Sunfish Lake Association Water Issues Update

1) Cyanobacteria Mats – The Sunfish Lake Association Executive and Water Team would like to raise awareness about some cyanobacteria algae mats that have been spotted recently around Sunfish Lake.  While small, this bright blue/aqua cyanobacteria can be highly toxic to people and pets.

These are naturally occurring algae that are essential to the balance and functioning of our ecosystem at the lake, however for several years now our lake as been overloaded with nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) throwing things off balance and greatly increasing the odds that these bad blue algae will outcompete and overwhelm the good green algae creating a cyanobacteria algae outbreak that would render our lake unsafe for swimming, unsafe to draw water from, and unusable like an increasing number of lakes around the world.

Thankfully, our weather has been cooler and rainfall plentiful which we hope will help to keep things in check and avoid a significant outbreak incident.  However, in the interest of safety please we would caution about drawing water from the lake – particularly for consumption and also urge caution to avoid swimming in any algae slicks or water that doesn’t appear to be normal.

We also remind people to do everything possible to avoid adding to the nutrient load of the lake – this includes no fertilizers, no pesticides, no soaps/shampoos, remove all pet waste from your lawns immediately, etc.

Our Water Team will continue regular testing and monitoring – not only for cyanobacteria and surface algae but also e-coli, fecael coliform, and our planktothrix blob at depth.

2) Beaver – we have at least one, perhaps even two beavers back at Sunfish Lake.  They have been sighted numerous times and there has been extensive digging to deepen the outlet of the lake and along parts of the shoreline.  However, strangely we have found little tree damage to date.  The beavers have to be eating something though so please be sure to wrap with wire any trees that you do not want to lose.  Please let us know any sightings and if needed our beaver trapper will be called in as beavers are like rabbits that multiply quickly and can cause significant damage.

Wilmot Township Fire Ban, Fishing & Upcoming AGM

Good Evening Sunfish Lake Association Members,

A couple of updates:

1) Wilmot Fire Ban – Not surprisingly given the dry conditions and sky already so filled with smoke it blocks out the sun, the rural townships in Waterloo Region including Wilmot Township have issued a complete fire ban. This includes campfires, open cooking fires, burning of any debris or refuse, no fireworks, etc.

In fact, Sunfish Lake was already mentioned in the Record newspaper earlier this week by our Wilmot Fire Chief Rod Leeson as a local example of a residential area facing a considerable fire risk. It’s unfortunate that the local fire departments haven’t made any efforts or outreach to help with fire preparedness or fire safety for our area or even followed up from three years ago on the need to test systems between area fire departments, figure out where/how to draw water from the lake, etc. These are all things that we might want to undertake with a renewed focus if we are going to be facing a dry summer compared to the past decade or so of extremely wet summers with very low fire risk.

Back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s when we faced numerous dry summers in a row we invested in creating a firebreak on Sunfish Holdings property, several families purchased fire pumps and hundreds of feet of fire hose, etc. We may need to renew our efforts and level of preparedness in the weeks ahead.

In the meantime, please be extremely careful, be sure to remove any flammable debris or anything that could create a fire hazard around your property and share any ideas on how we could be adequately prepared for the future.

2) Executive Meeting and AGM – The Sunfish Lake Executive is going to be having a meeting this coming Thursday, June 8th at 7pm to determine the date and agenda for the AGM – currently we are considering sometime during the week of June 26th which is the week we have most often held in the AGM in the past. Please let us know if you would be willing to host the meeting this year and if you have anything that you would like included on the agenda.

3) Fishing Reminder – Dave Carlisle-Weaver has asked to remind everyone of our fishing regulations (attached below) here at Sunfish Lake. We need to ensure that everyone is following the rules to ensure that our fish population is as healthy as possible.

Lake Water Monitoring

Tree Planting

Geese, Seagull, and Duck Issues

Beaver on the Lake

Notes from Kevin – September 11, 2019