We thought Covid-19 had turned the long weekend in August into just an ordinary cottage weekend. But thanks to some creative thinking, August 1st ended up being a spectacular day.
The day dawned beautiful and sunny, and at 10:30 the Pandemic Paddle began. Canoists, kayakers, paddle boarders, people and pets took to the waters. Others stayed on their docks to welecome visitors. Everyone was smiling, chatting and visiting from a distance.
Thanks to your generosity, a large bin is overflowing with food for the Community Care Apsley food bank to be delivered on Tuesday. (If you still want to donate, please come by Lot 36.)
To top the day off, about two dozen watercraft converged on Lot 7 to listen and sing along with Drew Phillips (on Instagram @drewphillipsmusic). Drew took requests and played to a very satisfied crowd. Highlights included Stacy’s Mom, in which Drew was joined by Scott Phillips; and the Tennessee Whiskey where we learned who will leave the comfort of their boat for a whiskey shot. Get your request list ready for 2021!
A few Loon Call Lake friends were chatting about how lucky we are to be cottaging on such a magnificent lake. We were expressing our disappointment in not being able to visit with our lake friends and neighbours at the annual regatta and corn roast this year. That’s when the Pandemic Paddle was born.
When: Saturday August 1st @ 10:30 onwards What: The idea is to depart from your dock at 10:30 a.m. in your non-motorized boat (canoe, kayak, paddle board, paddle boat….) and to paddle clockwise around the lake visiting and chatting with fellow loon call lakers. If you choose not to paddle, feel free to come down to your dock to say hello.
Hope to see you on the lake! Heather Thornton and Tom Parsons Lot 65
Take photos and send them to info@looncalllake.ca for publication on the web site
Food Bank
Drop non-Perishable food items at dock 36 (Hartog’s). We’ll drop them at the Apsley Community Care Tuesday next week
Piano Bar
Saturday August 1st, 5-7 pm, Drew Phillips will be providing musical entertainment on his dock (Lot 7).
Feel free to boat up, drop anchor and enjoy!! All cottagers welcome!
Loon Call Lake Cottagers Association received this grateful message from Community Care – Apsley
Good afternoon Ms. Manias,
I want to take this opportunity to thank the Loon Call Lake Cottagers Association for the generous donation of $500.00 to our Community Care – Apsley office. We truly appreciate the support.
I have attached a formal thank you letter for the members of the Association.
Thank you for supporting Community Care.
Sincerely,
Danielle
Danielle Belair
Executive Director
Community Care Peterborough
A few Loon Call Lake friends were chatting about how lucky we are to be cottaging on such a magnificent lake. We were expressing our disappointment in not being able to visit with our lake friends and neighbours at the annual regatta and corn roast this year. That’s when the Pandemic Paddle was born.
When: Saturday August 1st @ 10:30 onwards What: The idea is to depart from your dock at 10:30 a.m. in your non-motorized boat (canoe, kayak, paddle board, paddle boat….) and to paddle clockwise around the lake visiting and chatting with fellow loon call lakers. If you choose not to paddle, feel free to come down to your dock to say hello.
Hope to see you on the lake!
Take photos and send them to info@looncalllake.ca for publication on the web site
Tom Parsons and Heather Thornton smelled smoke on July 20th and engaged Murray Rochon and Sladjana to bring water to a fire burning beside the beaver pond near Fire Route 57. They called in the fire department, too, and with all of this help, the fire was successfully extinguished.
A number of people have collected hundreds of caterpillars and now our pheromone traps are collecting hundreds of moths, as we continue to kill caterpillars and pupae. The next step in protecting our trees, for those who decide they are interested, is to spray just as the eggs are hatching.
The company that is most experienced at spraying is Paul Zimmer at Zimmerair.com. Paul Zimmer’s company sprayed Etobicoke, London, Chandos Lake and many other recognizable places this summer. It is his company that sprayed our lake about 25 years ago. The park will not spray but we are allowed to spray on private property.
Click here to download the contract that explains the process. It needs to be completed for each property being sprayed. Each property owner would need to complete the form and in order to get a preferred price, and pay in early 2021 for spraying in spring 2021. Property owners need to get a waiver signed (click here to download) by neighbours who choose not to spray. In this case the helicopter will spray 10% less on the side of your property. It is best to get a series of properties in a row sprayed. In these days of google maps and GPS technology, the helicopters are able to be quite specific in the areas sprayed which is why they require specific information in advance.
The company monitors the egg masses, hatching etc., and sprays to get 90% of the hatch. It is followed by a second spray at the right time. The costs for spraying are in the contract. $357.00 for the first acre and $96.00 for additional acres. The product being sprayed is also used in organic farming.
Please visit the Zimmer Air website which contains valuable information to help you make a decision. Gypsy moth spraying The website has answers to all of your questions and aerial views of sprayed and unsprayed properties. We have 7 sequential property owners on our side of the lake around our cottage (lot 60) committed to spraying.
Many of us were here the last time the lake was sprayed and believe we saved hundreds of trees. The trees at risk with this invasion now include pine trees, which is frightening.
If you are interested, we will keep a record of properties to be sprayed and help with the required maps.
Please contact me if you have any questions, Margi
These are truly unprecedented times as is reflected in this newsletter. We are adjusting our plans and cottage life to look after each other and to keep everyone safe.
The LCLCA Executive held a meeting on June 29th. The minutes can be found on the website by clicking here
2020 Regatta and Corn Roast
After careful consideration, as we are in Stage 2 of reopening during the Covid-19 in which physical distancing is still in effect and gatherings of greater than 10 are prohibited, we have concluded that the 2020 Regatta and Corn Roast should not go ahead. The potential for prolonging the Covid-19 outbreak and introducing it to members of our cottaging community are too great.
Let’s all look forward to the 2021 Regatta and Corn Roast!
Collection of Dues
Gentle reminder to pay the Loon Call Cottagers Association dues for this year. Please send the $20.00 dues by e-transfer to Janice Manias (janicemanias@hotmail.com), in your comments please identify your cottage lot number. Alternatively, you can make arrangements to drop it off at Janice’s dock or to your area director.
Support for the North Kawartha Community Care
North Kawartha Community Care reached out to the NORKLA group (which includes Loon Call Lake Cottagers association) for a donation. North Kawartha Community Care has a current shortfall of $10,000 since COVID-19 closed their store. Community Care in Apsley is the only full time social service agency in the Township of North Kawartha providing services such as Meals on Wheels, essential transportation to medical appointments, grocery and Foodbank deliveries. Read more about their services at www.commcareptbo.org.
A vote was held with unanimous support by the executive to donate $500 to this need.
Gypsy Moths
Hopefully you read the notice about Gypsy Moths on Loon Call Lake. This is truly devastating and we encourage you to take action by using pheromone traps and / or destroying egg masses, using burlap to wrap your trees and killing caterpillars wherever you see them.
You may not think you have caterpillars, but we encourage you to stand at a pine or oak tree trunk for just a minute or two and look in the crevasses. It won’t be long before you see them.
Our Secchi disk readings averaged 3.8 m which is the worst in decades, but not unprecedented. The problem still appears to be colour. Tannins in the water from our pond overflow is making the lake water look like “tea”. Since the lake has a very low flushing rate, this may take some years to clear up.
Last May, total phosphorus was 5.5 ug/L, which is about our historical average. Our calcium level was 6.4 mg/L, which is also at our average. Both levels are good.
Historical water quality information is now available on the Loon Call Web Site for all our Lake Partner Program (LPP) data and some nifty graphs that will show trends.
Reminder that OFAH has dis-continued the zebra mussel and spiny water flea testing program. OFAH still wants to be in the invasive species monitoring business, but a new program does not yet exist.
Although Trent University sampled our lake in July 2019, the data has not been released. There appears to be a problem getting the data from the lab to the internet. The original plan was to have all the data from all the lakes from all the years of testing available to all that wanted to have a look for any purpose, curiosity or study. Maybe asking too much?
Health Care while at the Cottage
While at the cottage, if you are in need of medical care, you are first encouraged to contact your own primary care provider, since many services are now provide virtually and they know you best.
If you are in need of clinic services at the Peterborough Family Health Team clinic in Lakefield you must first call 705-651-4866 to make an appointment. Walk-ins are not accepted.
Hours of Operation and Additional details can be found here
Have a Happy and Safe Summer,
See you on your dock
Your Loon Call Lake Cottagers Association Executive
Your Loon Call Lake Executive thought you would be interested in a communication between cottagers Heather Thornton and Tom Parsons; and Mike Brown, Park Biologist – Kawartha Highlands Signature Site Park. You may be seeing Gypsy Moths near your cottage and wonder what you can or should do about them. Mike will be visiting the Heather and Tom. We will update this posting with any outcomes of that meeting.
Heather Thornton and Tom Parsons (329 Fire Route 57) reported the following:
We would like to report a Gypsy moth infestation in our surrounding cottage area on the northwest side of Looncall Lake in the Apsley area. This is also within the Kawartha Highlands Provincial park area.
We noticed a significant increase in moths and then egg masses on our trees last summer. We attempted to collect and burn as many egg masses as possible from the Fall to Spring (thousands of them). While we think we did reduce the number in our immediate cottage area, we are seeing devastation of oaks, white pine and many other species(including our treasured blueberry bushes) in the surrounding area. We are literally taking hundreds of Caterpillars off of each limb of trees in order to stop total defoliation but this seems to be in vain. We have also wrapped many of our trees with burlap as another method which has also helped a bit.
We have read about pheromone traps and flakes but not sure about the efficacy of this method and unable to find a source. As you may be aware, this area area was hit by a previous gypsy moth infestation approximately 22 years ago resulting in the death of thousands of oak trees. We understand that the immediate Looncall lake area was sprayed, saving trees close to the lake. We know that spraying is controversial but wanted to provide some background. Any further information or contacts would be greatly appreciated.
Today (June 22nd) Heather and Tom added:
Unfortunately the caterpillar situation is getting worse by the day and we are seeing total defoliation of some oaks and significant infestation of white pines. Last night the forest was alive with caterpillar chewing noises. It is very unsettling to ‘hear’ the trees being eaten. Luckily the fireflies were also around to cheer us up :).
We had a dock visit from our friend, Terry Rees, who also happens to be the president of FOCA, on the weekend. He reported the same situation with a Gypsy moth infestation on Kasshabog lake where his family cottage is, on the other side of Apsley. He has sourced some pheremone traps to try but unfortunately they are back ordered right now. We are on a waiting list. Hopefully we are reaching the peak and we will have a very cold winter to kill them off.
Mike Brown | Park Biologist – Kawartha Highlands Signature Site Park responded:
… our counterparts with MNRF’s Forest Health Monitoring Program have indicated that reports of large-scale Gypsy moth larvae infestations are starting to filter in now. Gypsy moth were introduced to Ontario in the early 1980’s, and have cyclic populations that fluctuate every 7-10 years. Their populations experience a regular and predictable collapse due to a build up of viruses during peak population years that cause widespread mortality. It seems that we are in one of those years of peak abundance.
I reached out to some folks from MNRF’s Forest Health Monitoring Program, and they provided me with some context surrounding Gypsy moth monitoring and control. The Province of Ontario is not carrying out aerial spray operations to control Gypsy moth, however, disturbance information from Gypsy moth (and all other forest pests) in Ontario is collected annually through aerial surveys and made available to the public through reports. MNRF will be collecting defoliation data in early July. I know this likely isn’t the response that you’re interested in, but Private land / woodlot owners have the option of paying for a registered pesticide application company to spray their trees with Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis – a soil-borne bacteria), and teaming up with other private landowners with infestations to reduce costs.
MNRF recommends the burlap wrap method to trap congregating larvae, which you are already doing. This isn’t applicable to your situation right now, but extended winter days of extreme cold are also useful at destroying overwintering larvae in egg masses above the snow line.
Some of Ontario’s intact forest tracts are quite resilient to forest pests, even during population peaks, and can withstand mass defoliation events. I wish I could be of more help, but I think your best bet may be to continue the burlap trapping that you’re conducting, if you wish to continue. I’m interested in coming to see the area of infestation to make a few observations and take some photos. I’ll plan to have a look at some KHSSP property near your cottage this week.
Update July 2nd:
WHAT CAN YOU DO NOW?
Pick caterpillars and kill them
Scrape them into a pail of soapy water
Order Gypsy Moth traps with pheromones. They will attract the male moths which will be plentiful as soon as the frenzied feeding has stopped and the caterpillars turn into moths. PROBABLY LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!
These traps may be ordered from Pheromone traps. They are $25.00/trap if you buy 6 and each acre requires 2-4 traps.
Another FOCA ELert has been issued for June 2020. While we will likely not post all Elerts, as you are able to subscribe to Elerts from the foca web site, with Covid-19 and the impact on cottaging we are keeping information front and centre this year.
Short term rentals are now allowed, travel to Canada for cottagers coming from the US is still not permissible. Lake water programs are on hold. And much more.
During these extraordinary times, FOCA continues our work on behalf of lake and rural road Associations all across the province, and the thousands of families they represent.
While our physical office remains closed, our staff and Board of Directors continue to work digitally, in support of FOCA’s vision of thriving and sustainable waterfronts across Ontario.
This update is being sent to the executive representatives of all our member Associations and to our Supporters, to keep you informed about FOCA’s work, as well as all the services and benefits available because of your ongoing support of FOCA.
We encourage member Associations to share this information with all your member families, to help them understand the value of your annual FOCA membership. Please contact us if you need additional information for an upcoming AGM or newsletter.
Thank you for being part of the solution for waterfront Ontario!
Sincerely, Deanna PanitzFOCA Membership & Programs Coordinatorinfo@foca.on.ca 705-749-3622 * https://foca.on.ca * Note: voicemail is only being checked occasionally, at this time.
