AGM, & Director's Reports

Above is attached the revised financial statement for 2023. This will be voted upon at the AGM on August 10th at Weslemkoon Marina.

In the preparation of the 2023 financial statements, there was no accrual for the fall marker lift out. This was an error which has been corrected retroactively with restatement. As a result of the correction, the general fund has been reduced by $1,122, the Catherine Rathbun Environmental Fund has been increased by $22 and accounts payable has been increased by $1,100. These revised financial statements will replace the financial statements presented in the 2024 Loon Call and will be presented for approval at the 2024 Annual General Meeting.

·  The Township is in the process of their Official Plan Review. The working group attended the March 2023 Addington Highlands Official Plan meeting. IBI presented the background working papers to the public and the Council. The LWCA working group presented their comments on the working papers and are working with to ensure that our needs are recognized.

·  new cottage numbering and naming of islands by Township are both continuing but happening slowly. The most recent communication from Tanya Rosenblath, Senior Admin Assistant at Addington Highlands (July 19/24): “ I reached out to the MNRF last week regarding this to follow up as we had not received any updates from them.  I received a reply from them that they will “provide us with an update soon”."

·  LWCA continues to receive and monitor development proposals

·  a member put forward a concern about light pollution and its effect on navigation; As of yet we do not have municipal by-law in our area that addresses light pollution. The only township that has a "Dark Sky By-law" in Ontario is Muskoka Lakes. They've had it since 2014 and are updating it this year. The September newsletter will provide some more information on light pollution, some strategies for lighting your property without affecting navigation on the lake.

·  Emergency site at south end - still waiting for Municipality to pick a site

· the last  Municipal election was October, 2022; Please feel free to contact the Township or the LWCA  for further information about your municipal representatives should you wish, see the list below:

Henry Hogg, Reeve

hhogg@addingtonhighlands.ca

613-336-0227

Tony Fritsch, Deputy Reeve

tfritsch@addingtonhighlands.ca

613-333-2224

Kirby Thompson, Councillor Ward 1

kthompson@addingtonhighlands.ca

613-333-5571

E. Helen Yanch, Councillor Ward 2

hyanch@addingtonhighlands.ca

613-336-8774

Ken Hook, Councillor Ward 2

khook@addingtonhighlands.ca

613-336-3211

Facebook

• There have been a few Tshirt scams on the LWCA group in the past few months. Thanks to members for reporting the posts so that we can block and delete. We have no idea how these people are able to post, as it’s a closed group 
  • There are 2 questions for applicants to answer in order to be in the group - now we are paying much more attention - checking if they have any friends, have made any posts, and answer the questions logically. As a consequence we are denying many applicants based on nonsensical answers and empty profiles.
• Posts have been made highlighting “What We Do” on the LWCA Facebook and cross posted to the Weslemkoon Lake FB group
• Please send any content that you wish us to share 

Instagram 

• More followers now (194) 
• Trying to post more often - if you’re on instagram and come across a post that would be interesting to our members, send it to @lwca_ontario

Mail Chimp (communiques)

• we found out that 47 members were not getting any email since their profiles were “cleaned” - Paul Armstrong had to laboriously reinstate them - we will be keeping an eye on the profiles now, looking for “cleaned” accounts (this happens when email bounces)

Website

• Keeping it up to date is a lot of work - please help out by sending us email when you see incorrect / outdated information info@weslemkoon.com

Newsletter 

• This September will mark 2 years of the Newsletter. Haven’t heard a lot of feedback on it, so we will be asking for some in a quick survey in September. 
• Send ideas and requests for content via info@weslemkoon.com 

Membership numbers as of July 29, 2024

Members  193 (2 new)

Friends    13 (2 new) 

Total =      206 (compared to 219 on Aug 2, 2023)

• 34 full members and 13 friend memberships unrenewed to date, (were members in 2023 and have not renewed for 2024); will follow up with all via email in September before finalizing cottage checklist.

30 renewed after March 1.  Of those, 17 renewed after April 1. 

The Water Quality Report is available in the Downloadable file section above. 

Custodial Visits 

• No problems this winter - some custodial visit tags had disappeared - Mike was able to verify that he was there with time / dated stamped photos of properties
• Custodial visits are becoming more and more difficult to execute due to climate change. Unfortunately there is no guarantee that a custodial visit can be done safely. 

Shoal Markers 

• We reviewed Ministry of Transport standards for shoal markers and found that the LWCA is not compliant in a couple of areas: 
  • We do not have contact info on each one, as specified (address & phone number)- easiest to affix engraved plate, such as the  one on a trophy (cost approx $100)
  • A few markers are very old and need replacing (by Tanglewood, in the passage by Reid’s island in Squally Bay, near to Gibraltar Island in Squally Bay, off of Weslemkoon marina) 
    • These need to be rebuilt - can be done over the winter - will be approx $300 each
• Further investigation needed on the big marker in the south end channel 
• At the July director’s meeting $2k was approved for the 2024 budget so that we can become compliant - part of this will be paying Mike Watson for his work

Trails

Our most popular trails are all in good shape.  Trail work since the last AGM by LWCA members includes:

• The High Dam Lake was cleared last fall – a big job as it had not been cleared in a few years. 
• The Canoe Lake trail was cleared early this summer – there were a number of big trees down on the trail this year.
• The Little Long Lake trail was cleared and a thunderbox (constructed by Ian Sine) was installed along the trail in July.
• In early August, the Mink Lake trail was clear – not too many trees down on the trail this year (compared to some recent years).

Work is still required to re-clear the  trail to Shiner Lake. 

Thunderboxes have now been installed at Mink Lake, Canoe Lake, Green Lake, Little Lake, as well as on Lake Weslemkoon at Channel Island (near the dam at the north end) and Picnic Island (west of Rockwell Island).  A big thanks to all of our trail clearing and thunderbox-building volunteers.  Please reach out to the LWCA if you would like to help with trail clearing this coming year – volunteers are always welcome and appreciated.

A reminder to all to take out all garbage when hiking or using any of the campsites on the lake, and be sure to completely extinguish any campfires.

Forestry

Fire Risk:

Currently (Aug 1st, 2024) the Lake Weslemkoon area is considered a Moderate to High fire danger rating according to the Ontario Forest Fire Info Map. 

Summary Highlights from Mazinaw-Lanark Forest Annual Report Published November 2023:

1. Insect Damage: “In 2022, a substantial decrease from the record high Lymantria dispar dispar (LDD or Spongy moth) defoliation in 2021 was evident. Increased populations of LDD allowed for increased populations of associated parasites and the proliferation of fungus and viruses which resulted in population collapse…” 
2. Forest Pathogens and Tree Decline: “There were no new forest pathogens or disease reported on Crown land. With that said, Beech Bark Disease, which is a combination of an invasive insect (beech scale) and a native stem fungus, has continued to spread in Ontario and throughout the Mazinaw-Lanark Forest.”
3. Prescribed burns: “Prescribed burning is generally not employed on the Mazinaw-Lanark Forest as the cost of planning and implementation and lack of social acceptability has become prohibitive. For these reasons no prescribed burning has occurred on the Mazinaw-Lanark Forest during this reporting period.” 

Members concern about Invasive species:

There have been a few specific ‘sightings and further concerns about potential invasive plants and insects around the Weslemkoon area from cottagers. This link for the Invasive Species Centre has an abundance of information as well as a ‘report a sighting’ link. At this point, the MNRF does not have plans for pesticide or herbicide programs for the Mazinaw-Lanark Forest. 

Some other links to programs associated with invasive species that you can report a sighting: 

https://www.invadingspecies.com/invaders/forest-pests/

https://www.ontarioinvasiveplants.ca/invasive-plants/species/

https://conservationontario.ca/conservation-authorities/watershed-stewardship/invasive-species

We need your stories, photos, memories, poems and ideas. Please make sure to share notes of passings, births and big birthdays or anniversaries too!

Please send along to info@weslemkoon.com or get in touch through the website or social posts and it will make its way to me. Items need to be submitted by the end of December to give us time to put it all together.

Please encourage your children to send in their stories and photos from the summer.

The Loon Call is only as good as the content within it - let’s continue to make it fun, relevant and all about our Weslemkoon.

Generally speaking, 2024 has been another relatively easy year for water levels and ice out. Water levels this summer have been great if maybe a tad higher than normal with all of the rain. You can take a look at the gauge for our dam here: https://datagarrison.com/users/300234010709980/300234010800000/plots.php