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.
Sleeping Through the School Year – A Turtles Strategy for Survival in Canada
Canadian wildlife have evolved to have unique and fascinating ways of surviving through our cold winters. This is especially true of reptiles, as they are cold-blooded animals an external source of heat to control their body temperature. Read this blog post to find out how turtles have gained physical and behavioural habits that keep their heart beating through the colder weather!
Small Businesses: Freshwater Conservation Heroes
When it comes to freshwater conservation, every single person has a responsibility to conserve and protect it. This includes small businesses! In fact, their smaller size allows them to make changes to their business practices quickly and efficiently, and they usually have very close ties to the community too. Read this blog post to find out some changes that any small business can make today to help protect our freshwater.
Soil: More Important and Fascinating Than It Seems
Soil is the medium in which life grows. Plants - the start of the food chain that supports everything else - require good soil conditions, and the impacts of our soil quality on the quality of the ecosystem as a whole is, therefore, massive. Read this blog post to learn what makes soil so valuable, what makes good soil quality, and even how you can identify the soil type on your property with a test at home!
Stay Natural, Stay Safe around Ticks
Ticks are tiny parasitic insects found throughout most of Southern Canada. After biting a deer, they can become transmitters of Lyme disease; a debilitating condition that can dramatically impact our quality of life as humans. This blog post provides an overview of ticks, including how you can stay tick-free while still getting out to enjoy your local nature spots.
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?
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.