$750M in buildings threatened by erosion on S. Lake Huron
Much of the area is at risk today, but within 100 years, much of the area could be underwater, including homes, cottages, a swath of the waterfront, and a marina.
At least 1,755 homes, cottages, and other public and private residential structures, worth an estimated $750 million, are at risk of succumbing to erosion along a 56-kilometre stretch of the southern Lake Huron shoreline, according to a statement by Maitland Conservation.
The community-based organization has launched the Southern Lake Huron Coastal Adaptation Strategy project to protect these structures. Initiatives include restoring sediment to buffer against storms, developing climate-resistant policies, and identifying high-risk areas so that communities can plan ahead.
The agency says many of the identified structures are at risk today and within 100 years, much of the area could be underwater, including homes, cottages, much of the waterfront, and even a marina.
Erosion unavoidable
Speaking with reporters, officials said there isn’t much that can be done to completely stop erosion along this stretch of shoreline.
The best strategy, they said, is to slow it down and minimize the impact.
“It’s our moral responsibility to do something because we know erosion naturally happens. And so, without addressing it, it will only either continue or accentuate. And by addressing it, we can slow it down. We cannot mitigate it to stop. We can slow it down,” Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Reeve Glen McNeil said via CTV News.
Mapping the shoreline
In 2023, Maitland Conservation released an updated map outlining hazard areas in an effort to improve public understanding and help communities prepare.
“We can harden the shoreline, we can plant dune grass, we can do nature-based solutions. But it's still going to be changing,” Dr. Chris Houser told the CBC in 2023.
“Are the lakes going to increase because there's going to be more precipitation? Are the lakes going to decrease because we're going to go into greater and greater drought? We don't know.
What we need to be able to do is say, ‘This is a very dynamic coast. It's going to change into the future.’ We need to make sure that we are ... working on that coast, that we are living on that coast, in a way that recognizes that change."
Why is Lake Huron's shoreline eroding?
Erosion along the Lake Huron shoreline is a natural and long-standing process, but it's being accelerated by climate change, fluctuating lake levels, and human activity.
Thumnbail image: In this map, everything ahead of the red hazard line is expected to be unstable or entirely within the water, according to Patrick Huber-Kidby, supervisor of planning and regulations with the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority in southwestern Ontario. (Maitland Valley Conservation Authority)