Groups, citizens urging cottage-development freeze

ENVIRONMENTAL groups and individuals are calling for a temporary moratorium on all new cottage subdivisions and other developments around Lake Winnipeg and other lakes in the province.

The group, which includes the Lake Winnipeg Foundation, Ducks Unlimited Canada, and the Lake Winnipeg Watershed Initiative, is asking the provincial government to put a temporary halt on developments that would affect the shorelines and watersheds of the province's lakes until it develops a policy founded on scientific principles.

In a letter, the group says it wants the policy to make sure any development is done "responsibly and sustainably without compromising the benefits we receive from natural healthy shorelines and wetlands."

Gordon Goldsborough, a professor at the University of Manitoba and one of the people who signed the letter, said the wetlands along the lake are necessary because they serve as the natural transition zone between land and water.

"All too often the development is done in the name of progress," Goldsborough said.

"But the marsh is doing a good job and now you've taken it away. When the marshlands are healthy, they do a good job of holding back stuff from the lake. There's a price to be paid and we're paying it."

Vicki Burns, the co-ordinator of the Lake Winnipeg Watershed Initiative, said wetlands are important for the health of the lake.

"These are the last defence before the runoff goes into the water," Burns said. "If we can't even put protection right at the very edge of the lake, how can we expect people hundreds of kilometres away in the watershed to help?"

The group said it recently became concerned about shorelines and watersheds after a private individual dug a boat channel at Beaconia Marsh on Lake Winnipeg, before the province stepped in to stop it, and the extensive erosion caused around the same lake by last fall's violent windstorm.

But the group also says what happens onshore contributes to the ongoing excess nutrient problem on Lake Winnipeg and the resulting blue-green algae.

Goldsborough said the Netley-Libau marsh used to do a good job of filtering nutrients from entering Lake Winnipeg, but through the years it has become so degraded as a marsh it is now "just part of the lake."

Burns said while they are asking for a temporary moratorium, the long-term solution may be not to allow development close to the shore.

She said it might be time for the provincial government to administer the public reserve land around the lakes instead of the local municipalities.

"The province really needs to regain control of the lakeshore," Burns said.

"It really should be considered publicly owned and nobody should be able to alter it... I know with the RMs (rural municipalities) they want to see development because it keeps their tax base up, but we need to take a hard look at it and not do developments simply to raise our tax bases because there will be greater costs in future," Burns said.

A provincial spokeswoman said Manitoba Water Stewardship is currently reviewing proposed policy for the protection of shoreline, erosion-prone areas and other environmentally sensitive areas near water.

The government official said the construction of a boat channel at the Beaconia marsh was "an illegal action under existing regulations and it was halted." The province has also hired new water resource officers to stop illegal wetland drainage.

She said the province has invested about $1 million into restoring wetland through its Wetland Restoration Incentive Program. Premier Greg Selinger announced last month the province was committing an additional $150,000 to support a project at the Netley-Libau marsh looking at reducing the flow of nutrients into Lake Winnipeg.

The spokeswoman said the public reserve along the lakeshore is administered by the local municipalities.

Goldsborough said the worst examples are when developers put 'rock rip-rap' on shorelines for protection or put in artificial channels for their developments such as ones near Gimli and Victoria Beach.

"The one on the east side of the lake south of Victoria Beach has green lawns which turn into rip-rap. Boats go from the marina into the marsh and into the lake. They will destroy that little marsh. It is fundamentally flawed the process to allow that."

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 14, 2011 A4