| Lake Simcoe |
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Information AboutLake Simcoe |
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| lakes of ontario | |
| simcoe, lake | |
| simcoe county, ontario | |
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The lake is about 30 km long and 25 km wide. Its area is roughly 720 km&2. It is shaped somewhat like a fist with the index finger and thumb extended. The thumb forms Kempenfelt Bay on the west, the wrist '''Cook's Bay''' to the south, and the extended finger is Lake Couchiching on the north. Couchiching can be considered a third bay of Simcoe, but the narrows between the two separate them enough to be considered two lakes. The narrows, known as "the place where trees grow over the water" was an important fishing point for the First Nations peoples that lived in the area, and the Mohawk term, ''toran-ten'' eventually gave name to Toronto by way of the portage route running south from that point, the Toronto Carrying-Place Trail . Lake Simcoe contains a large island, Georgina Island, on which there is a , part of Lake Huron and Lake Ontario (Simcoe itself is not a Great Lake). The lake is bordered by Simcoe County , Durham Region , and York Region . The city of Barrie is located on Kempenfelt Bay, and Orillia is located at the entrance to Lake Couchiching. The watershed draining into the lake contains a population of roughly half a million people, including the northern portion of the Greater Toronto Area . , Ontario , Canada ]] The northern shore of the lake contains thousands of cottages, and is one of the most popular vacation areas in Ontario. The Town of Georgina (the northernmost part of York Region , about a one-hour drive from Toronto to the south), lies along the entire south shore of Lake Simcoe, and contains smaller residential towns and communities including Keswick , Sutton , Pefferlaw and Udora . Ecologically , there has been some concern about Lake Simcoe. Although it is sometimes known as Canada's Ice Fishing capital, the lake no longer supports a naturally breeding coldwater Fishery . Phosphorus emissions from both urban and rural sources have upset the lake's ecosystem and fostered excessive aquatic plant growth, raising water temperatures, decreasing oxygen levels and thereby rendering limited breeding grounds inhospitable. An initiative, the Lake Simcoe Environmental Management Strategy (LSEMS), is under way in an effort to rectify some of the lake's environmental woes. Several towns and communities on the lakeshore depend on Lake Simcoe for their drinking water. Lake Simcoe is a remnant of a much bigger, Prehistoric lake known as Lake Algonquin . This lake's basin also included Lake Huron , Lake Michigan , Lake Superior , Lake Nipigon , and Lake Nipissing . The melting of an ice dam at the close of the last Ice Age greatly reduced water levels in the region, leaving the lakes that we know today. EXTERNAL LINKS
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