Shoreline needs saving
If something isn’t done now, all of Okanagan Lake’s natural shoreline could disappear in the next generation or two. “When we do foreshore inventory and mapping and tell people 60 per cent of the shoreline of the lake has already been developed or disturbed, they think, ‘well, that still leaves 40 per cent untouched or in its natural state,’” said Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Program manager Scott Boswell.
“But, if a few more kilometres gets developed or disturbed every year, and there’s no long-term plan to stop it, then pretty soon we won’t have any natural shoreline left.”
Development or disturbance of the shoreline doesn’t just include homes along the lake.
It also includes all the docks, retaining walls, beaches and boardwalks those homes have, roads that run parallel to the lake, businesses like hotels, restaurants, marinas and recreational rentals, boat launches, saw mills, log booms and even parks, because such green space and beach represents human intervention.
The conservation program, in conjunction with the Central Okanagan Regional District, Okanagan Basin Water Board, Environment and Climate Change Canada and City of Vernon, updated the Okanagan Lake foreshore inventory and mapping report to create a 2016 snapshot.
With the record flooding this year, the report took on newfound poignancy.
“It makes it especially useful as governments and property owners recover from the flood and plan for the future,” said Boswell.
“Trees have roots that hold foreshore in place. Take down those trees and the foreshore washes away in a flood or high water. So people put in retaining walls. But the problem with retaining walls is it simply deflects the water somewhere else, so it becomes their neighbour’s problem.”
The 2016 report updates the last report done in 2011.
The most recent survey mapped all 290 kilometres of shoreline along Okanagan Lake.
It found 59 per cent of the shoreline is development and 41 per cent is in its natural state.
Since the 2011 survey, 4.1 kilometres of shoreline, or 1.42 per cent of the total, has been lost to development or altered in some way.
Some of the development and alteration included 165 retaining walls fronting 1.45 kilometres of shoreline, nine new marinas, more road accesses, removal of native vegetation and landscaping.
Disturbing lakebed materials like rocks, sand and vegetation also count as alteration of the natural state.
“Each small change to the natural area around the lake has a negative cumulative effect on the natural ecosystem to function and provide services like clean drinking water, water infiltration, flood control and critical habitat for fish and wildlife,” said Jason Schleppe, the senior biologist on the foreshore mapping project.
“At the current rate of land development, the natural areas around the lake that are not located in parks or protected areas could be completely lost to development in 40 to 160 years.”
The wide time range takes into account fluctuating development rates and the worst- and best-case scenarios for conservation.
The conservation program, along with partners such as the Central Okanagan Regional District, Okanagan Basin Water Board and City of Vernon, are therefore advocating a comprehensive Okanagan Lake shoreline management plan.
That will start this fall and spring as the program talks with residents, businesses and local governments about protecting the lakeshore and ecosystem and flood planning.
The partners have also started to put together and distribute a best practices for shoreline management manual.
The Central Okanagan regional district also has an updated floodplain management plan in the works.
The partners recommend all existing natural areas be retained and other areas rehabilitated to natural green space.
“Okanagan Lake is a key asset,” said Boswell.
“We have to protect it for the sake of the ecosystem and the economy.”