Shoreline restoration on Lake Simcoe's south shore, from Keswick to Pefferlaw

It depends on the section. The Town counts about 30 sections of shoreline land in its Action Plan area; four have been confirmed privately owned, and others stay Town road allowance or need a court order before any sale. Council set the final costs in April 2026. We check your parcel's status before drawing the plan.

LSRCA's guidelines generally do not permit concrete, sheet steel, railway ties, pressure-treated lumber, gabion baskets or terracing on Lake Simcoe, and they call for natural treatments such as planting, bioengineering and granite boulders that keep the natural contour. We remove the failed wall and rebuild the bank as a planted stone slope.

LSRCA's lake surveys single out Cook's Bay for high plant biomass, which has roughly tripled since the 1980s as zebra mussels cleared the water, and Ontario detected invasive water soldier there in July 2024. Our work stays on the bank: stone at the toe and native plants above it to hold soil out of the bay.

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.