DLPOA 2011 Annual Meeting and Picnic

Desert Lake Property Owners’ Association

Annual General Meeting: Sunday July 31^st, 2011

Minutes of the Meeting

-Call to order at 10.10 – Angus Ross – approximately 55 attendees

-Executive present --- Angus Ross, Mary Lapeer, Peter Hodgson, John Bonner, John Sherbino

-Angus welcomed our Guest Speaker Kim Goodman from the Center for Sustainable Watersheds and councilors McDougall and Vandewal

-Howard Wintel motioned acceptance of the agenda, seconded by Lucille Groll – carried

-Reviewed minutes of 2010 annual general meeting, motion for acceptance from Peter Hodgson, seconded by Jane Robinson – carried

-Matters pertaining to minutes – none

-Treasurer’s Report - Membership down slightly (38 plus 4 Honorary)
Income down slightly year over year ($1295 in 09/10 and $1096 in 10/11
Total Assets up from $43,075 to $44334

-Auditor’s Report – Steve Maybury indicated that ‘All is in order’

Motion by John Sherbino to accept the Treasure’s report as presented, seconded by Howard Wintle --- carried

-President’s Report
Rick Paudyn and Judy Curtain have resigned their executive positions

2011/2012 Executive
President – Angus Ross
Past President – John Sherbino
Vice President – TBD (Acting Mary Lapeer)
Secretary – John Bonner
Treasurer – Mary Lapeer
Directors – Peter Hodgson, Don Robinson

We need to promote a program to encourage ex-members to stay associated

-letters concerning high water levels have been sent to Fortis and the Conservation Authority. Fortis have responded that current spring levels are not exceptional

-Lake Management Plan – current direction is to complete the work that has been started

-consider hiring a planner who will give us an opinion on residential/commercial properties on the lake with a view to a comprehensive lake plan covering all aspects of care

-Kim indicated the Center could work with us to create a shoreline inventory of all site and subsequent Shoreline Action Checklist and recommendations and a complete schedule of work for what we expect

-motion to authorize an initial expenditure of $3000 to start the process, and accept additional tax deductable donations from the membersip made by Elaine Harvey, seconded by Rosalie Wintle ---- carried

-Angus advised the attendees that we need a volunteer to lead the Lake Management System Program, and that if anyone was interested, to contact him or John S.

-Rob Canvin indicated that he had maps from previous shoreline inventories

-after further discussion concerning Fortis actions (high water levels) that are potentially harming the lake, Lucille made a motion that we obtain a professional opinion regarding lake water levels on overall health of the lake, and impact of Fortis maintaining high levels above the normal acceptable high water levels

Motion was not seconded or voted on, however it was agreed that the executive should discuss at future meetings and take forward if deemed appropriate.

-Angus indicated that a planner (Bob Clark) had been engaged to look at impact of expansion of Commercial properties on the lake

-a councillor indicated that a new Hazardous Waste dump site had opened on Keeley Road and is open every Thursday

-councillor MacDougall extended an invitation for anyone of the executive or members to attend the weekly council meetings.

-Angus thanked the Canvins for their hospitality in hosting the annual meeting once again

-Howard Wintle made a motion to close the meeting, seconded by Robin Turkington – carried

Meeting Adjourned at 12.10 PM and a pot luck lunch was enjoyed by all

Richardson Mine

Ron Peterson discovered this interesting information about the Richardson Mine which is located at the end of Deyo's bay.

From the Department of Mines publication "Feldspar", by Hugh S Spence, #731, 1932.

Caterpillars

Here is some information that John Bonner dug up on the current crop of caterpillars that are busy at work on our trees.

After visiting Frontenac Park, John sent the following note to Corina Brdar at Ontario Parks.

I have had a cottage on Desert lake since 1975, and have suffered through Gypsy moths and tent caterpillars, but have never seen anything this late in the summer that attacks Oak trees. The ground around our cottage is covered with green partially eaten oak leaves and there have been hundreds of caterpillars for the last 2+ weeks.

I stopped into Frontenac Park and actually saw several around the building, but the staff had no knowledge of the beasts, and recommended that I contact you for some identification information.

I have attached a couple of pictures, and would appreciate any info you can provide me concerning what they are, and what if anything can be done to contain them next year.

Corina responded with the following.

Interesting. Those guys at Frontenac think I know everything. What I don’t know is moths, and that’s what these are a caterpillar of. Moths are incredibly diverse (there are hundreds in Ontario), and many of them eat trees as caterpillars, including the caterpillars that are native to Ontario. I get updates on tree pests and diseases from a colleague and tried looking up some of the known oak pests that have been abundant recently in our part of Ontario, but no luck. I looked through my caterpillar field guide – nothing. Then I googled “oak caterpillars” and came up with this, which you may enjoy:
http://magickcanoe.com/blog/2007/03/22/finding-caterpillars/ (page 3)

Apparently it’s a red-humped oakworm, which seems like an appropriate name.

It’s not unusual for the various species of insects that feed on trees to go through cycles and be more abundant some years than others – it all depends on what’s happening in the ecosystem. Our native trees have co-evolved with the various insects that feed on them, so they generally don’t have a serious impact when they go through little population bursts. It’s when something is out of balance that problems happen – like when there is a caterpillar outbreak the same year as a bad drought, or if an alien species like emerald ash borer gets introduced.

Additional information came from Carolyn Bonta of MNR.

I'm printing up page 4 of the Forest Health newsletter (link below) to post in the Park Office breezeway, and I'll also update the whiteboard, as I'm sure a lot of people are wondering about these little critters. www.foca.on.ca/xinha/plugins/ExtendedFileManager/demo_images/Forest_Health_Update_Nov_2010.pdf (page 4)
Good to know that red-humped oakworms are a native species and not an invasive pest; it also sounds like their outbreaks aren't as regular as those of e.g. tent caterpillars.

Have a look at the two references. They are quite interesting.