Welcome to the Watersheds Canada Resource Library!
Here you will find a comprehensive collection of free educational resources dedicated to helping rural shoreline property owners, families, municipalities, lake groups, and educators protect their lakes and restore natural habitat. Explore guides, best practices, case studies, lesson plans, and tools to become a freshwater protector. All resources are freely shareable so please include them in a newsletter, on social media, or printed for a community booth!
Funding support thanks to Peterborough K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation, and S.M. Blair Family Foundation.
Hot Tubs, Pools, and Freshwater: How to Properly Drain Your Water
If you are a hot tub or pool owner, it is your responsibility to know the proper procedures for their use to limit their impact on native freshwater. This blog post provides a primer on the primary risks brought about by these property features, in addition to a step-by-step guide on how you can properly drain your pool or hot tub water to limit your impact on freshwater.
How is Your Pool Affecting Freshwater Ecosystems?
Pools can be a great addition to any property. However, in order to maintain safe swimming conditions, the water can often contain chlorine, bromide, salt, and algaecides which can cause damage to freshwater ecosystems if it is not managed properly. This blog post explores some of these potential impacts in detail, and provides some ways that you can help be part of the positive change.
How to Choose Dark-Sky-Friendly Lights
Did you know that your choice of shoreline lighting matters for lake health? Everything from the bulb type and temperature to the type of shade can make a difference. Individual choices significantly impact the fight against light pollution and community action has the power to create lasting change. This blog post outlines some of the nuances about shoreline lighting so that you can make the best choice for your property and for your local wildlife.
How to Engage Community in a Lake Plan PDF
The Mississippi Lake Planning Committee developed a process to engage the community in the development of a lake stewardship plan. The process involved a 25-member Planning Committee, a Technical Advisory Committee, and a Communications Strategy. The committee used a variety of means to communicate with the public, including a website, social media, hard copies, newspapers, and radio. They also conducted surveys, public forums, and presentations to engage the community. The process was successful in engaging the community and resulted in a comprehensive lake stewardship plan.
How to Identify Salt Vulnerable Areas
Salt vulnerable areas are specific parts of freshwater systems that are particularly susceptible to contamination from salts. When addressing road salt concerns in a given community, these areas should be prioritized for monitoring and management as the potential impacts of salt pollution on freshwater wildlife are much higher. This blog post provides some ways to identify salt vulnerable areas near you.
I Spy With My Little Eye
This personal reflection from Habitat and Stewardship Program Manager Melissa Dakers provides a play-by-play of her experience with a night walleye count. She joined the crew of the Malcolm & Ardoch Lakes Landowners’ Association (MALLA) for the night to view the fish using the spawning beds she had worked hard to restore through our Fish Habitat program in the years prior.
In-Water Brush Piles (Woody Debris) Protocol video
This document outlines planning and implementation guidelines for an in-water brush pile project. It discusses the importance of woody debris in lake environments, the benefits of creating additional woody debris habitat, and the steps involved in planning and implementing an in-water brush pile project. The toolkit provides information on the necessary permits, materials, and equipment required for the project, as well as tips for communicating with stakeholders and evaluating the success of the project.
In-water fish habitat restoration project on Olmstead-Jeffrey Lakes
Walleye, pike, and bass on Olmstead-Jeffrey Lakes now have more places to live thanks to community-led restoration project that saw 18 woody debris piles deployed back into the two lakes. This project was made possible because of generous funding from Bass Pro Shops & Cabela’s Outdoor Fund and the Pembroke Petawawa District Community Foundation, and with local partners including Olmstead-Jeffrey Lake Association, Muskrat Watershed Council, Watersheds Canada, Algonquin College Pembroke campus, and Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry – Pembroke. This fish habitat project on Olmstead and Jeffrey Lakes was one of many that Watersheds Canada has delivered in partnership with grassroots organizations and local volunteers over the past seven years. These projects have benefited fish species across Eastern and Central Ontario, specifically through walleye spawning bed enhancements, cold-water creek enhancements, trout bed enhancements, and in-water habitat enhancements through the deployment of brush bundles (woody debris).
Invasive Aquatic Species: The invaders we can and cannot see
When thinking of aquatic invasives, most people think of such species as Asian Carp, Zebra Mussels, or Eurasian milfoil. However, there is a new, much smaller invasive in town: the Spiny Waterflea. Read this blog post to learn what makes this miniscule invasive species so competitive against our native species, what its impacts are on them, and what options we have for managing it.