Shoreline restoration on Fairy, Peninsula and Vernon lakes, from Huntsville to Lake of Bays

Under By-law 2021-111, walls under 1 m are allowed in any yard. Stepped walls up to 1 m each, at least 2 m apart with plants between them that grow to 1 m, count as one wall and need no staff permit; tighter cascades are not as-of-right. We lay out armour stone seating walls to those numbers.

The Township does, through By-law 2021-111, which keeps 75% of the frontage natural to a depth of 15 m and caps the shoreline activity area at 25% of the frontage and 23 m. A new erosion control structure on shore lands also takes a ministry work permit, and Muskoka has no conservation authority. We file both.

The District's floodplain study records that a melting snowpack and significant April rain produced flood flows of record across most of the Muskoka River basin in spring 2019, after flooding in 2013 and high water in 2016, and water management plans are not designed to manage floods. We rebuild the bank with stone at the toe and roots above.

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.