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"For my 38 years of summering at the Bay Wabeno point, on Burnt Island, is a place of tranquility for me. I can observe a beaver house which was made under the dock of the old store, now torn down, as well as turtles splashing into the water as I approach in my kayak. On a sunny day the smooth rock of Wabeno point feels great on my bare feet. My daughter's fiance, Chad, proposed to her during a champagne picnic at this special place."

- Maureen McGibbon

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Little McCoy Island permanently protected by the GBLT

GBLT 20/20 Vision: A Look Ahead

As part of our 20th anniversary year celebration in 2011, the Board of Directors took an opportunity to reflect on the successes of the first 20 years of the GBLT. It begged we ask the questions: "What does it mean to be successful in the next 20 years and where are we going in the next 20 years?"

Some Birds Doing Well; Some Not so Well

In my research for the book The Birds of Georgian Bay—Sharing the Joy of Birding it was obvious to find that some species of birds are doing well in the area while other species are in trouble. It seems to be the large birds that are recovering their populations and this may be due to the limitations that we put on DDT and other toxic chemicals a few years ago.

Environmental Concerns of Dock Flotation Debris

The PaBIA Marine Patrol Program is a strong supporter of the GBLT and plays a key role in monitoring GBLT properties in the Pointe au Baril area. For the last two summers, the Marine Patrol has catalogued different types of garbage found in and around our water-based community. Our modest effort to determine what types of garbage are present has highlighted several concerns.

Stewarding Your Own Cottage Property

By Geoff Honsberger, Pointe au Baril

After enjoying 29 summers on Georgian Bay, including six with the GBLT and two with the PaBIA Marine Patrol, I’d like to share a few stewarding tips I’ve learned over the years that you can use on your own cottage properties.

Frogs of Georgian Bay: Ancient and Amazing!

By Barb Zimmerman, Go Home Bay

We are blessed with an abundance of flora and fauna in Georgian Bay and one very interesting group is frogs. For tens of millions of years amphibians and the ancestors of frogs were the dominant land animals. Amphibians are vertebrates with permeable, non-scaly skin and aquatic larvae that metamorphose into adult form. Some of these ancient creatures achieved crocodile-like sizes and terrorized swampy ecosystems as the top predators. An ancient vertebrate lineage, frogs are the only land animals to lead two totally different lives: one underwater with a body plan to match and a second life with four legs on land.

Bathymetry of Lake Huron

GBLTers will be interested to learn that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Canadian Hydrographic Survey have just issued updated bathymetry maps for the Great Lakes including Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. They employed multibeam surveying techniques that provide high resolution centimetric resolution of depths, though the small scale maps downloadable from the NOAA web site (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/greatlakes/huron.html) should not be used for navigation. The 18 megabyte version provides an unparalleled view of the floor of Georgian Bay.