Shoreline restoration, Rice Lake
Eroded banks, failed walls and stone steps on Rice Lake's south shore at Bewdley, Gores Landing and Harwood. Send the form and an owner calls you back today.
Shoreline restoration on Rice Lake is Trent-Severn Waterway work, so Parks Canada signs off on anything touching the lake bed. Rice Lake is shallow and productive, and its south shore at Bewdley, Gores Landing and Harwood takes wind, waves and ice across open water. Thor rebuilds eroded banks with river rock, native planting and stone steps, prepares both permits, and keeps an owner on every job.
Bank washing into the lake, an old wall leaning out, ice shoving the stone around every spring? You get a shoreline rebuilt to hold, in the form the permit offices approve.
On the Kawartha lakes most shoreline jobs need two approvals, and the calendar matters as much as the paperwork. You sign; we prepare and file.
We run our own excavators and skid steers, so the grading, the stone and the planting are one crew's work, with an owner on site every day.
We design to what the conservation authority and Parks Canada approve. If what you picture is a vertical armour stone wall at the waterline, you hear at the first visit what gets permitted instead, before you spend a dollar on drawings.
Parks Canada permits all work on, under and over the bed and waters of the Trent-Severn Waterway, shoreline stabilization included, and owns the bed up to the original upper controlled water elevation. Its permits are valid for one year and it asks for applications several months before the start date. On land, the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority lists the Rice Lake shoreline among the areas where its permit may be required. Hamilton's site alteration by-law bars fill in a floodplain, except works for shoreline protection or bank stabilization. We prepare every application.
Ontario's fisheries managers describe the Kawartha lakes, Rice Lake among them, as generally shallow, productive warm water lakes, and Rice Lake's nutrient levels run high. The Township's Official Plan sets the Rice Lake flooding hazard at the greater of a major regional storm, such as Hurricane Hazel or the Timmins storm, or the 100-year flood. A bank built to hold sits back from that line, so the design starts with a gentle slope of mixed river rock and deep-rooted planting behind it.
Rice Lake holds walleye and bass: Ministry surveys record walleye catches and rank it among the lakes with the most largemouth bass. Fisheries and Oceans Canada closes in-water work for walleye from March 15 to May 31 and for bass from May 1 to July 15, and on a lake with both the windows combine, from March 15 to July 15. Parks Canada permits last a year, so filing in fall or winter puts the build in the open window.
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Usually two offices. Parks Canada for the lake bed and waters, because Rice Lake is part of the Trent-Severn Waterway, and the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority for its regulated area on land. We prepare and file both.
Parks Canada does not grandfather existing structures, so a replacement is held to current policy. Removing a failed wall and re-sloping the bank goes through the same permits, and we design it to what gets approved.
Fall or winter. Permits take months, the combined walleye and bass window keeps in-water work closed from March 15 to July 15, and a Parks Canada permit stays valid for one year.
On the Kawartha lakes, almost always two. Parks Canada permits all work on the bed and waters of the Trent-Severn lakes, including shoreline stabilization, and the conservation authority permits work in its regulated area along the shore. We prepare and file both.
Kawartha Conservation's published guidance steers away from hardened shorelines, meaning retaining walls, sheet piles and armour stone at the water's edge. What it recommends is river rock in mixed sizes on a 3:1 slope along the natural contour, native plants and a no-mow buffer. We design to that, and put armour stone where it earns its place: steps, seating walls and terraces up the bank.
On lakes that hold walleye and bass, which is most of the Kawarthas, Fisheries and Oceans Canada's timing window keeps in-water work off-limits from March 15 to July 15 while fish spawn. Parks Canada permits are valid for one year, so we file in fall or winter and schedule the build for the open window.
Kawartha Conservation publishes its timelines: a streamlined permit is checked for completeness in 10 days and issued within 14 more, a standard minor permit in 14 plus 21 days. Parks Canada asks for applications several months before the start date. That is why fall is the time to start.
Yes. Removing a failed timber, concrete or stone wall is shoreline work too, so it goes through the same permits, and the bank is re-sloped and planted where the wall stood.
By the length of frontage, the slope, how machines and stone get to the water, and what the permits require. You get a written price after the site visit, with the permit work priced in the same quote.
Every page has the local permit office, the ground and the rules for that area.
Send the form and an owner calls you back today. Or call now and talk to the person who will dig the job.
