For five years, HHLPOA has been working with U-Links Centre for Community-based Research to monitor the water quality in the Halls & Hawk Lakes. In one of the projects, university students, with support from Trent University and Fleming College, take and analyze samples for specific organisms. Change over time helps to draw conclusions, like this one for Halls Lake:
Based on the data collected in 2023, the overall water quality of Halls Lake was fair, but there was a significant amount of organic pollution in the lake. This was reflected in the moderate biodiversity of the benthos found in the lake.
Read the complete report for Halls Lake:
Here is just a portion of the conclusion for Little Hawk:
This generally suggests a healthy aquatic ecosystem in Little Hawk Lake. Overall, the 2023 benthic macroinvertebrate data is congruent with past results from Little Hawk Lake and do not suggest a negative shift in health trends, but hard conclusions cannot be drawn until baseline data is fully established.
One must also keep in mind that within each lake there are sites where the data differs significantly, for example Site 3 on Big Hawk. The reports for each lake help determine where problem issues may exist. One needs to read the full reports which you can find below:
