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his year a massive bed of milfoil in Port Perry bay evoked responses ranging from curiosity to total revulsion by tourists and locals alike. The bay by the municipal boat launch was choked with algae and late in summer ugly mats of loose tape grass blew to the shore. To top that all off, boaters on both sides of the Island, were sometimes confronted with scattered tufts of wild rice growing out of what they thought was deep water. Help! What’s up? To put the problem in perspective, it is interesting to note that local newspapers have published instances of people complaining about weeds in the lake for more than a cent In recent years, complaints peaked in about 1989 when the inva- sive aquatic plant Eurasian water milfoil was said to be so prevalent you ‘could almost walk across the lake.’ Lake Scugog is a lake that only exists because of a dam at Lind- say. Avery long time ago, it was a lake; but over time it had filled in until it had become only a shallow river surrounded by wetlands by the time the Lindsay dam was built over 150 years ago. It’s naturally very slowly heading that way again. The latest figures show the lake has now an average depth of only four and a half feet. Being such an old lake means that it is very nutrient rich with deep sediments loaded with phosphorus and nitrogen that encour- age plant and algae growth. That richness is annually added to by human based activities: run-off from agriculture, storm drains, septic system function and lawn fertilizers. Reactive nitro- gen even arrives from the sky originating from power plant emissions as well as agricultural fertilizers applied miles away from our region. This is an effect that is troubling water bodies world-wide. But what happened this year that was sig- nificantly different on Scugog? One thing is for sure. This spring was very wet and wet means a lot of nutrient and pollutant run-off. Another factor is that last summer, and this spring, the water was clearer than it has been for many years. Good water clarity early in the spring allowed sunlight to penetrate to the bottom of the nor- mally murky lake, allowing the ‘garden’ of aquatic plants to begin an early growth. The last thing we are relatively sure of is that conditions next year will probably not mirror what happened this year. In nature, nothing stays the same for long! We all love our lake as a recreational space but — because of its rich, shallow waters and many types of wetlands, we also appreciate its home to thousands of varieties of plants, birds, fish and animals. What is totally unique about Sour is that all this happens on the doorstep of the burgeoning GT‘ Please turn to ‘ake Health on page 17 Stroy Port Peony fae move than 26 peare 462 Paxton St., Port Perry Tosaked aoeae Gee thar bas posed in the Medical Associates building 905-985-8459 DERRY ft Deni UNSOCTOTCS focus@observerpub.ca hn O’Toole, MPP purham FOCUS - NOVEMBER 2006 11