Water Quality Program

Volunteer lake stewards have monitored the water on all seven of our lakes for nearly 30 years through Ontario’s Lake Partner Program. Here’s what we measure — and where to see the results.

Explore the Results

What we measure

Annual chemistry samples

Every spring, stewards collect samples on each lake for total phosphorus (the nutrient that drives algae growth), calcium and chloride, analyzed by the provincial lab.

Monthly water clarity

Through the summer, stewards lower a Secchi disk over the deep point of each lake and record the depth at which it disappears — a simple, decades-long record of clarity.

Dissolved oxygen

Each September, stewards profile dissolved oxygen in the deep basins — the cold, oxygen-rich water that lake trout depend on.

Aquatic vegetation surveys

In August 2025, U-Links Centre for Community-Based Research and our volunteers surveyed aquatic plants on all seven lakes, finding healthy native communities of 34–42 species per lake.

How it works

Our lakes participate in the Lake Partner Program, Ontario’s volunteer-based water monitoring network. A trained lake steward on each lake collects the samples and readings, the province analyzes them, and the results become part of a public, decades-long scientific record. It costs the province a fraction of professional monitoring and gives our lakes a continuous health history that few Ontario lakes have. Learn more about the program from FOCA, which coordinates it province-wide.

We’re also evaluating additions to the program: deep-water phosphorus sampling with a Van Dorn sampler, a conductivity logger for continuous chloride monitoring, and an invasive species management plan.

See the results

📊 Lake Health Data Explorer

Nearly 30 years of phosphorus, clarity, calcium, chloride and sulphate data for all seven lakes, charted interactively.

Open the Explorer
💧 Live Water Level

Current Redstone Lake water level with historical trends, updated continuously from the Parks Canada gauge.

View Live Water Level

The association is also a member of the Coalition for Equitable Water Flow (CEWF), which advocates for responsible water-level management in the Trent–Severn watershed.

Want to help take the readings? We train new lake stewards every season.