Wasaga group calls for action on west beach areas

A group of west-end Wasaga Beach residents say the Ministry of Natural Resources is ignoring their part of the world’s longest freshwater beach.

Marsha Ramage, president of the Wasaga West Beach Association, says the ministry has allowed a variety of vegetation – and not just the invasive species, phragmites – to eat up swaths of what was once a white sandy beach.

Ramage’s Shore Lane home fronts onto a section of the beach west of what is Beach Area 6, and is still part of the MNR’s responsibility.

“For the last decade or more, it’s been really rough trying to get them to maintain anything,” said Ramage, who maintains a two-inch-thick binder of letters, notes, and petitions going back to 2001, calling on the ministry to maintain the beach.

“Growing up here, it used to have white sand,” she said. “The water levels got high, so that took away the white sand, and we were left with the hard-packed (sand)… since that’s happened, we’ve started to see more and more vegetation.

“Everyone likes the sand dunes, the beach grasses that grow there, but what’s growing on the beach is not attractive beach grasses.”

The mandate of the WWBA is to “return Wasaga Beach back to its former glory,” with beach maintenance along the entire stretch – not just the provincial park area. The group has met a couple of times with the management of the provincial park, and is working with the provincial park on a couple of issues, such as cutting phragmite seed heads.

“We’re comfortable we’ll be able to come to a good working relationship with the ministry as far as the phragmites goes,” she said. “But the main issues we have is the (other) vegetation is getting out of control.”

The vegetation is forming low areas where water is collecting, she said, which is creating breeding areas for mosquitoes.

“The beach is never going to dry up as long as the vegetation is there. It’s turning into a wetland,” she said. “We’re concerned that if no one takes any action, we’ll get to the point where we can’t save it. The beach is a huge part of our cultural identity. They advertise 14 miles of sandy beach… we’ll have to cross off the 14 and put 13, or 12.”

The group launched its latest petition after the Canada Day weekend, when the vegetation made it hard for beachgoers to find a sandy spot.

“The July 1 weekend the beach was disgusting – the grasses are growing up everywhere, the beach was packed and you could hardly find a spot,” said Ramage. “You couldn’t play ball or soccer because there’s no room without the beach being cleared.”

Ramage said she is hopeful the attention the beachfront was receiving in this municipal election will translate to action once the new council is inaugurated.

“There’s some real issues that need to be addressed,” she said. “Every single [council] candidate had the condition of the beach as part of their message, so it’s an issue that’s definitely moved way up the list of priorities.

“For everyone who has grown up here, it’s very disheartening to go for a walk on the beach and to see it so gross,” she said. “It’s hard to take pride when you have such a unique feature as Wasaga Beach, and once again, government control, and lack of funding or interest, you get that idea of standing around and talking about it for years while everything gets overgrown.”