Provincial Water Quality Monitoring Network celebrates 60 years
A province-wide network for monitoring of surface water quality in Ontario is celebrating 60 years in 2024.
The 60th anniversary of this provincial initiative was on June 10, 2024.
The Provincial Water Quality Monitoring Network (PWQMN) began on June 10, 1964 when environmental monitoring staff collected the first water quality sample on a site on the North Maitland River, within the Healthy Lake Huron region.
Since that time, network partners have worked across Ontario to ensure there is the knowledge and data needed to make the necessary decisions to protect water quality in the Province.
Mari Veliz, Healthy Watersheds Manager at Ausable Bayfield Conservation, would like to congratulate all the partners, particularly the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, that have helped the Network sample successfully for 60 years.
This level of collaboration is a huge accomplishment, she said, and it is a benefit to the work to protect and enhance water quality in rivers and the Great Lakes.
To learn more about the Provincial (Stream) Water Quality Monitoring Network visit the Province of Ontario web page.
To learn how the data are used to support Watershed Report Cards across Ontario, please go to the Find Your Report Card web page.
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Cover crop incentive available for Lambton Shores farmers
By Jessica Van Zwol, Healthy Watershed Specialist, St. Clair Region Conservation Authority
The spring of 2024 was difficult for planting, to say the least. Cool weather, rain, and late frosts haven’t helped farmers get their crops in for the season. Once the crops are planted, however, thoughts move towards the next action in a farm rotation. For some, it will be wheat harvest and for others, the next big item will be the soybean harvest. Although it’s still a ways off, planning now what cover crop to plant, post-harvest, is a great idea.
St. Clair Conservation and Ausable Bayfield Conservation have an incentive program available for farmers planning to plant cover crops this year. Cover crop mixes (at least three species) planted in autumn 2024, and allowed to overwinter and/or winter kill, are eligible for $15 per acre. No invoices for seed purchases will be required. Staff will require proof of 50 per cent (living or dead) residue remaining in spring 2025.
For more details, contact Jessica Van Zwol, Healthy Watershed Specialist, by email at jvanzwol@scrca.on.ca or by phone at 519-245-3710, extension 241. She can put you in touch with the program that is right for you, including connecting you with advice about which cover crop species will work for your farm and options for managing your cover crop through the seasons.
Planting cover crops provides many benefits to your soils. Cover crop roots can hold onto soil and nutrients in a farm field during the wettest months of the year, where we can see the greatest runoff events happen (e.g., snow melt and late autumn and early spring rains). Without roots securing the soil, wind and water can scour bare fields, carting away valuable topsoil and expensive crop inputs like fertilizers. Additionally, cover crops can add nutrients to the soil, boosting your soil test levels for several cash crops.
Contact your local conservation authority about financial incentives that may be available in your area.
Find out more:
#HealthyLakeHuron
#LandtoLake
#PieceofthePuzzle
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Love Your Greats Day is Saturday, August 10, 2024
A day to celebrate and protect our Great Lakes, called Love Your Greats Day, is held the second Saturday of every August.
In 2024, this special day is on Saturday, August 10.
What actions can you take for Lake Huron, on this day and every day? How will you keep this Great Lake great?
There are many ways you can help Lake Huron:
- To reduce sediment and excess nutrients from reaching the lake, you can plant native species of plants and choose landscaping options that manage water running off of land during storm events.
- To reduce plastic pollution, you may use reusable water bottles and refill them at local water refill stations.
- To prevent pollution, take litterless lunches to the beach, properly dispose of waste, and help clean up litter along Lake Huron.
- To benefit air and water quality, plant trees or donate to tree planting through programs like Footprints to Forests. With a donation of $22, four trees will be planted. Those trees will capture, over their lifetime, 1.26 tonnes of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases.
To learn more actions you can take to keep your Great Lake great:
Share your social media stories with the hashtag #LoveYourGreats or tag @LoveYourGreats on social media
Love Your Great Lakes, on Love Your Greats Day, and on every day.
Learn more:
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Stewardship by rural and urban landowners is an important piece of the puzzle for Lake Huron
By Jessica Van Zwol, Healthy Watershed Specialist, St. Clair Region Conservation Authority
You are an important piece of the puzzle in the work to protect Lake Huron. This is true whether you live or work in the countryside or in a village, town or city.
You can help to ensure this Great Lake remains great by choosing landscaping options that manage stormwater runoff, such as:.
- Harvest your rainwater: directing downspouts into rain barrels can provide free rainwater that can be used in your gardens, potted plants, and hanging baskets.
- Naturalize your lawn and gardens with native plants. Native-to-Ontario plants:
- Can withstand our droughty Ontario summers, thereby reducing the need to water often. Some species of native grasses and wildflowers have much deeper root systems (up to 3.5 metres long) compared to the 10-15 centimetre (cm) root systems of most turf grasses. These deep roots can tap into groundwater resources. A typical lawn requires up to four times as much water as other plants (SOURCE: Toronto Region Conservation Authority, Greening Your Grounds).
- Require minimal, if any, fertilizers because they are adapted to local soil conditions.
- Provide food and shelter for pollinating insects, butterflies and songbirds.
- Create a rain garden: rain gardens look like regular gardens, but they have loose, deep soil that allows them to absorb excess water after rain events, filter out pollutants, and recharge the groundwater supply.
- Plant more shrubs and trees: this action can not only provide habitat and shelter for native wildlife, but it can also reduce overland runoff on your property and reduce the loss of nutrients and soil.
- Pave permeably: use patio pavers instead of concrete for driveways, walkways, and patios, as this method allows high infiltration of water.
Your local conservation authority staff are here to help. They can connect landowners with resources and financial incentives. Such projects include wetland creation and restoration, planting riparian buffers, and mitigating erosion and runoff.
Landowners can meet with staff on their property to discuss project design and implementation. Staff can offer advice, suggest contractors, and answer questions about the process of implementing conservation projects on their property. Grant availability for such projects depends on what funding sources are currently available.
The goal of Healthy Lake Huron is to improve rural water quality and the overall health of Lake Huron. If you are a rural landowner along the southeast shores of Lake Huron (Sarnia to Tobermory), who is interested in learning more about improving water quality, check out the map of Lake Huron's southeast shore at healthylakehuron.ca or reach out to stewardship staff in your area.
Find out more:
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Landowner steward restores acres along Maitland River
Stewardship along the Maitland River: Project Highlight
A local farmer worked alongside Maitland Conservation to retire 6.3 acres of flood plain along the Maitland River this spring (2024).
The site, owned by Kate Procter, now features 1.2 acres of wetland excavated in October of 2023, surrounded by a 5.1-acre buffer of 1,600 trees and shrubs planted this spring by Maitland Conservation.
The project began when Kate reached out to Maitland Conservation expressing an interest in restoring a pasture her family no longer used that was not suitable for row cropping.
Staff met Kate to create a plan that suited her and the site, first for thirteen acres of trees and shrubs planted further downstream in 2023, and then the 6.3 acres completed this spring.
Figure 1: Aerial photo of the wetland and retired pasture from above in June 2024.
The wetland (pictured above), connected to the Middle Maitland River by a spillway, will help to collect sediment and filter nutrients that flow from surrounding farmland, through the pasture, and into the river, which eventually flows to Lake Huron through Goderich.
The tree and shrub buffer includes Cedar; Black Willow; Tamarack, and an additional 20 species. It will assist with the wetland functions, as well as absorb excess moisture in the area, stabilize the soil, and shade out invasive species found on site.
Figure 2: Restoration Supervisor, Shannon Millar, planting Cedar in the buffer around the wetland.
Although Kate initially reached out in 2022, the seed for the project was sown much earlier. Kate explains that her Dad had planted trees on the property up to 60 years ago.
“It has always been our vision to take care of the environment, as much as growing crops and livestock,” Kate said. “It is not only good for the farm, but water quality on our farm, water quality downstream, which we are also concerned about, and biodiversity, making habitat for wildlife and birds.”
Some of these results are already seen, as turtles, sandpipers, and thousands of toads have found this new feature along the river. With time, the water will fill in with vegetation, increasing its habitat provision and water filtering capacity.
The project wouldn’t have been possible without the minds and hands of many: Kate Procter and family; N.C. Jones & Sons Ltd.; and Maitland Conservation. Nor would it exist without the funding partners involved: Ducks Unlimited; Huron Clean Water Project; Maitland Conservation Foundation; and Environment and Climate Change Canada.
From the headwaters to the shore, every project counts and partner counts from #LandtoLake ...
To find out more about the planting, please read the following:
For inquires about Maitland Conservation’s current restoration programs, please reach out to:
Learn more:
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