THUNDER BAY — Management of just over 2,600 hectares of property owned and operated by the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority (LRCA) is to come under scrutiny this summer and fall as the agency works to develop a lands strategy document.
Conservationist-minded folks have until Aug. 24 to provide feedback on the 72-page draft document.
The agency, which operates 10 conservation areas, mostly in rural areas a short drive from Thunder Bay, is mandated to have a strategy in place by the end of this year. Once it’s completed, it’s to be reviewed at least every five years.
The draft information is to “serve as a complementary document” to the agency’s overall strategic plan, an LRCA bulletin says.
It’s also to align with the LRCA’s “vision to provide a healthy, safe and sustainable Lakehead watershed for future generations,” the bulletin said.
The LRCA’s 10 conservation areas are Cascades, Cedar Falls, Hazelwood Lake, Hurkett Cove, Little Trout Bay, MacKenzie Point, Mills Block, Mission Island Marsh, Silver Harbour and Wishart.
In addition to operating those facilities, the LRCA oversees recreation, water management, natural heritage protection, flood protection, erosion control and forest management in the Lakehead watershed.
According to the draft lands strategy document, the agency plans to expand a program it started two years ago to identify “a natural heritage inventory of conservation areas that are open to the public for passive recreation.”
On the public safety front, the draft document notes that the agency in 2022, began monitoring blooms of blue-green algae in the Mission Island, Silver Harbour, Hazelwood and Hurkett Cove conservation areas. Algae blooms can contain bacteria that’s toxic to humans and animals. Still with safety, the agency installed a rope on a steep section of trail at Little Trout Bay.
As well, according to the draft document, the LRCA has taken “progressive steps” to monitor invasive species throughout the Lakehead watershed that “are a growing threat to ecological and recreational” benefits on LRCA properties.
To deter vandalism and crime, the proposed document said, the LRCA “practices natural surveillance by ensuring maximum visibility of amenities such as pavilions, picnic tables, washrooms, and interpretive signs,” while making uses of “natural” barriers in parking lots.
“The most effective methods have been using built-up natural grass-covered berms, or the placement of large boulders around the perimeter of (a) parking lot,” the document says.
Although maintenance of the Neebing-McIntyre Floodway and the Victor Street Erosion Lands are ongoing issues for the LRCA, the draft document notes that provincial funding for remedial projects “is not guaranteed year to year.”
In 2022, the LRCA removed sediment from the floodway’s diversion channel to ensure the waterway provides flood protection to the lower Neebing River in the event of a storm that brings up to 193 millimetres of rain over a 12-hour period.
A link for providing feedback on the draft lands strategy document is available on the agency’s website: lakeheadca.com/governance/public consultation.
The Chronicle Journal / Local Journalism Initiative
