Shoreline Restoration Projects That Made a Difference
It is easy to be cynical about environmental restoration. Projects take years to plan, cost more than projected, and deliver results that are difficult to measure in the short term. Politicians cut ribbons, conservation groups issue press releases, and then everyone moves on to the next funding cycle. But scattered across Ontario's Great Lakes shoreline, a handful of restoration projects have produced outcomes that are genuinely worth examining. Not because they are perfect, but because they demonstrate what is achievable when the science, the funding, and the local commitment align.
These are projects where degraded shorelines were rebuilt, where fish populations rebounded, where water quality improved, and where communities reclaimed waterfront areas that had been written off as damaged beyond repair. They offer practical lessons for the dozens of similar projects now in the planning stages across the province.
Tommy Thompson Park: Toronto's Accidental Wilderness
Tommy Thompson Park, located on the Leslie Street Spit at the eastern end of Toronto's harbour, is arguably the most improbable restoration success story on the Great Lakes. The spit itself is entirely artificial, built from construction fill and dredging material deposited over decades by the Toronto Port Authority. By the 1970s, it had become an unplanned wilderness as birds, plants, and fish colonized the new landform.
Beginning in the 1990s, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority began deliberately restoring and enhancing the spit's shoreline habitats. The work included constructing coastal wetland cells using rock and earthen berms, planting native aquatic and terrestrial vegetation, creating fish spawning habitat using clean gravel and cobble substrate, and removing invasive phragmites from wetland areas.
The results have exceeded expectations. Tommy Thompson Park now supports one of the largest colonial waterbird nesting sites on the Great Lakes, with thousands of breeding pairs of double-crested cormorants, ring-billed gulls, black-crowned night herons, and common terns. The coastal wetlands created through the restoration support 45 species of fish, including northern pike, largemouth bass, and several species at risk. The park attracts over 300,000 visitors annually, making it a case study in how ecological restoration can deliver both environmental and community benefits.
Frenchman's Bay: Restoring a Degraded Embayment
Frenchman's Bay, a shallow embayment on Lake Ontario's north shore in Pickering, spent decades as a cautionary tale. Surrounded by suburban development, loaded with nutrients from stormwater runoff, and choked with invasive species, the bay's water quality and ecological health had declined steadily since the 1960s. Fish kills were common. Algae blooms turned the water green every summer. The marsh at the head of the bay had been largely destroyed by fill and development.
A multi-phase restoration project, led by the TRCA in partnership with the City of Pickering and the federal government, has been transforming the bay since 2015. Key components include restoring the barrier beach that separates the bay from Lake Ontario, reestablishing coastal marsh habitat at the head of the bay, upgrading stormwater outfalls to reduce pollutant loading, and removing invasive phragmites from the shoreline and replacing it with native plant communities.
Monitoring data from the first five years of the project shows measurable improvements in water clarity, dissolved oxygen levels, and fish species diversity within the bay. Northern pike, which had not been documented in Frenchman's Bay for over a decade, were detected in the restored marsh areas in 2022. The project demonstrates that even heavily degraded urban waterfront sites can be brought back to ecological function with sustained effort and investment.
Long Point: Fighting Phragmites on the South Coast
Long Point, the UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve on Lake Erie's north shore, faces a different kind of restoration challenge. The wetland complex itself is relatively intact, but invasive phragmites has been steadily colonizing the marsh, converting diverse native plant communities into dense, species-poor monocultures. By 2015, phragmites covered hundreds of hectares of the Long Point marshes.
The Long Point Phragmites Action Alliance, a coalition of conservation organizations, government agencies, and private landowners, launched an intensive control program in 2016. The approach combines targeted herbicide application in late summer, followed by mechanical cutting and prescribed burning to remove dead biomass and prevent regrowth. The work is done on a rotational basis across the marsh, with treated areas monitored and retreated as needed over multiple years.
After eight years of sustained effort, the program has cleared phragmites from over 500 hectares of marsh. Native plant species, including cattails, bulrushes, and wild rice, have recolonized treated areas rapidly once the phragmites competition is removed. Bird surveys show increased use of restored areas by marsh-nesting species including least bitterns, Virginia rails, and marsh wrens. The project is a model for phragmites control, but it also illustrates the scale of ongoing commitment required. Without continued treatment, the phragmites would reclaim the restored areas within a few growing seasons. For background on the broader invasive species challenge, see our article on invasive species changing Ontario waterways.
Nottawasaga Bay: Living Shorelines on Georgian Bay
The Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority has been at the forefront of living shoreline implementation in Ontario. Since 2019, the authority has installed naturalized shoreline treatments at over 20 sites along the Nottawasaga Bay shoreline of Georgian Bay, ranging from private residential properties to municipal parkland and beach areas.
The projects use a combination of coir log erosion control, native plantings, strategic boulder placement, and nearshore habitat structures such as submerged log cribs and spawning substrate enhancements. Each installation is designed to address site-specific conditions, with the approach varying based on wave exposure, bank material, slope, and the specific ecological objectives for the site.
Five-year monitoring data from the earliest installations shows erosion reduction rates averaging 50 percent compared to untreated control sites. Fish surveys at sites with submerged habitat structures documented significantly higher juvenile fish densities than at adjacent unenhanced sites. And property owner satisfaction surveys indicate strong support, with 85 percent of participating landowners reporting that they would recommend the approach to their neighbours. Our detailed examination of the evidence behind these approaches appears in our article on whether naturalized shorelines actually work.
Cataraqui Region: Reconnecting Coastal Wetlands
Near Kingston, the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority has been working to reconnect fragmented coastal wetlands along the upper St. Lawrence River and the eastern end of Lake Ontario. Decades of road construction, agricultural drainage, and shoreline development had severed the hydrological connections between many small wetland complexes and the larger water bodies they depend on.
The restoration work involves replacing undersized or blocked culverts, removing obsolete berms and fill, and reestablishing natural water flow patterns between wetlands and the lake. The technical challenges are modest compared to some of the larger projects described above, but the ecological returns have been significant. Reconnected wetlands have shown rapid recovery of native plant diversity, increased use by spawning fish, and improved flood attenuation during spring high-water events.
The project illustrates an important principle: not all restoration needs to be large-scale or expensive to be effective. Sometimes the most impactful work involves simply removing barriers that prevent natural systems from functioning as they were designed to.
Lessons for Future Projects
Several common threads run through the projects that have produced the best outcomes.
Long-term monitoring is essential. Without baseline data and ongoing measurement, it is impossible to know whether a project is working, and impossible to make the adaptive management adjustments that improve outcomes over time. The projects that invested in monitoring from the outset have been able to demonstrate their value to funders and the public in ways that undocumented projects cannot.
Community involvement matters. The projects with the strongest local support, measured by volunteer participation, landowner buy-in, and municipal funding contributions, tend to be the most durable. Restoration that is imposed from outside without local engagement often falters when the initial funding runs out.
Addressing root causes is more effective than treating symptoms. Planting trees along a shoreline will not help if the stormwater that is washing the bank away is not also managed. Restoring a wetland will not last if the nutrient loading that degrades it continues unabated. The best restoration projects tackle the underlying drivers of degradation, not just the visible damage. Our coverage of stormwater management in waterfront towns and the disappearance of coastal wetlands provides context on those root causes.
Finally, patience is required. Ecological restoration operates on timelines measured in years and decades, not months. The projects described here took years to plan, years to implement, and are still being monitored and adjusted. The results they are producing are real and measurable, but they did not happen overnight. For communities and property owners considering restoration, that is perhaps the most important lesson of all.
