Considerable damage to trees, trails and nearby roads followed in the wake of a washout of a man-made pond in Oro-Medonte’s Copeland Forest last week.
The 4,400-acre forest is a popular area for hikers, mountain bikers, and conservationists, but the washout of a trout-stocked pond has rendered a section of its trail temporarily inaccessible to the public.
The pond is on land owned by Ontario’s Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry, and David Kennedy, president of local conservation group Copeland Forest Friends, suspects a blockage caused water to build up to the point that it ruptured a berm.
“When the (ministry stocked the pond with) trout about a week before, the water was flowing very well,” Kennedy told OrilliaMatters. “Unfortunately, that night, some sort of blockage must have occurred. The water built up, and then it washed out the berm, and then the water went from the pond underneath the railway tracks and hit the 6th Line North and 5th Line North.”
Oro-Medonte Mayor Harry Hughes said lines 5 and 6 sustained an estimated $300,000 in damage from the washout, as the area’s sandy terrain left its guardrails and road base vulnerable.
“The whole area up there is sandy, and the washout became more pronounced because of how sandy it is,” Hughes said. “On the 6th Line, which is paved, the pavement itself didn't suffer, but everything underneath it did, including the guardrails.”
He said the damage from the washout will require considerable work to repair.
“We’re going to have to bring the road right back up to its original status, and the infrastructure connected to it, (including) new guardrails,” he said. “It’ll certainly be some extensive work that’s going to be needed.”
“(We’re going) to make sure it’s well stabilized, and all of the infrastructure that’s under the pavement is going to all have to be revitalized.”
Despite the damage, Hughes pointed out the township worked quickly and had the roads usable again “within a day” of the washout.
“The 6th Line is the one with the most traffic, and that’s the one that the road crew, in particular, got onto really quickly,” he said. “It was not impassible for a very long period of time.”
In terms of the damage sustained within the ministry-owned Copeland Forest, Hughes said a ministry investigation is taking place to determine the cause of the washout.
“They’re still trying to figure out what caused this flow of water to occur when it did, and to try to get a handle on what may be done in the future to prevent it,” he said.
Kennedy said the pond’s construction predates the ministry’s ownership of the land.
“This pond was built before the ministry purchased the land in 1978. It was constructed by the Copeland Forest Lumber Company and was used, mainly, I think, for fire purposes,” he said. “It has never shown any issue before, but these kinds of things have a random chance of happening, and the ministry is investigating the exact cause of the washout.”
The ministry will be in an interesting position, Kennedy said, as human-made ponds are not wise to build today, from a conservation perspective.
“As we move forward, it’s a real dilemma,” he said. “The general conservation approach is that all these old dams that were built 50-plus years ago, we wouldn’t build them any longer because the dams interfere with the trout coming up and the salmon coming up to spawn.”
“From a conservation, ecology standpoint, they’re no longer very much in favour. On the other hand, from a tourism standpoint, and general recreational use, people enjoy ponds,” he added. “Those are the issues that the ministry will have to consider and, of course, whatever they do, there’s significant financial implications.”
In a statement to OrilliaMatters, the Ministry said that "the cause of the washout remains undetermined at this time."
"The ministry is currently focused on taking action to stabilize the site to protect the coldwater fishery in the Coldwater River and as a result have contractors on site May 4 to begin stabilization efforts," said Jeff Haelzle, resource management coordinator for the Ministry's Midhurst district.
"Once this priority has been achieved, the ministry will contemplate longer term objectives, such as the trail network that has been impacted by this washout," he said.
"The Coldwater River is a coldwater stream, providing habitat for fish species such as Brook Trout and Rainbow Trout. Restoration activities and decisions by the ministry at this site will focus on protecting this important fishery."
