Lake Lisgar revitalization to begin Phase 5
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Phase 5 – the final phase – for the Lake Lisgar Revitalization Project will begin in 2016.
With those funding requirements in mind, the committee has organized a live music show on Friday, April 15th at The Bridges, featuring Canadian rock legend Carl Dixon and rising country music star Drew Gregory, who will both perform in the newly renovated golf course clubhouse. With only 150 tickets available ($25 in advance, $30 at the door) organizers expect the event to sell out.
Finger foods and beverages will be available to purchase, catered by The Bridges at 101 John Pound Road. You can buy tickets at Chrissy's Store, Crompton's Home Hardware, Danbrook Automotive, The Bridges at Tillsonburg, and The Country Table.
The show begins at 7:30 p.m. on April 15, doors open at 6:45 p.m.
PHASE 5
The goal of Phase 5 is to improve water quality, restore Lake Lisgar to its historic depth at the mouth of Lake Lisgar Creek, and continue to establish native aquatic plant life, which will decrease turbidity, decrease the potential for algal blooms, and further improve the overall ecosystem, including fish and wildlife habitat.
"That creek path has changed its path since I grew up," said LLRP committee member Joan Weston. "And now there's another line there that never was, because of the sediment that washed down. The trout can no longer get up the creek, so we need to deepen the mouth of the creek.
"That's another one of our objectives, so the trout can spawn."
The project will involve approximately 300 volunteer hours with an anticipated 35 adult volunteers, 25 youth and nearly 15 local organizations involved. Historically-deposited sediment, estimated to be about 2,000 square metres, will be transferred above the high water mark – with permission of the neighbours – and approximately 805 native aquatic plants will be planted, and 4 kg of native grass seed planted.
Plantlife added in past summers, said LLRP's Frank Kempf, did phenomenal.
"The replant," Weston smiled.
"Some unknown animal ate some of it. It was replaced, and now it's thriving, now it's established. The aquatic plants are starting to actually thrive."
The 2016 project, led by Long Point Region Conservation Authority, but spearheaded by LLRP, will cost approximately $22,150.
Lake Lisgar was originally created by Thomas Hardy as a mill pond in 1852, said Weston.
"Tillsonburg has a system of gullies... and they just dammed one of the gullies. If you look to the other side of Concession Street, you'll see the gully. The overflow takes the water under the road."
Another man-made lake in the area, Lake Joseph, vanished when a dam blew out in the 1930s, leaving Lake Lisgar as the primary body of water in town.
"They had dammed up the Big Otter. Where Tillson had his first house, that surveyed the lake. Bloomer Street had all lake around it, and he had several mills. But when the dam blew out in the 30s, nobody repaired the dam and it just went back to being the Big Otter."
Lake Lisgar was known as Hardy's Mill Pond until it renamed after the Governor General of Canada, Lord Lisgar.
"That was 1870-something," Weston noted. "Tillson used to have a little launch called the Oscar Wilde and they used to put it on the pond. They used to have many events there.
"My dad used to swim at lunch hour (when the high school was located next to the lake), he used to go to the end of the eddy because the eddy was bigger."
The final phase of the project is also expected to enhance healthy human recreational activities, such as rowing, kayaking, swimming and fishing.
"People have been great, obeying the signs, not feeding the geese," said Kempf, noting they have a couple dozen that live at the lake, not an enormous flock.
"Too many geese, it raises the water temperature and raises the bacteria," said Weston. "And it starts that whole cycle and people will say, 'the water in there is toxic!' It is NOT. Get educated. We've cleaned it right up."
"If you've seen the pictures of trout and bass, the lake is as healthy now as it's been in a long time," Kempf nodded. "I've been out 10 times ice fishing this winter, and there have been people from London, Brantford, all over the place coming to fish in Tillsonburg.
"This is the only place that was frozen," he laughed.
"A whole lot of work has gone into that lake over the years," said Weston, looking forward to the end of Phase 5 when they transition into the long term 'maintenance' phase.