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.
Sustaining Our Freshwater for today and tomorrow
Canada has vast freshwater resources. We use them every day, whether its washing our dishes or swimming in the lake by our cottage. However, with these incredible resources, we also bear a responsibility to make sure others in the future have the same access to them that we do. This blog post is about sustainability with regards to freshwater: how can we work together to protect this natural resource for generations to come?
Ten Days of Winter Fun! (2022)
Our annual '10 Days of Winter' campaign provides you with fun activities, crafts, and resources to help you get outside and connect with nature throughout the winter months. This is the 2022 edition that includes building a winter shelter, doing winter sports, finding animal tracks, and more!
Ten Days of Winter Fun! (2023)
Our annual '10 Days of Winter' campaign provides you with fun activities, crafts, and resources to help you get outside and connect with nature throughout the winter months. This is the 2023 edition that includes maple taffy, nature journaling, building a weather station, and more!
Ten Days of Winter Fun! (2024)
Our annual '10 Days of Winter' campaign provides you with fun activities, crafts, and resources to help you get outside and connect with nature throughout the winter months. This is the 2024 edition that includes stargazing, making a Christmas simmer pot, doing a pinecone experiment, and more!
Ten Days of Winter Fun! (2025)
Our annual '10 Days of Winter' campaign provides you with fun activities, crafts, and resources to help you get outside and connect with nature throughout the winter months. This is the 2025 edition that includes snow painting, bird ID, making conifer tea, and more!
The Benefits of Aquatic Vegetation for Wildlife and Freshwater Health
Despite being referred to as 'weeds', aquatic plants are actually incredibly important for freshwater ecosystem health. In fact, aquatic plant communities serve many of the same ecological functions that terrestrial plant communities do and are just as important for the health and proper function of the ecosystem in which they are found. Learn more about the benefits of aquatic plants with this informative blog post!
The Benthic Zone
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water. It plays a vital role in the health of aquatic ecosystems. Benthic organisms are very important as they are good indicators of water quality. They act as a source of food for bottom feeding animals and contribute to nutrient cycling and pollutant and sediment removal.
The Doug Smith story
Doug Smith was an avid freshwater enthusiast who became our organization's first ever legacy gift donor. Through the funds generously donated in his will, he has personally helped ensure that our habitat restoration, shoreline restoration, and education and outreach work can continue in the years to come. In such a way, his legacy will show in all the freshwater systems that we improve through our programs, with benefits that will echo throughout time. Read his full story in this blog post written by executive director Robert Pye.
The Eastern Red-Backed Salamander and Our Shared Shoreline Responsibility
This blog post, a celebration of World Wildlife Day, shines a spotlight on a small but incredibly valuable species: the Eastern Red-Backed Salamander. Read on to find out how this amazing amphibian can teach us much about the value of shoreline habitats and the crucial role that we can play in conserving these unique ecosystems.