ACO Muskoka campaigned to stop a project that would disfigure the heritage landscape of Bala Falls by building a generating station. The project also would destroy a previously designated canoe portage that was used by First Nations for centuries before the arrival of European settlers. This site on the main street of Bala is designated a Heritage Conservation District. ACO Muskoka was a party at an OMB Hearing to defend the designation. The designation remains. The project is nearing completion.

November 2017, ACO Muskoka collaborated with Swift River Energy Limited and others to research a rock face with inscriptions (G.V. WILLSON HIRAM DUPUY PITTSBURG US 1888 and W.A.T. and G.G. BIRRELL, AUG, 1919, LONDON, ONT) that was unearthed during excavations. Liz Lundell, founding president of ACO Muskoka, found that the Pittsburgh Rod and Gun Club tented at Bala Falls in 1888. Willson, a prominent Pittsburgh businessman and DuPuy, a dental surgeon, were both members. W.A.T. Birrell, 18, and his brother, Gordon, 19, worked as electricians for Hydro in London.  An historically significant finding has been researched and saved.  (See: “The Forgotten Past Chiselled in Rock” by Jack Hutton, ACO magazine Acorn, Vol 43, #1, Spring 2018.)