Communications Coordinators meeting, 2021-05-15

Introductions (Roger Watt, Huron Sands)

Invited guests:

• Glen McNeil (Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Township)
• Ted Briggs (Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks)
• Steve Jackson, Chris Van Esbroeck, Phil Beard (Maitland Valley Conservation Authority)

Communications Coordinators and designated alternates:

• Represented: Amberley Beach, Cedar Grove, Huron Sands, Kintail Beach, Maple Grove, Mid Huron Beach, Port Albert, Sunset Beach
• Not represented: Ashfield Beach, Birch Beach, Brindley Beach, Bogie's Beach, Buchanan's Beach, Goat Trail, Green Acres Cove, Horizon View, Huron Sands North, Huron Shores, Hunter's Beach, Lakeland Estates, Linfield Beach, Kingsbridge Shores, Menesetung Park, Shamrock Beach, Victoria Beach

Short Term Rental study (Roger Watt)

A group of Masters students from the University of Guelph's School of Environmental Design and Rural Development have recently completed a study of short-term rental issues in our area. They are not available to present in person, but have sent a report providing a summary and a detailed list of responses to the survey questions. The last four pages itemize the concerns that were listed by the individual respondents.

I have been asked to note that (a) the survey had 120 responses, so the results aren't representative of and can't be generalized to a broader population, and (b) the survey was completed separate from their work program with Huron County and the County is not connected to the survey.

ACW Township (Glen McNeil)

• ACW's 2021 budget includes a tax-rate increase of 5.8%; adding County and Education, the result is an overall 2.6% increase. One of Council's strategic objectives is to improve one lakeshore road each year; this year, Horizon View Road is being paved and a culvert and spillway on Birch Beach Road are being rebuilt. See also Budget and Finances on the ACW website.
• Commencing with the 2022 municipal election, Council has eliminated using the one-per-ward system for three of its Councillors; all five will henceforth be elected "at large" by all ACW voters. An appeal of that decision to the province's Local Planning Appeals Tribunal by a group of citizens is under provincial review.
• ACW has a new Public Works Superintendent, Tom McCarthy. Brian Van Osch has retired after 34 years in Public Works.
• Council has approved a Communications Strategy to improve two-way dialogue with the people of ACW. It includes revamping the ACW website, the use of social media, and the appointment of Kaitlin Bos as "Community Support Coordinator".
• A servicing master plan is being prepared for the drainage and road improvements needed to support residential development in the southwest quadrant of Port Albert.

The Healthy Lake Huron Initiative (Ted Briggs)

• This is the tenth anniversary of the "Healthy Lake Huron Initiative", a multi-partner project that is led by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs. It was motivated in part by previous work of the ACLA, Bayfield, and Bluewater groups. The 18 sq-km subwatershed of ACW's Garvey Creek and Glenn Drain is the HLHI high-priority "demonstration" project in MVCA's territory.
• To date, through federal/provincial/municipal funding partnerships with rural landowners, HLHI has helped complete over 400 projects totalling $5M in stormwater-retention berms, stream buffering, cover-crop planting, water-quality monitoring, etc. HLHI's successes are being cited in new federal/provincial initiatives to reduce the impacts of soil erosion and nutrient runoff on nearshore water quality in the Great Lakes.
• HLHI has received additional funding to allow expansion of work beyond the original five "demonstration" projects. A new five-year plan is being developed that will include river valleys, flood plains, and outreach strategies advocating changes to watershed stewardship approaches motivated by climate change. A community-engagement online workshop is being planned for June 22. See the Healthy Lake Huron website for on-going updates.

Maitland Valley Conservation Authority

Shoreline Mapping (Steve Jackson)

• The mappings of the shoreline hazard areas that MVCA is currently using are now 15 years old. There have been significant changes due to the high water levels and resulting erosion over the last few years. The municipalities of ACW, Goderich, and Central Huron are funding a three-year project using an aerial ultra-high-resulution LiDAR scan to precisely determine the new floodline, toe of bank, top of bank, and 25- and 100-year erosion lines. The LiDAR flight occurred in April. Work over the next two years involves processing the data, generating the maps, and producting the reports.
• This will enble MVCA to properly ensure that any new development will be set back from the hazard areas sufficiently. Also, information will be mailed to individual propery owners who have existing structures that may be at significant risk.
• MVCA intends to form a "Community Liaison Group" and is looking for up to five volunteers from the lakeshore communities. The group will provide a forum for the community to be informed about the mapping project. Members will be invited to participate in selected project-team meetings, to receive project updates, provide input on local conditions, and advise on Public Education Centre planning. It will act in an advisory capacity to the project team and will not be responsible for making decisions regarding the project, and will not address specific property ownership issues or concerns outside the scope of the technical study. Interested volunteers should contact sjackson@mvca.on.ca

Recent work with HLHI (Chris Van Esbroeck)

• Garvey-Glenn: promoting cover crops for winter protection (950 acres were covered this past winter); 500 metres of additional stream-buffer plantings; monitoring ongoing water quality.
• HLHI: mapping soil-condition and watershed assessments in the five demonstration-project areas in preparation for seeking new landowner partnerships in expanding to other areas, such as the 18-Mile River subwatershed at the north end of ACW (much bigger than Garvey-Glenn), and the 9-Mile River watershed in the Port Albert area.

Treasurer's report

• Jim Baird has reported that ACLA's bank account has a $17,573.23 balance as of April 1.
• However, we have also received Jim's notice of resignation. We thank Jim for his many years of service and wish him well.
• ACLA is seeking a new Treasurer. Interested parties are invited to contact info@northwesthuron.com
• Since we no longer have the Stream Testing program, we have again decided this year to forego asking the ACLA member organizations for the annual contribution of $10 from each of their members. However, see below for information about a new follow-on program.

Proposal for a follow-on program in lieu of Stream Testing (Nigel Bellchamber, Amberley Beach)

• Prior to his relatively sudden death last summer, Mike McElhone represented Port Albert for approximately 20 years. For 17 of those years, Mike, with the assistance of his wife Allison, undertook bi-weekly stream testing along Highway 21 on behalf of ACLA and MVCA, from April through to November. The tested streams spanned 20 kilometres, from the Maitland River bridge at the south to Amberley at the north. The compiled data was instrumental in establishing a base of measurement demonstrating that, if the near-shore water quality of Lake Huron beaches was to be improved, efforts had to start upstream.
• Mike was always keen to share his passion and his work with elected and appointed officials of all three levels of government ... federal, provincial, and municipal. Much still has to be done if the health of Lake Huron is to be improved and maintained. The partnerships that have been funded through the Healthy Lake Huron Initiative have been successful in improving flow quantity and quality to the beaches and in improving the productivity of the land on which the projects have been undertaken. But there is still much to be done.
• ACLA has a substantial bank balance, since the formrr stream-testing program has served its purpose. Therefore, it is intended that we begin a new program as a follow-on to Mike's work, and that we earmark $10,000 from ACLA's account to be used as contributions to that program.
• The funds would be used by MVCA, in conjunction with other funds, whether they be private or public, on projects to provide demonstrable benefits towards the goal of beach water quality improvement. In addition, while projects would be sought out or proposed by MVCA and administered by them, the projects to which the ACLA funds would go would be selected by MVCA after consultation with two or three individuals appointed by ACLA for that purpose. The project contributions each year would not be large, and additional contributions could be made by individuals or ACLA or other organizations in future. But they would clearly demonstrate the ongoing interest and commitment to near-shore water quality by the lakeshore community, as well as honour Mike’s memory and his vision.
• MVCA suggests that the projects be aimed at watercourses that drain into Lake Huron in ACW's Ashfield and Colborne wards, assisting landowners to establish and maintain stream buffers in near-shore tributaries. With such additional funding, it should also make it easier to increase diversity by including herbaceous species and going beyond the typical planting plan.

Issues from the floor

• In response to a question about where to source armourstone for protecting the banks of shoreline property from further wave-action erosion, MVCA's Shannon Millar commented that MVCA issued between 40 and 50 permits for various kinds of bank-protection structures last year, and that it expects there will be more requests than that this year.

Adjourn

The meeting adjourned at 10:47. Next year's meeting will be at 9am on Saturday May 14, 2022; method and location TBD.