Saugeen Shores officials held a ribbon-cutting Thursday to celebrate a community effort to rehabilitate Fairy Lake in Southampton.
The natural park around the small inland lake was devastated by an infestation of emerald ash borer, resulting in the removal of about 500 ash trees from the park.
Parks Manager Frank Burrows says about a dozen community groups teamed up to help restore the park once the trees were removed over the winter.
"It started with removing the trees, then a whole bunch of great restoration work with rebuilding the trail and finalizing a whole bunch of understory replanting, restoration of the forest floor and stream improvements, so it's an exciting day," says Burrows.
The federal government provided $49,000 in Canada 150 funding, while Saugeen Shores council put up $50,000 and local environmental group SauGreen was able to pull in funding from the provincial government and Bruce Power.
Burrows says the community did such a great job renewing Fairy Lake, that many can't tell that 500 trees were removed just six months ago.
"We've rallied together to rebuild this park and make it better for the future, so it's a negative to a real positive," says Burrows. "The park's looking great, a lot of people don't know we took 500 trees out here."
Visitors feed the geese at Fairy Lake in Southampton (photo by Jordan MacKinnon)