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CATTLE EXCLUSION PROJECT IN HURON-KINLOSS HELPS PREVENT SEDIMENT FROM REACHING WATERCOURSES – The Pine River Watershed Initiative Network (PRWIN), working with a local landowner and community and funding partners, completed a cattle crossing project in spring of 2021 to fence livestock out of the banks of the river and to reduce erosion and the potential for nutrient loss that could end up in a stream or Lake Huron. The PRWIN Network also reforested the project site with seedlings.
Pine River Watershed Initiative Network and partners complete cattle exclusion fencing project in Township of Huron-Kinloss
Pine River is one of the six priority areas along Lake Huron’s southeast shore. The Pine River Watershed Initiative Network (PRWIN) has partnered successfully, for more than 15 years, with local landowners and funders to implement on-the-ground projects to improve habitat and water quality in the Pine River Watershed on the eastern shores of Lake Huron.
The Pine River Watershed Initiative Network completed a cattle exclusion fencing project, in the Township of Huron-Kinloss, in spring of 2021.
A crossing now protects the riverbed and banks, as livestock pass through, and prevents sediment from being stirred up by animal activity. Livestock are fenced out of the banks of the river or stream and are only allowed access at the installed crossing.
This helps to reduce nutrient inputs to the environment of the Lake Huron-Georgian Bay Watershed and advance monitoring of agricultural best management practices (BMPs). This project will help to address potential threats to water quality and to improve water quality and ecosystem health in the Pine River watershed. This project site was reforested with seedlings. To date, PRWIN has installed 11 kilometres of fencing along the Pine River Watershed.
The Network’s spring project was funded by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) through Great Lakes improvement programs. Also, this funding and local sponsorships supported tree planting sites in Huron-Kinloss.
The PRWIN Network’s recent tree planting projects provided more than 6,000 seedlings at its reforestation sites. The seedlings included Red Maple; White Cedar; White Spruce; Norway Spruce; White Oak; Black Walnut; and Black Cherry.
The Pine River Watershed Initiative Network would like to thank its directors and volunteers for their time and efforts to complete the reforestation sites. They also send out a special thank you to Maitland Valley Conservation Authority for sourcing the seedlings.
Due to public health restrictions during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, PRWIN had to cancel its annual 4-H Volunteer Tree Planting Day, in 2021, for the second year in a row.
“We miss our partnership and friendship with this group of children and their families, planting trees in our watershed,” said Julie Thompson, PRWIN Office Manager. “We also miss connecting with the For Our Youth Horticultural Group Members meeting at our McLarty Environmental Study Area.”
The Pine River Watershed Initiative Network has received a number of awards in recognition of their work protecting Pine River and Lake Huron. These awards include the Ontario Power Generation Environmental Award (2017); the CKNX 920 AM FAB Award (2013); and the Minister’s Award for Environmental Excellence (2012).
“We are well-known for helping to take care of our watershed and we love our community,” said Thompson. “We welcome projects from local landowners and we have developed a close relationship with them.”
If you are in the Pine River Watershed and feel your land and community could benefit, please email pineriverwin@yahoo.ca or phone 519-395-5538 to find out more. Berms, tree planting, cattle crossing and wetlands are the majority of project requests.
FUNDING SUPPORT HELPS MAKE PROJECTS POSSIBLE – The spring project, in 2021, to create a cattle crossing to keep livestock off the banks and to reduce erosion and nutrient loss was possible thanks to the participating Pine River landowner as well as funding from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.
To learn more visit the Pine River Watershed Initiative Network website:
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Thumbs down for litter ... thumbs up for beach cleanups!
Help keep your Great Lake great by joining in beach cleanup at Ipperwash Beach
Beach cleanup at Ipperwash Beach takes place on Saturday, September 11, 2021 at 9 a.m.; Please RSVP if you can take part
You can help keep your Great Lake great by joining in a beach cleanup at Ipperwash Beach.
You are invited to join a beach cleanup at Ipperwash Beach on Saturday, September 11, 2021, starting at 9 a.m. Please RSVP to Jessica Van Zwol, Healthy Watershed Specialist at St. Clair Region Conservation Authority (SCRCA), at jvanzwol@scrca.on.ca.
Those taking part will meet at the Centre Ipperwash Beach Boat Launch at the end of Ipperwash Road, Lambton Shores.
“We need volunteers to come out for an end-of-summer beach cleanup to remove garbage from the beach as well as from West and East Parkway Roads,” Jessica said.
If keeping Lake Huron clean isn’t incentive enough, participants will get an extra incentive too. Those taking part will be provided with a coupon for free ice cream from the Ipperwash Beach Club.
Please be prepared to remain physically distant from other participants, and wear close-toed footwear, hat and gloves (latex gloves, hand sanitizer, and masks will be available). You are also encouraged to bring a refillable water bottle.
Municipal staff from the Municipality of Lambton Shores have graciously offered to remove all the garbage collected during the cleanup.
This event is hosted with support from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation, and Parks.
This is the ninth annual Ipperwash Beach Cleanup.
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Soil erosion mapping project helps stewardship managers understand, respond to trends, patterns
By Laura Hopkins, GIS Technical Assistant, Maitland Valley Conservation Authority
Maps and the analysis of mapped data (typically called Geographic Information Systems, or GIS) allow conservation managers to discover trends and patterns about the landscapes they manage. GIS can help conservation managers to learn new information that might not be obvious from the ground. GIS can be used to determine which locations are more vulnerable to threats such as flooding or erosion.
The five conservation authorities of the southeast shore of the Lake Huron basin worked together to develop consistent mapping methods to learn more about the risk of soil erosion throughout the basin. Mapping soil erosion risk is important because soil erosion leads to water quality issues when soil particles leave the land and enter our streams, rivers and lakes. Soil erosion can be caused by either wind or water, and the focus of this project was soil erosion caused by water, typically called water erosion.
The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) provided water erosion risk mapping based on rainfall, soil, and slope characteristics for the Lake Huron basin. Together, these three characteristics make up the inherent water erosion risk because these conditions are inherent to the landscape and cannot be easily influenced by land use practices.
OMAFRA’s erosion classes of severe; high; moderate; low; and very low were used to classify the inherent water erosion mapping. Figure 1 shows the inherent water erosion map of the Lake Huron basin. This information was used to calculate the land area each erosion class covers for each conservation authority. In this way, by using consistent data and methods, inherent water erosion risk across the Lake Huron basin can be compared and used to identify locations with severe inherent water erosion risk.
Figure 1. Inherent Water Erosion Risk of the Lake Huron Basin.
Locations with severe inherent erosion risk tend to have steeper slopes which can be difficult to farm. This means that some of the severely erodible land is kept under natural land covers, such as forests and grasslands, which are effective at reducing the risk of erosion. The land area with severe erosion risk that’s currently under natural land cover was calculated for each conservation authority.
Figure 2 shows the inherent water erosion risk as well as natural land cover for a small section of the Lake Huron basin. Maintaining the natural land cover of these severely erodible lands is an important stewardship priority in the basin because natural land covers help to protect the water quality in our rivers and lakes.
Figure 2. Inherent Water Erosion Risk and Natural Landcover within the Lake Huron Basin.
The percentage of each erosion class that’s under agricultural production was calculated for each conservation authority. In this way, it was possible to compare how much severely erodible land is currently under agricultural production across the Lake Huron basin. Additionally, crop rotations were analyzed to estimate how much of each erosion class is under a rotation with three or more crop types (such as corn; soybean; wheat; corn) compared to a rotation with two or fewer crop types (such as corn, soybean). This mapping allowed for comparison of crop rotations throughout the basin, which vary from north to south.
In addition to the inherent water erosion risk mapping, Maitland Conservation is testing more advanced GIS analysis in a smaller subwatershed to identify locations that are vulnerable to erosion and runoff. By testing these more advanced GIS analyses in a smaller subwatershed, the accuracy of the mapping can be checked by driving the subwatershed and comparing on the ground observations to mapped information.
Figure 3. Maitland Conservation Employee Verifying Mapped Information.
Identifying areas with severe inherent water erosion will help the Healthy Lake Huron team understand risks to water quality across the basin. The amount of land in natural cover, as well as the land in a 3+ crop rotation, are both useful indicators that can be used to assess changes in land management over time across the basin. Overall, the analysis will help the Healthy Lake Huron team plan future stewardship activities and monitor changes in land management over time. The team is considering additional analysis to build on this effort.
To read the article, and view larger versions of the maps, on the Healthy Lake Huron website visit this page:
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Bayfield-area farmer loves his soil and Lake Huron
Keeping soil, nutrients on land is goal for rural, urban residents
“The goal is to keep dirt on the land.” This was the response from Bayfield-area farmer Rick Kaptein Jr., when asked about why he farms the way he does.
Rick uses no-till, cover crops and permanent pasture on his rolling farm, Tulip Lane, to help keep the soil on his land. The math is simple, he says. The more soil that stays on his farm, the less he has to spend on nutrient inputs. These practices help maintain a profitable agricultural operation but, at the same time, they keep valuable soil and nutrients out of the nearby Bayfield River and, ultimately, Lake Huron.
Rick started to use cover crops to feed his cattle but he soon saw the benefits of having something growing in the ground for the long term, both in terms of weed control and erosion control. He noticed that even a bad catch of Rye was able to slow down the weeds. And, when it comes to storm events with heavy rains, he is relieved to see his soil is not washing away.
“You have got to have a root in the ground in the winter,” he said. “The no-till really helps keep the soil in place with those unexpected rains that might come in July and August.”
Rick admits he is continually learning when it comes to his farming practices and he is keen to see how a new pollinator cover crop mix benefits his soil. Pollinators will most certainly benefit from the Buckwheat and Crimson Clover he planted but Rick is hoping the mix also adds some nitrogen and loosens the soil using the roots.
One thing he has learned is that if he spends a little money (on cover crop seed) he can save a lot of money and this helps both his pocketbook and the lake.
Whether you are an agricultural producer, a rural non-farm resident, or an urban resident there are actions you can take to keep your Great Lake great.
Learn more:
A day to celebrate and protect our Great Lakes, called Love Your Greats, is held the second Saturday of every August.
Saturday, August 13, 2022 is the next Love Your Greats Day.
Organizers invite people, on this day and every day, to reduce plastic use, choose products that don’t pollute, and reduce litter and pick up litter. They also encourage you to consider projects and practices that slow down or capture runoff and keep soil and nutrients on the ground where they’re needed and out of creeks, rivers, and the lake.
Farmers like Rick Kaptein Jr. are using cover crops and no-till to help. If you are in an urban area you can consider rain barrels, rain gardens, and other positive actions. “Each positive action you take adds up,” organizers say.
To find out more actions you can take to protect your Great Lake, visit the Healthy Lake Huron – Clean Water, Clean Beaches Partnership at healthylakehuron.ca (and follow Healthy Lake Huron on Facebook and Twitter) and follow Love Your Greats Day on Facebook at facebook.com/loveyourgreats/ and on their website at loveyourgreats.com.
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ART MEETS SCIENCE MEETS EDUCATION MEETS LOCAL ACTION FOR THE GREAT LAKES: A new piece of artwork, called A Watershed of Clay, was installed at Arkona Lions Museum and Information Centre, at Rock Glen Conservation Area in Arkona, in August. Shown with the artwork, left to right in photo, are University of Guelph School of Engineering researcher Hannah May; and Nina Sampson, Conservation Educator with Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority (ABCA). The clay ceramic art was created by artist Andrea Piller. This art and science project was funded by Guelph Institute for Environmental Research (GIER) and the Food from Thought program.
New artwork installed at Arkona Lions Museum to help visitors learn about watersheds and protecting soil, water
Thousands of visitors to Arkona Lions Museum and Information Centre will know more about watersheds, and protecting them, thanks to the installation of a piece of art called A Watershed of Clay.
“We all need to work together to protect soil and water and we are all a piece of the puzzle,” said Nina Sampson, Conservation Educator with Ausable Bayfield Conservation. “Art moves us and inspires us to look at our landscape in a new way. Visitors to the museum will learn about local watersheds through this artwork and we hope it will inspire them to take positive actions to protect them.”
Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority (ABCA) staff installed the art, at the museum located in Rock Glen Conservation Area (RGCA) in Arkona, in August. Artist Andrea Piller created the ceramic sculptural piece. The artwork is 57 inches (almost five feet) wide and 36 inches (more than three feet) tall. It weighs about 100 pounds. Piller’s ceramic sculptural artwork is inspired by Ontario’s land, sky, and shorelines.
The art project was possible thanks to the work of researcher Hannah May. She is a Masters student and Food from Thought 2020 Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) Scholar working under the supervision of Dr. Andrew Binns and Dr. Jana Levison. As a University of Guelph School of Engineering researcher, she is doing research at the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks’ Integrated Water and Climate Research Station located in Parkhill Creek. May is researching the transportation of nutrients (such as phosphorus and nitrogen) in Great Lakes Basin watersheds where clay soil is common.
Surface runoff, drainage, and erosion can lead to excess nutrient enrichment in the Great Lakes. This can impact the abundance and diversity of species in the lake and could add to toxic algal blooms and eutrophication, which is harmful to human and aquatic health. There is a need to manage water running off of land and to develop strategies to reduce nutrient loss to the Great Lakes as our climate changes, according to May. She said there is a need to understand how watersheds work, how nutrients can reach the lake, and how we can reduce these impacts. The artwork helps to teach the public about nutrient movement in a watershed and the need to manage and reduce those impacts.
Find out more here:
Artist Andrea Piller; researcher Hannah May; and conservation educator Nina Sampson worked together to develop this clay artwork. They wanted to provide a message about the science of watersheds but also to spark curiosity and get viewers to think about how water, watersheds, and people are connected. The mosaic clay tiles show the water cycle and landscape features. Arrows show how runoff; streamflow; groundwater; evaporation; and rain, snow, and other precipitation interact. The project team decided on clay as a material as clay soil is a key part of the landscape along Lake Huron’s southeast shore. Clay has been used in local home construction, for instance.
May said the artwork project has been a fascinating one. “This has been a great chance to connect with people outside my field, to build relationships, and to communicate concepts in a simple and creative way to new audiences,” she said.
This art project was funded by Guelph Institute for Environmental Research (GIER) and the Food from Thought program (a $76.6-million grant from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund). The creation of this artwork is part of an arts-based knowledge mobilization project. GIER has a vision to break down barriers among disciplinary silos and bring the arts, the sciences, the humanities, and the engineering together to tackle complex environmental problems.
Learn more:
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Dr. Justina Ray
We need Healthy Watersheds, Healthy People and Wildlife
Monitoring, managing cumulative effects on watershed scale is important to protect nature in order to protect human and ecosystem health
By Dr. Justina Ray, President and Senior Scientist, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada
The link between protecting natural areas and preventing pandemics received only modest attention as Canadians struggled with the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19) over the past 18 months. This linkage is really at the heart of the issue, however, with 72 per cent of new viral disease outbreaks originating in wildlife.
Why is this happening? By pushing into intact wild areas around the world for resource extraction (logging, mining), to build roads, and to expand urban areas, we have expanded the interface between wildlife and people, raising the odds of exposure to new viruses (which are more than plentiful). As author David Quammen wrote, in The New York Times, “We disrupt ecosystems, and we shake viruses loose from their natural hosts. When that happens, they need a new host. Often, we are it.”
Could it happen here? It is happening here: the spread of Lyme disease is a perfect example of what happens when humans disrupt ecosystems, in this case by fragmenting intact forest areas and thereby allowing Lyme hosts like white-footed mice to thrive, along with black-legged ticks that spread diseases via human contact. Climate change is also a growing factor, including by making our weather wetter and thereby creating more conducive conditions for viral carriers like mosquitoes.
That is why the World Health Organization (WHO) placed “Protect and preserve the source of human health: Nature …” as the number one priority for a “healthy recovery from COVID-19.”
A One Health approach recognizes that the health of natural areas and ecosystems is essential to human health. A great place to implement that concept is on the watershed level. Watersheds are ideal for adopting proactive conservation approaches thanks to their workable but meaningful scale and the multiple benefits that can be gained from good stewardship. These benefits include reduced flood risk, protection of water sources for safe drinking, cooling benefits of tree cover, and mental health benefits from access to green spaces.
We also need to pay much more attention to monitoring and managing cumulative effects in these watersheds: the piling of one impact on another resulting in amplification of negative effects, like combining nutrient runoffs into waterways with higher water temperatures driven by climate change or new highways that lead to more urban sprawl and more fragmented natural habitat. Careful monitoring of key indices at the watershed scale is crucial for understanding our success in managing these so-called environmental determinants of health.
– Why the pandemic story is far from over was addressed by Dr. Justina Ray, President and Senior Scientist with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada, in a webinar to the Healthy Lake Huron – Clean Water, Clean Beaches Partnership in December of 2020. WCS has been a leading voice in pointing to the need for a One World, One Health approach to guard against future pandemics. This approach is based on the Society's extensive scientific research on both wildlife health and effective approaches to wildlife conservation.
To read the article on the Healthy Lake Huron website visit this link:
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Healthy Watersheds, Healthy People and Wildlife
Healthy Watersheds, Healthy People and Wildlife is a presentation, to the Healthy Lake Huron – Clean Water, Clean Beaches Partnership, by Dr. Justina Ray, President and Senior Scientist, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada (WCS Canada).
Watch the presentation now by clicking the link above.
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What forms can Rural Green Infrastructure take throughout the landscape of Lake Huron’s southeast shore?
By Ben Van Dieten, Stewardship Projects Lead, Maitland Valley Conservation Authority
Rural Green Infrastructure (RGI) is a series of methods, structures and practices that can help reduce stormwater impacts and build resiliency across rural landscapes. To create a more resilient landscape means to create one that can better absorb the impacts of a changing climate.
Many RGI features exist naturally within a landscape while others can be enhanced or purposively built. RGI can be categorized spatially according to its location within a landscape, such as in-field; edge-of-channel; and in-channel. Maitland Conservation is excited to be working with landowners across the Maitland watershed to adopt and implement RGI practices.
In-field RGI features can include structures such as Water and Sediment Control Basins (WASCoBs) and Grassed Waterways. These structures are generally built within working fields and help to control overland runoff by directing surface water to more stable pathways. For WASCoBs, this means placing them in a location with significant overland runoff; usually in a ‘low run’ where gullies are beginning to form. The WASCoB intercepts the overland runoff and slowly directs it underground into a buried tile drainage system. Alternatively, a grassed waterway involves reshaping and reseeding that ‘low-run’ in the field to become a permanent vegetated flow path. Overland runoff will still happen; but it will flow through a vegetated pathway as opposed to a working field (and avoid nutrient runoff and soil erosion as a result).
Edge-of-channel (or edge-of-field) RGI features are constructed at the intersection between working fields and watercourses (drains; creeks; watercourses; etc.). This is an important location within the landscape, as it offers a chance to treat or filter runoff before it enters a watercourse. Edge-of-channel features can include things like trees along drains and constructed wetlands. The form and function of these features are highly dependent on the topography/landscape. At the most basic level, trees and shrubs along drains will stabilize banks, provide habitat, and intercept and filter overland runoff as it flows through to the watercourse. Constructed wetlands work by directing runoff into a controlled area where it can be slowly treated before it flows into the watercourse.
In-channel RGI features occur within the channel of a watercourse (drain; creek; river; etc.). These features can help maintain the stability of the drain and improve aquatic habitat, as well as reduce peak flows and future maintenance needs (e.g., cleanouts). These can range from ‘natural channel design’ features to more drainage-orientated features. Some examples of natural channel design would be maintaining meanders in a drain or adding riffles and pools to improve aquatic habitat. Alternatively, more drainage-orientated features would include sediment traps or alternative drain designs that reduce sediment losses.
There are many ways to understand RGI depending on which ‘lens’ one is using. This article has provided a guide on understanding RGI spatially. Lastly, it is important to understand that land management is also a critical piece to resilient landscapes. The ‘first step’ of in-field resiliency starts with reducing tillage; diversifying crop rotations; and planting cover crops where possible. Each of the features and concepts described in this article are just one ‘piece of the puzzle’ to creating a more resilient rural landscape.
#PieceofthePuzzle
For more information, contact Ben Van Dieten at 519-335-3557, extension 245 or bvandieten@mvca.on.ca.
Figure 1. Types of Rural Green Infrastructure.
Figure 2. A Series of Grassed Waterways and Water and Sediment Control Basins or WASCoBs.
Figure 3. Belgrave Creek Restoration Project 40 Years Later.
Figure 4. Meandering Natural Channel.
To learn more, and for larger versions of the images, read the article on the website here:
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Don't forget to visit the Healthy Lake Huron website!
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