Many lakes in the Sudbury region of Ontario have been affected by acidic and metal inputs as a result of local smelting operations. Several initiatives are now underway to restore some of these systems. Long-term limnological data are rarely available, therefore lake managers must use proxy methods to set reasonable targets for lakes undergoing mitigation. Daisy Lake is presently an acidic (pH 4.7), metal-contaminated lake (Ni=370 μg L−1; Al=350 μg L−1), that has been selected for mitigation efforts. We used fossil pollen analysis to reconstruct past changes in terrestrial vegetation, and paleolimnological techniques (primarily diatoms and chrysophytes) to identify pre-disturbance conditions and to reconstruct past changes in water quality variables in Daisy Lake. Our data indicate that, if Daisy Lake and its watershed are limed to restore the lake to a state that approximates the pre-disturbance natural pH, the lake water pH has to be about 1.5 pH units higher than its present level.