Level with Us EarthCache

This Earthcache brings you to the public beach at Oliphant, (bottom of Church Street) Ontario on the shores of Lake Huron. There is a small boat launch area and public facilities nearby. The posted co-ordinates take you to the edge of the lake water where it meets the beach ~ at the time we published this cache!! Enjoy the beach! ~ Please watch children near the water at all times

Photos of you in the area are always nice to see and add to the interest of the geocache page. Please consider adding some of your own.
Favourite: If you like this Earthcache, please consider giving it a favourite point so others will know you enjoyed the experience. Thanks a bunch for visiting ~ hope you had fun.

Questions:

1) As close to the posted co-ordinates as you can get, west at the waters edge ~ where the water’s edge is for you during the time of your visit ~

a) email the elevation of the lake at this point with your gps on the sand ~ THIS is the number we need to put your answer on the chart below

b) email the co-ordinates that your gps records at this point with your gps on the sand

c) how much further and in which direction has the water moved since this cache was published

2) Walk east of the water’s edge toward the tiny sand dunes where the grasses and marshy area begin to grow. Do not walk on the dunes.

a) email the co-ordinates that your gps records

b) What is the distance you get from the water? (determining the amount of exposed beach)

c) How far back from the water’s edge can you see there is no longer evidence of recently deposited water on the sand via sand ripples?

3) What can you do as an individual to protect sensitive costal environments and exposed shorelines like Oliphant shores?

4) What type of wildlife did you see during your visit?

Changes in Lake Huron’s water level and the effect it has on the environment:

Oliphant Shoreline

The shoreline at Oliphant is extremely flat with very little slope toward the mainland to the tiny protective dune ridges where sensitive dune grassland grows. The wetlands here, known as coastal fens, and the cottages, are very close to the beachfront. There are many off shore islands providing fishing and marine recreation.

Lake levels continually change in the short term but in the long-term the water levels have been declining. Lake Huron reached its all-time low water level in January 2013. If this trend continues the loss of sensitive ecosystems along the shoreline will be reduced and in some cases threatened. The businesses we rely on will decline. Our source of freshwater drinking and supply water will decline. Eventually, the shorelines and great lakes will not look like they do today. During our lifetime, we are witness to the earth’s slow continuous transformation whether it is from natural or human intervention.

looking toward water

looking toward shore

Why Lake Levels Change

Natural Short-Term Changes

Wind set-ups, also known as seiches, are strong winds blowing over the lake and wave actions that raise the water level in the direction the wind is blowing (lowering the water level at the other end) lasting until the wind stops. The underlying current oscillates back and forth until the energy is absorbed.

image credit to "http://cayugafisher.net/" 
 

Natural Seasonal Changes

Seasonal changes refer to precipitation and run-off. During the spring months, lake levels rise due to due to a high level of run-off from snow melting, spring rains falling, and lack of evaporation. At the beginning of autumn, there is less run-off but evaporation increases as the warm surface water meets the cooler air, dropping the water level of the lake. Lake Huron has been measured to change by approximately a foot as a result.

Natural Long-Term Changes

Long-term changes in the lake levels, recorded in climate, are most affected by precipitation and temperature due to the type of winter it experiences. An extremely cold winter with large ice sheets covering the lake and normal snowfall amounts will increase the lake level; however, with warmer winters and smaller ice sheets to protect the water from evaporation the result will be lower lake levels.

Human Changes

Humans can lower the level of lake water via dredging, diversions, and consumption; however, overall the impact to all of the Great Lakes is much less than from natural sources. Ways that humans can destroy the delicate shoreline are by interfering with the dunes and wetlands and leaving garbage. When the lake level is low driving vehicles over the land can crush emerging plants, bury new seeds, kill animals including reptiles and amphibians crossing the area and damage exposed nests.

Lake Huron levels over the past decade have been around 16 inches lower than its long-time average due to the dredging of the St. Clair River. More water drains from the lake through this deeper opening. Water in the St. Clair River reaches the Atlantic Ocean via Lake Erie to Niagara Falls.

“INTERNATIONAL JOINT COMMISSION - Great Lakes commission wants water levels in Huron, Michigan raised, Kim Mackrael, Ottawa, The Globe and Mail, published Tuesday, Apr. 30 2013, 10:11 PM EDT

The report concluded that large-scale dams to regulate flow between the lakes would be too expensive and could do further environmental damage. Instead, it suggested that governments look at the feasibility of establishing an engineered structure in the St. Clair River aimed at gradually raising water levels in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron over a 10-year period.” ~

Credit: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/great-lakes-commission-wants-water-levels-in-huron-michigan-raised/article11646229/

The Effect of Lower Lake Levels

If the level of the lake lowers drastically over time the amount of water in the soil will be affected therefore, sensitive terrestrial and aquatic coastal ecosystems will die via destruction of the wetland.

The Coastal Fens at Oliphant are important for a number of reasons: they are globally and provincially very rare, 80% of the fish species found in Oliphant depend on the wetlands for a part of their life cycle, they provide nesting areas for migrating and nesting birds, and amphibians and reptiles live in these wetlands.

Plants like the Dwarf Lake Iris (threatened), Tuberous Indian Plantain (special concern), and animals like the Piping Plover (endangered), Eastern Massasauga Rattler (threatened) and Monarch Butterfly (special concern), turtles (endangered) all depend on the Costal Fen.

Wetlands filter contaminants improving the quality of ground water, absorb excess flood and wave waters, reduce erosion and provide shoreline stability.

Lakes become more polluted with the increase of algae growth along new exposed shorelines. Much lower shorelines could also affect recreational and economic activity.

Recorded Lake Levels:
Chart One: 2013 to 2016 - calculations sent to us

CedarNCo have earned (GSA) Geological Society of America's highest earthcache level:

Platimum Earthcache Level is awarded by Geo Society .org for visiting and logging 20 or more EarthCaches in 5 or more states/provinces/countries and have created 3 or more EarthCaches.