Recycle Your Ash

According to Muskoka-based researchers, lakes & forests need calcium and “half the lakes in Muskoka currently have calcium levels that are problematic for the life of the lakes.” Over the next three years these researchers will be sprinkling ash in test plots in maple sugar bushes and then tracking nutrient levels, to determine application rates that will build calcium without adding too many toxic heavy metals. This research could lead to the first recycling program for residential wood ash. Ash is about 30 per cent calcium, along with other nutrients including potassium and phosphorus.

You can help with this research by donating cold, dry wood ash. They will be collecting ash on Saturday October 19, November 16, and December 14 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Rosewarne Transfer Station 1062 Rosewarne Drive, Bracebridge. Visit https://ashmuskoka.ca/locations/ for more details.

Also, if you can give an hour or a day of your time towards this research, they could use help at one or more of three sugar bushes. Email them at ashmuskoka@fotmw.org for more info.

Cottagers can help the area around Wood Lake by lightly sprinkling their wood ash around maples or other hardwoods in forested areas away from the water. Also, when cutting a tree or splitting firewood, leaving the bark in the forest contributes three per cent calcium.