Show the Shoreline Some Love

Welcome to Love Your Bay Week 2023!

This is the second of six emails that you’ll receive this week to celebrate Love Your Bay Week. The topic today is about cleaning up the shorelines. Here’s a schedule of what’s coming up later in the week:

• Wednesday August 9th – Eurasian Watermilfoil
• Thursday August 10th – Invasive Phragmites
• Friday August 11th – Love Your Septic System
• Saturday August 12th – Water Testing and Water Quality

Clean Up the Shoreline
A healthy shoreline provides a buffer against erosion, filters out impurities from surface run-off, and provides a safe haven for shoreline wildlife.

The BICA community has done a wonderful job of cleaning up our shorelines over the past few years.  Thank you to everyone who has participated in these Love Your Bay Day cleanups, and a special thank you to our own “Guardians of the Bay” – Sheila Williams and Celesta Bjornson – for organizing these events.

Water levels are down this year, so it’s a great opportunity to walk your shoreline and collect any new garbage that has washed up over the past year. 

Here’s a photo of a sweep that was done earlier this summer on a protected shoreline that has been difficult to access over the last couple of years due to high water levels.

As you’re boating around the Bay, keep an eye out for garbage and blue foam on the shorelines. If you have the time and ability, please – Love Your Bay – stop and pick it up.

Options for “Taking Out the Trash”
Speaking of garbage, here are the current options for garbage disposal:

• NEMI Landfill is open Tuesdays & Saturdays 9:00 am to 3:00 pm and on Sundays 10:00 am to 5:00 pm (excluding public holidays). It is located on Hwy 6, approximately a mile past Rona on the right side of the highway.  This is a free service for Ward 1 residents.  Note that NEMI no longer operates large waste bins along the waterfront in Little Current.
• McGregor’s Landing (formerly J&G) on the McGregor Bay side of Birch Island, provides pay-by-the-bag garbage disposal 7-days a week. The cost is $10 per normal size bag and $20 for large bags. 
• The Espanola Landfill costs $65 for a six-month time-period (bag allowance is 8 bags, every two weeks), or “pay to play” at 5 tags for $11.30 – one tag per garbage bag.  Their hours of operation are Monday to Saturday 9:00 am to 3:00 pm and the landfill and is located at Dodge Haulage Limited, 1653 Bass Lake Road (about an eight-minute drive from The Independent Grocer).