Working at Six Mile Lake Provincial Park is a great way to meet new people and get in some fishing, hiking, or paddling after a shift. Students have the opportunity to contribute to the protection and operation of this beautiful park. A variety of positions are currently available, any interested applicants can email their résumé OntarioParksJobs@ontario.cato start the application process.

For more information on working at Ontario Parks please visit OntarioParks.com/careers.

The post Ontario Parks Is Looking For Students To Work At Six Mile Lake Provincial Park This Summer. appeared first on Muskoka411.

Officers issued four tickets for liquor violations and six for mariners not having sufficient lifejackets on their vessel and another four tickets for Canada Shipping Act violations. 112 vessels and their operators were checked for equipment and sobriety during the 69 hours of patrol that were provided to area waterways by two OPP patrol vessels.

Vessel Check of the Weekend

On May 23, 2022 while patrolling Six Mile Lake near the Cook Out island, a canoe with four males all under the age of eighteen was checked resulting in officers finding no lifejackets, open liquor and open cannabis. The canoe was ordered to shore, liquor and cannabis was seized and offence notices were issued.

27 operators were also warned for minor violations of the Canada Shipping Act and officers also answered five calls for service during the May 18-23, 2022 period.

SPRING TIME – NEED TO KNOW

Please click on and view these links – https://csbc.ca/en/cold-water-awareness and https://csbc.ca/en/events/cold-water-workshop

If you see a possible impaired operator “Make the Call” and dial 911 and help prevent a marine tragedy. (See submitted graphics)

Educating the public about safe boating practices with our community safety partners is a priority, if you see a possible impaired operator please “Make the Call” and dial 911 and help prevent a marine incident. (See the attached submitted ARRIVE ALIVE poster)

The post OPP Find Four Minors In A Canoe With No Life Jackets, Open Liquor And Cannabis appeared first on Muskoka411.

Emergency services from OPP, County of Simcoe Paramedic Services and Georgian Bay Township Fire Services responded to a 911 call at 1:51 a.m. February 20, 2022 to a crash scene at the west shoreline of Walpole Island.

One of the two male occupants was pronounced deceased at the scene, the other was transported by Ornge Paramedic Services for treatment of injuries sustained in the crash.

Officers are being assisted by members of the OPP Central Region Technical Traffic Unit (TTCI) in the continuing investigation into cause of the crash.

This is a developing story and more details will be released as they become available.

The post One Dead, Another Hurt After Snowmobile Crash On Six Mile Lake appeared first on Muskoka411.

Parry Sound 13 is being held at 0.4 of a hectare and is located east of Six Mile Lake.

There are currently four active fires across the region. Two fires are being observed, one fire is under control and one fire is being held.

The fire hazard ranges from moderate to high across most of the Northeast with the far north showing a low to moderate hazard.

To see the fire hazard near you, check the interactive fire map at Ontario.ca/forestfire

Follow Ontario’s Outdoor Burning Regulations

Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services would like to remind the public to use caution when performing any outdoor burning. In order to dispose of yard waste and woody debris, we encourage you to use methods such as composting or using your local landfill. If you must burn, follow Ontario’s outdoor burning regulations.

Fires are to be ignited no sooner than 2 hours before sunset and extinguished no later than 2 hours after sunrise.

Always have tools/water adequate to contain the fire at the site.

Know the rules for safe outdoor burning. To consult the full set of outdoor burning regulations under Ontario’s Forest Fire Prevention Act, visit our website at ontario.ca/page/outdoor-fire-rules-and-permits.

Fire numbers and online information

• To report a forest fire located north of the French and Mattawa rivers, please dial 310-FIRE
• To report a forest fire located south of the French or Mattawa rivers, please dial 911.
• Follow on Twitter: @ONForestFires / @ONFeudeforêt

The post Wildland Fire Reported East Of Six Mile Lake appeared first on Muskoka411.

The plane struck their canoe, damaging it badly, as it made contact with the water. Witnesses in the area, as well as the pilot of the plane, assisted those in the water to safety, fortunately they did not sustain any injuries.

Officers of the marine unit of the Southern Georgian Bay OPP were dispatched to the scene and are currently investigating the incident along with Transport Canada.

No charges have been laid at this point.

The post No One Hurt After Plane Strikes Canoe On Six Mile Lake appeared first on Muskoka411.

Officers observed at 7:10 p.m. June 20, 2021 a liquor offence aboard a 39′ vessel underway on the inner harbour of Penetang Bay, Penetanguishene. Further investigation revealed that there were no lifejackets on board the vessel for the seven occupants. The 52 year old operator from Barrie was cited for the following offences.

• Operate vessel with open liquor
• Fail to have sufficient lifejackets for all person aboard vessel

While patrolling Six Mile Lake in the area of the “Cook Outs” on June 19, 2021 at 6:20 p.m. officers observed a speeding offence and conducted a safety check of the vessel which had nine persons aboard. As a result of the vessel check, officers found six occupants did not have lifejackets and the operator of the vessel became the subject of an drinking and driving investigation.

As a result of this vessel stop and ensuing investigation the operator Andrew Louis Locke 34 years of Kitchener has been charged with the following offences-

• Operation while impaired – alcohol
• Operation while impaired – blood alcohol concentration (80 plus)
• Operate vessel with open liquor
• Fail to have sufficient lifejackets for all person aboard vessel

The accused was released from custody on a recognizance to appear to before the Ontario Court of Justice in Midland on July 8, 2021.

The post OPP Find Two Boating Operators With Open Liquor appeared first on Muskoka411.

Shades of Hope Wildlife Refuge in Pefferlaw was caring for the swan named Luna after residents on Six Mile Lake noticed she looked unwell. The residents act as volunteers for the Ontario Trumpeter Swan Reintroduction Program, which was started by retired Ministry of Natural Resources biologist Harry Lumsden in 1982 to address the extirpation, or local extinction, of the swans. Originally native to Ontario, trumpeter swans disappeared from Eastern Canada just over 200 years ago, largely due to hunting. Thanks to the success of the reintroduction program, Ontario now has an estimated population of over a thousand trumpeter swans, though they still face many threats that limit their population growth. 

Anne Lewis and her husband Mike Waller have been monitoring Luna and the other swans as volunteers in the reintroduction program for 21 years. Lewis has a long history in conservation as founder and past president of Six Mile Lake Conservation Club, which no longer operates. Her love for wildlife is what led her to volunteer in the swan program.

“We have a special bond with them, and all the residents on the lake I think feel the same way,” Lewis said. “They’re just magnificent but powerful birds, and [there are] so many threats that they have to overcome to raise cygnets.”

Luna’s mate, Mote, came to Six Mile Lake in 1999 as part of the first nesting pair for the reintroduction program in Muskoka. Mote and his mate left the lake for a number of years, and when Mote returned alone after losing his mate, he found a new partner in Luna, who was born to another pair of swans at Six Mile Lake 15 years ago. This year, Luna and Mote had four cygnets, which are now being raised by Mote alone. 

Seeing the signs of sickness

Lewis and her husband started to realize Luna was sick or injured a couple of weeks ago when she started lagging behind her family. The couple puts out corn for the swans as part of their monitoring efforts, and one day, they noticed that Luna wasn’t eating.

“She was hanging back and we thought, ‘That’s rather strange,’” Lewis said. “We know Luna really well, and she’s usually one of the first ones up to the dish. And then for a couple of days, she didn’t come at all.”

Luna returned a few days later but seemed to be shrinking. Lewis notified the other volunteers and shortly after, her neighbour Paul contacted a rescuer from the reintroduction team, who brought Luna to Shades of Hope. They x-rayed her upon arrival and found that she had seven pellets embedded in her as well as high levels of lead in her blood. She was brought to the wildlife refuge on Monday and died just five days later on the morning of Friday, Aug. 28.

Lewis and her neighbours are concerned about the elderly Mote being able to protect and raise the cygnets without his mate. Lewis said it’s heartbreaking to see, especially because these incidents are more common than many people may realize. 

Swans face many man-made threats including electrical wires, wind turbines, boats and illegal hunting. However, Luna likely died from another common hazard: lead. Cathy Stockman, director of operations at Shades of Hope, said it’s highly probable that lead poisoning is what killed Luna.

“We see a lot of birds shot, swans and great blue herons and just about everything, and we see a lot of lead,” Stockman said. “The lead is now starting to appear even in non-water birds.”

Along with entering the food chain through scavengers and predators that consume lead ammunition or fragments, lead can also contaminate the environment. After Luna died, the wildlife refuge tested the pellets and found that they weren’t lead shot, meaning Luna could have been poisoned by contaminated water or plants or through ingesting lead hunting or fishing equipment. 

Issues of carelessness and cruelty

It has been illegal to use lead ammunition to hunt migratory waterfowl since the 90s, and while some lead shot may still be used unlawfully, Stockman said a larger concern is lead fishing gear. Because of the risk posed to wildlife, it’s important that fisherman step up, she said, by making every effort to avoid abandoning lead tackle and other gear in waterways and by avoiding the use of lead altogether.

“We get stuff tangled in fishing line all the time, we get stuff that has ingested lead sinkers,” she said. “For the water birds, the fishermen actually pose a larger danger than the hunters, just from the standpoint of the lead.”

Along with lead, fishing line often injures or kills water birds. A recent intake at the refuge was a loon that had gotten tangled in fishing line and had a hook lodged in its wing, leading it to eat pebbles in desperation as it starved. Stockman also recalled an incident where a group of ducklings were tangled together in fishing line, and the wildlife refuge was only able to save one of the five. 

Without reckless driving, careless hunters and fisherman, and other negligence, the wildlife refuge would be out of business, Stockman said, and they’d be thrilled if that were the case. The refuge has already taken in over 5,000 animals just this year.

“I would say probably 90 per cent of the animals come in here because of human carelessness or cruelty,” Stockman said.

Preventing future tragedies

Lewis and other volunteers in the swan program are all too familiar with consequences of carelessness when it comes to fishing and other activities. During her days in the conservation club, Lewis and her members would exchange lead fishing tackle with non-lead alternatives for free and then have the lead properly recycled to avoid the tragedies caused by abandoned lead equipment.

“All it would take would be for [Luna] to get into one or two lead sinkers or a fishing lure,” Lewis said. “They don’t know because if she did, it was ingested and went through her digestive tract, which was a good sign when we first heard that because it meant they didn’t have to do surgery for it, but it leached into her system.”

Lewis is heartbroken that the lead poisoning is the reason Luna won’t return to her family, but she’s also troubled by the seven pellets found in the bird. The pellets had been in Luna for an unknown period of time, having healed over in the time since she was shot. Lewis now believes the shooting didn’t happen in the last month or so, as they previously suspected, but it probably didn’t happen years ago either.

“She was shot,” Lewis said. “That’s not the reason she died, but it’s still an incident and still shouldn’t have happened.”

Hunting trumpeter swans is illegal under the Migratory Birds Convention Act, a piece of federal legislation enacted in 1994. Given the three-metre wingspan and bright white feathers of the birds, Lewis feels that it’s unlikely hunters are mistakenly shooting swans, but even if that’s the case, the responsibility lies with the hunter to know what they’re shooting, she said. Still reeling from the news of Luna’s death, Lewis and her neighbours are imploring hunters to be mindful of trumpeter swans as geese hunting season opens on Sept. 1.

“Hunting them is illegal under any circumstances, there is no season,” Lewis said. “There is no reason anyone should ever point a gun at a trumpeter swan.”

To learn more about Shades of Hope Wildlife Refuge, or to make a donation in support of their operations, visit their website. For more information about trumpeter swans and their reintroduction to Ontario, visit the Trumpeter Swan Coalition’s website.

The post Trumpeter Swan From Six Mile Lake Dies After Being Shot And Suffering Lead Poisoning appeared first on Muskoka411.