Shoreline restoration on Lake Muskoka, from Gravenhurst to Port Carling

The District confirms Muskoka has no conservation authority. The Ministry of Natural Resources issues Public Lands Act work permits for dredging, filling and new erosion control structures on shore lands, the town or township handles building, tree and site alteration permits, and DFO comments where needed. We prepare and file each one.

Not without a permit within 15 m (50 ft) of the water. Tree Conservation By-law 2022-107 keeps a 50 ft Shoreline Vegetative Buffer on Waterfront lots, 25 ft in communities, and stairs and paths up to 6 ft wide are exempt from site alteration rules but not from tree removal. We set stone steps and planting around the trees.

A 2022 District study found that holding Lake Muskoka halfway down its normal operating zone would have cut the 2013 and 2019 flood peaks by only 0.05 m and 0.01 m. The bank takes the spring high water either way. We re-slope it with stone at the toe and roots above so it holds through the next one.

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.