’s own admission in requesting the first extension when the Conditions of Draft Plan approval for Johnston Point were set to expire for the first time. It should have been reason enough for government, at every level, to support the corrective action Township Council took then in voting 6-2 to stop development from proceeding. The CRCA and the MNRF had no comment. Yet, they are the experts our government has repeatedly stated it relies on to ensure environmental protection and assessment of the Natural Heritage. The County, as final approval authorities, also chose to ignore fundamental environmental implications of the developer’s admissions and Township Council’s recommendations. Neither the public nor Township Council were aware of the second extension until after the fact. It was granted by the County in a “Special Council Meeting to Consider the 2020 Budget” only days after the declaration of the COVID-19 state of emergency.

Since proposal of this development in 2014, Township Council have been the acting authority on Johnston Point directly engaged in implementation of the Conditions of Draft Plan Approval. The three County extensions make a mockery out of Township Council’s effort to uphold environmental mandates and the democratic process that has provided vital public scrutiny to assist in their environmental decision- making. They parallel the Ford Government’s hammering away at environmental protections from the top down to further streamline development.

2018. Amendment of our Environmental Bill of Rights to terminate the Office of the Environmental Commissioner (ECO) - the legal guardian of our EBR which the public relies on as our independent environmental watchdog. That announcement came the day after the MNRF posted notice of an Overall Benefit Permit for Johnston Point and the ECO released her annual Environmental Protection Report citing Johnston Point “as an example of how the public’s environmental concerns are often left out of the municipal planning process.”  In her 2017 Environmental Protection Report, the ECO had highlighted the systemic “utter failure” of our government to address species at risk: “... The MNRF has never denied an ESA permit [ie Overall Benefit Permit] to any applicant ... Big Changes Needed to Protect Species at Risk. The ECO still stands behind the ESA in principle – it is a good law that has the potential to protect and recover species at risk. But as we have now reported on many occasions, the MNRF has utterly failed to implement the law effectively. With each passing year, the extent of this failure becomes more clear – the ministry has reduced what should have been a robust system for protecting species at risk to what is largely a paper exercise. The MNRF is failing to not just protect species at risk as intended under the law, but also to lead effective recovery programs. In the best case, the MNRF has created a system that leaves itself with a minimal role to play; in the worse case, it has a created a system designed to fail”.

2019. The 10-year review of Ontario’s Endangered Species Act (ESA) with amendments that “streamline approvals and provide clarity to support economic development” (Environmental Registry # 013-4143). The ECO’s 2017 annual report could not have been clearer on the need to strengthen the ESA for its intended purpose. Gordon Miller, our former ECO (2000 to 2015), warned of the dire environmental consequence on Johnston Point: “Putting a condominium development along nearly its entire length is an extreme case of conflicting values – between species at risk conservation and residential development ...On Johnston Point, the species and habitat loss will be absolute...” ER Statement Gord Miller

2020. Section 6 amendment to the Conservation Authority Act under Bill 229. The Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) called it “ the most recent, in a disturbing trend ... of using omnibus budget measures bills to make substantive changes to environmental laws and thereby sidestepping the public’s EBR rights.” It harkens back to 2014, when the County first asked the CRCA for an assessment of the Johnston Point proposal, and the CRCA immediately called for deferral over species at risk concerns and the need for the protection of natural heritage features. CRCA assessment Aug 8, 2014.

The history of decision-making on Johnston Point is testament. Only in principle do environmentally significant provincial decisions seem to matter for our government. Other than in rhetoric, our government expressly chooses to prioritize economic development over rising to the challenge of protecting our rights to a healthful environment and ensuring we achieve what are now widely understood as existential goals of protection, conservation and restoration of the natural environment for the benefit of present and future generations. In these historic provincially significant times, and in the face of unprecedented uncertainty, we the people seem to be left void of trust, leadership and agency. The campaign to protect and restore this local gem and provincial Natural Heritage treasure has been nothing short of a campaign to reclaim environmental policy and legislation for its intended purpose and our common good. It is about Striking Balance, continuing to shine Johnston Point as the provincially significant environmental decision that it truly is, and letting it speak to the heart of protecting and restoring Ontarian’s Natural Heritage and environmental rights for generations to come.

Postcard to Loughborough Lake - Wishing We Were There

Postcard to Loughborough Lake

One thing is true - everything changes; and nothing stays the same.

For over 33 years, Loughborough Lake has given us so much. Sadly, that changed in 2020.

My grandfather fished the lake back in the 1940’s and his signature can still be found in the historic Loughborough Inn guest register. That’s how we, New Yorkers, discovered the lake that would add so much enjoyment to our lives. Every Spring we couldn’t wait to open the cottage, put the curtains up, attach the swim ladder, bring out the dock chairs and gaze at our beautiful lake. Summer would bring hot days, cool swims, boat rides and twilight dinners in the screened gazebo atop the boat house surrounded by the lake. At night, a full moon would shine on the water lighting its ripples made by the fish and beavers. Just as we were about to fall asleep the Whippoorwill, hiding in the nearby woods, would make sure that we would have to wait a bit longer.

Photo provided by Christine Galvin, Loughborough Lake

For so long, our friends and family found refuge at our cottage on the lake; fishing, reading, napping, or swimming and picknicking on Papoose Island. If we needed a bit of excitement, we could be in Kingston in no time, sampling the restaurants, picking up supplies, visiting shops or enjoying a festival.

Who would have thought that one day in March 2020, the border between our two countries would close… shut tight. But close it did, as COVID-19 began to lay claim to our “normal” lives and health. Little did we know that our cottage would be sadly, unwillingly, deserted for the entire summer, and for the rest of the year. What we miss most is the water, its sense of calm and freedom; its beauty. There is something magical about the way it restores the soul.

From time to time, we remotely visited the lake through photos thoughtfully shared by our kind neighbours. During the Loughborough Lake Association Annual General meeting, via Zoom, we learned that the boaters went crazy last summer and that North Shore Road was finally repaired and driveable. Now, looking to the future, even though hope springs eternal, our return this summer is hanging in the balance. All we can do is wait. If you see the flower boxes are planted at the green boathouse on the east end, you’ll know that we’re back. And if not, we’ll return as soon as the door opens.

Until then, enjoy the lake,

Christine Galvin, Loughborough Lake Association member, since 1988