Kettle Lakes and shorelines

The landscape of the Oak Ridges Moraine is peppered with various bodies of water including many ponds, lakes and wetlands.

Kettle lakes, peculiar to the glacially-impacted landscape, form when huge blocks of ice remain, half buried in sand and gravel, after a glacier's retreat. When the ice block melts, a hollow is left that eventually fills with ground water, becoming a kettle lake or wetland.

Sometimes lakes develop into bogs - unique vegetation communities dominated by sphagnum moss. The moss grows into the lake from the edge and forms a floating mat of vegetation. Trees such as Tamarack and shrubs like Labrador tea colonize these mats over time. A mature bog ecosystem can cover an entire lake, often sheltering rare and ecologically unique species that are adapted to the acidic conditions of the bog.