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What is a Lake Plan? |
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The lake plan is an action-oriented plan developed by the community to reflect and preserve the special character of the lake. The end results derived from implementing the lake plan’s recommendations is the protection of your lake’s special areas and features through land use regulation and stewardship approaches, and the assurance that they are protected for your children and the next generations to come. It sets a strong vision and direction for the future of your lake, identifying how you would like to see your lake 20 years from now and what you need to do to achieve that vision, and sets goals and objectives to clearly define the targets to be used as your measures of success. [ MORE INFORMATION ] The lake plan provides an inventory of your lake’s resources including: |
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Identifying the special character of your lake;
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Identifying the land use, water, recreation and resource management issues;
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Identifying information gaps;
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Providing detailed action-oriented recommendations for land use policy (official plan, zoning by-laws) and stewardship approaches (communications plan, restoration projects) for futureneeds; and
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Explores the relationship between local land use activities and the lake’s environment, and relates it to the broader ecological scale of the watershed.
[ MORE INFORMATION ]
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The broad scope of your lake plan is governed by the boundaries of your lake’s watershed, which includes wetlands and the inflow and outflow of water through the streams, rivers and tributaries that connect your lake to other water bodies. Due to the fact that “humans, like all species, are agents of change”, certain of their activities may have negative implications on the quality and quantity of the water flow.
Terrestrial and aquatic components of a watershed are “inherently linked by the downhill movement of minerals and water”; therefore, any change of land use within the watershed, whether on the immediate lakeshore or upstream, will have an impact on the lake, other lakes within the watershed, and all downstream watersheds.
[ MORE INFORMATION ]
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Humans place a wide assortment of values upon the watershed and these values are reflected in their interactions with the land and water, and their species. The lake plan identifies these values and the issues that arise from land use, human activities and natural occurrences as a collaborative effort through workshops and meetings. These interactive workshops assist with formulating recommendations that are the foundation of the “strategic” action plan. These stewardship initiatives, which are implemented by community volunteers, extend the responsibility to all stakeholders.
Many of the implementation strategies provided in the action plan of the lake plan may not be enforceable by law, so the success of the lake plan will rely on alert and concerned cottagers to put these recommendations into practice, as well as passing the message onto their neighbours. However, lake associations should take into consideration presenting their concerns to their local municipality to encourage the amendments of official plans to establish new policies that will guide any future development and other activities on their lake. It also provides a means of measuring success through monitoring and review. The lake plan is considered a living document, or an open-ended document, allowing for periodic reviews, updates and responses to change as new issues arise.
[ MORE INFORMATION ] |
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Last Updated:
April 27, 2005
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Copyright French Planning Services Inc. ©2007.
FRENCH PLANNING SERVICES - 1016 Holiday Park Drive, Bracebridge, ON P1L 1W9
TEL: 705-646-0851 FAX: 705-645-4908
74051 Visitors to our site since April 01 2005
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