Lake Wilcox is a kettle lake in the Oak Ridges neighbourhood of Richmond Hill,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The lake measures 1.5 kilometers across and covers 55.6

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...

s or 0.55 square kilometres, making it the largest kettle lake on the Oak Ridges Moraine. Lake Wilcox,

Lake St. George St. George Lake is the fourth largest lake in Waldo County, Maine, United States. It is in the township of Liberty, on the western side of Waldo County. Lake St. George State Park is on the northwest shore of the lake. It contains the island of ...

and their associated

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s form a "provincially significant wetland". The lake is named after William Willcocks (1735/36-1813), who was a merchant in York, Upper Canada and became mayor of

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in 1793 (after his return from Upper Canada). Willcocks and his family moved to

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

, where his cousin Peter Russell became interim administrator after the departure of

John Graves Simcoe John Graves Simcoe (25 February 1752 – 26 October 1806) was a British Army general and the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada from 1791 until 1796 in southern Ontario and the Drainage basin, watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior. ...

in 1796. Willcocks "was an active land speculator" who acquired significant holdings in Upper Canada, including surrounding the lake. The name of the lake was originally Lake Willcocks, but it was corrupted over time to its present spelling. Willcocks resided in York and Markham, but died in the former in 1813.

Community

Lake Wilcox is a local community located within Oak Ridges. The local community has an elementary school; Lake Wilcox elementary school, the Lake Wilcox Community Centre, as well as a number of local parks. Lake Wilcox and Brickworks parks are the most popular. The local community has come together through a number of tragedies, including the death of a local mother, Terri Callaway on North Lake Road, and two local teens who accidentally drowned in the lake in 2008. There is a craft brewery named after Lake Wilcox calle
Lake Wilcox Brewing Co.
located in Vaughan. It was established on March 17, 2015.

History

The lake was recorded as "Lake Wilcocks" on an 1878 map in the ''Illustrated historical atlas of the county of York and the township of West Gwillimbury & town of Bradford in the county of Simcoe, Ont.'' Housing developments began to boom around Lake Wilcox in the 1950s. Lake Wilcox, as a part of the annexation of Oak Ridges, became a part of Richmond Hill in 1971. The suburban housing developments continued until the mid to late 1980s. The developments affected the forests of the Oak Ridges Moraine which supplies water to the GTA, which caused environmental damage to Toronto. There were protests against the clear-cutting of forests of the Oak Ridges Moraine. In about 2001, Bayview began to expand to connect with the rest of Bayview. In 2002, the housing developments stopped.

Geography

Lake Wilcox is part of the Humber River drainage system, draining into the East Humber River. The

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

of the lake covers 260 hectares. The maximum depth of the lake is 17.4 meters.

Wetlands complex

Lake Wilcox, Lake St. George, Swan Lake and Haynes Lake and their associated marshes, swamps and forests form a large wetland designated as a Provincially Significant Wetland. The total complex has some ninety individually identified wetlands, covering 102 hectares, of which 57% is classified as

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

, 39% as

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

and 4% as

bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...

Ecology

Beginning in 1997, the town of Richmond Hill undertook a project to restore the lake's condition, which had degraded because of

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

and development.

Septic system Onsite sewage facilities (OSSF), also called septic systems, are wastewater systems designed to treat and dispose of effluent on the same property that produces the wastewater, in areas not served by public sewage infrastructure. A septic tank a ...

s which had previous drained into the lake were connected to sewers and lake lungs were installed to increase

oxygenation Oxygenation may refer to: * Oxygenation (environmental), a measurement of dissolved oxygen concentration in soil or water * Oxygen saturation (medicine), the process by which concentrations of oxygen increase within a tissue * Water oxygenation, t ...

of the water. High

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...

levels in the lake remain problematic.

Vegetation

The native

coniferous tree Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extant ...

s in Lake Wilcox's watershed include

white spruce White spruce is a common name for several species of spruce (''Picea'') and may refer to: * ''Picea glauca'', native to most of Canada and Alaska with limited populations in the northeastern United States * ''Picea engelmannii'', native to the Ro ...

, eastern hemlock, white pine, red pine,

eastern white cedar ''Thuja occidentalis'', also known as northern white-cedar, eastern white-cedar, or arborvitae, is an evergreen coniferous tree, in the cypress family Cupressaceae, which is native to eastern Canada and much of the north-central and northeaste ...

and

tamarack ''Larix laricina'', commonly known as the tamarack, hackmatack, eastern larch, black larch, red larch, or American larch, is a species of larch native to Canada, from eastern Yukon and Inuvik, Northwest Territories east to Newfoundland, and als ...

. The native

deciduous tree In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, afte ...

s include red maple, silver maple, sugar maple, red oak, white oak,

burr oak ''Quercus macrocarpa'', the bur oak or burr oak, is a species of oak tree native to eastern North America. It is in the white oak section, ''Quercus'' sect. ''Quercus'', and is also called mossycup oak, mossycup white oak, blue oak, or scrub oa ...

balsam poplar ''Populus balsamifera'', commonly called balsam poplar, bam, bamtree, eastern balsam-poplar, hackmatack, tacamahac poplar, tacamahaca, is a tree species in the balsam poplar species group in the poplar genus, ''Populus.'' The genus name ''Populus ...

, trembling aspen,

large-tooth aspen ''Populus grandidentata'', commonly called large-tooth aspen, big-tooth aspen, American aspen, Canadian poplar, or white poplar, is a deciduous tree native to eastern North America. Name The name ''Populus'' is from the Latin for poplar, and ' ...

, white ash,

black ash Black ash is a common name for several plants and may refer to: * '' Acer negundo'', native to North America * ''Fraxinus nigra'', native to North America * ''Eucalyptus sieberi ''Eucalyptus sieberi'', commonly known as the silvertop ash or bl ...

blue ash ''Fraxinus quadrangulata'', the blue ash, is a species of ash native primarily to the Midwestern United States from Oklahoma to Michigan, as well as the Bluegrass region of Kentucky and the Nashville Basin region of Tennessee. Isolated populati ...

, green ash,

basswood ''Tilia americana'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to ...

, paper birch,

pin cherry ''Prunus pensylvanica'', also known as bird cherry, fire cherry, pin cherry, and red cherry, is a North American cherry species in the genus ''Prunus''. Description ''Prunus pensylvanica'' grows as a shrub or small tree, usually with a straigh ...

and black cherry. The native wildflowers include

purple coneflower ''Echinacea purpurea'', the eastern purple coneflower, purple coneflower, hedgehog coneflower, or echinacea, is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to parts of eastern North America and present to s ...

, yellow coneflower, flat-topped aster, heath aster, smooth aster, silky aster, ox-eyed susan,

black-eyed susan ''Black-Eyed Susan; or, All in the Downs'' is a comic play in three acts by Douglas Jerrold. The story concerns a heroic sailor, William, who has been away from England for three years fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. Meanwhile, his wife, Susa ...

, bluebeard lily, wood lily,

trout lily ''Erythronium'', the fawn lily, trout lily, dog's-tooth violet or adder's tongue, is a genus of Eurasian and North American plants in the lily family, most closely related to tulips. The name Erythronium derives from Ancient Greek () "red" in ...

, common strawberry,

common milkweed ''Asclepias syriaca'', commonly called common milkweed, butterfly flower, silkweed, silky swallow-wort, and Virginia silkweed, is a species of flowering plant. It is native to southern Canada and much of the United States east of the Rocky Moun ...

blazing star ''Blazing Star'' is a shoot 'em up video game developed by Yumekobo and published by SNK in 1998 for the Neo Geo arcade and home systems. It is a follow-up to '' Pulstar'' (1995) and features side-scrolling action similar to its predecessor an ...

, fireweed, star flower,

wild columbine ''Aquilegia'' (common names: granny's bonnet, columbine) is a genus of about 60–70 species of perennial plants that are found in meadows, woodlands, and at higher altitudes throughout the Northern Hemisphere, known for the spurred petals Pu ...

and wild bergamot. Aquatic vegetation that is native to the lake itself include bulrushes,

cattail ''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in A ...

s, water arums, water plantains, water lilies, arrowheads,

blue flag iris ''Iris versicolor'' is also commonly known as the blue flag, harlequin blueflag, larger blue flag, northern blue flag, and poison flag, plus other variations of these names, and in Great Britain, Britain and Ireland as purple iris. It is a spec ...

es,

smartweed ''Polygonum'' is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plant in the buckwheat and knotweed family Polygonaceae. Common names include knotweed and knotgrass (though the common names may refer more broadly to plants from Polygonaceae). In the ...

s and pickeral weeds. Native shrubs found around the lake include speckled alder, smooth serviceberry, Allegheny serviceberry, nannyberry,

red osier ''Cornus sericea'', the red osier or red-osier dogwood, is a species of flowering plant in the family Cornaceae, native to much of North America. It has sometimes been considered a synonym of the Asian species ''Cornus alba''. Other names includ ...

gray dogwood ''Cornus racemosa'', the northern swamp dogwood, gray dogwood, or panicle dogwood, is a shrubby plant native to southeastern Canada and the northeastern United States. It is a member of the dogwood genus ''Cornus (genus), Cornus'' and the Family ...

silky dogwood Silky dogwood is a common name for two species of shrubs, formerly treated as a single species: * ''Cornus amomum'', a more southerly species found in the eastern U.S. * ''Cornus obliqua ''Cornus obliqua'', the blue-fruited dogwood, silky dogwoo ...

, broad-leaved meadowsweet, swamp rose, spicebush,

buttonbush Buttonbush is a common name for several plants and may refer to: *''Cephalanthus'', a genus of shrubs or small trees in the madder family, Rubiaceae, especially: **''Cephalanthus occidentalis'', the common ''Cephalanthus'' species in eastern North ...

, shining willow, slender willow,

black willow ''Salix nigra'', the black willow, is a species of willow native to eastern North America, from New Brunswick and southern Ontario west to Minnesota, and south to northern Florida and Texas. Description ''Salix nigra'' is a medium-sized decid ...

and

pussywillow Pussy willow is a name given to many of the smaller species of the genus ''Salix'' (willows and sallows) when their furry catkins are young in early spring. These species include (among many others): *Goat willow or goat sallow (''Salix caprea' ...

Animal life

Indigenous animal life includes muskrats, great horned owls and

painted turtle The painted turtle (''Chrysemys picta'') is the most widespread native turtle of North America. It lives in slow-moving fresh waters, from southern Canada to northern Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They have been shown to prefer l ...

s. Some fish and bird species also thrive in the lake, including

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, but ...

, various sunfishes,

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch, American river perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Samu ...

crappie Crappies () are two species of North American freshwater fish of the genus ''Pomoxis'' in the family Centrarchidae (sunfishes). Both species of crappies are popular game fish among recreational anglers. Etymology The genus name ''Pomoxis'' ...

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...

, and

northern pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus '' Esox'' (the pikes). They are typical of brackish and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). They are known simply as a ...

Human usage

The town of Richmond Hill maintains three municipal recreational parks along the shores of Lake Wilcox. These are Jesse Vanek Park, Lake Wilcox Park (previously known as Sunset Beach Park), and North Shore Parkette. The Lake Wilcox Fish and Wildlife Refuge is left in a natural state. The lake itself is used for

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

kayaking Kayaking is the use of a kayak for moving over water. It is distinguished from canoeing by the sitting position of the paddler and the number of blades on the paddle. A kayak is a low-to-the-water, canoe-like boat in which the paddler sits fac ...

, and

boating Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether Motorboat, powerboats, Sailing, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sp ...

References

{{authority control Richmond Hill, Ontario

Wilcox Wilcox may refer to: Places ;Canada *Wilcox, Saskatchewan ;United States *Wilcox, Florida, an unincorporated community in Gilchrist County, Florida *Wilcox, Missouri *Wilcox, Nebraska * Wilcox, Pennsylvania *Wilcox, Washington * Wilcox, Wisconsin * ...

Landforms of the Regional Municipality of York