In September and October, 1967, a helicopter survey was conducted (Cleugh and Hauser 1971) on 463 lakes in this area. Measurements made included maximum depth, Secchi depth visibility, total dissolved solids, and conductivity. Lake areas were determined from aerial photographs. The lakes were numbered consecutively, beginning at 1, in the order sampled. Unsampled lakes in the area were arbitrarily assigned numbers between 464 and 1004 at a later time. The sampled lakes proved to be low in conductivity and dissolved solids, thus making them ideal for chemical manipulations.
Negotiations were conducted for long-term control of 17 watersheds within this area, containing 46 small lakes. By April of 1968, the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests, who controlled the area as Crown Land, had agreed to the setting aside of these watersheds. By August, agreements were signed with the two logging companies (Dryden Pulp and Paper Company and Ontario-Minnesota Pulp and Paper Company) who held the timber licenses for the area, thereby withdrawing these watersheds from forestry activities. In May of 1968, David Schindler was designated "Leader of Experimental Lake Investigations".
Two of Schindler's first tasks were to select a site for the permanent field station and to identify the lakes which would be most suitable for experimental studies. A temporary field camp was set up at Lake 132 and approximately 40 lakes were sampled on a survey basis during the summer of 1968. During the winter of 1968-69, a year-round field station for up to 32 investigators was established near the junction of Lakes 239 and 240. A system of access trails was soon created and the first experimental lake enrichment began in June of 1969 in Lake 227. Also in June, 1969, the ELA meteorological station was established a few hundred metres northwest of the field station.
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