Shoreline restoration on Buckhorn and Chemong lakes, from Buckhorn to Bridgenorth

Two offices. Otonabee Conservation regulates the whole Chemong shoreline but only considers work above the Upper Controlled Navigation Limit. Below that line, Parks Canada issues the in-water and shoreline works permit for the Trent-Severn Waterway. We prepare and file both applications.

No. Otonabee's floodplain mapping lists the south shores of Upper and Lower Buckhorn, Deer Bay included, as inside its jurisdiction, and it mapped the north shores on behalf of Trent Lakes. Trent Lakes points owners in the former Harvey township to Kawartha Conservation. We confirm the authority for your lot first.

Otonabee aims to review an application for completeness within 21 days, then decide a minor permit within 21 days or a major one within 28. Parks Canada asks for applications several months before the start, and a 2022 Chemong wall replacement went out for a month of public comment on the federal registry. We file early.

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.