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.
3 Seasons in Review
Step into the field with Ty, riparian health restoration technician, to learn about his hands-on experience with Watersheds Canada's field programs. Take a peek behind the curtain in our shoreline assessments, fish habitat restoration projects, and everything in between. Learn about the impact of the work on both his life and on Ontario's freshwater.
A site visit through The Natural Edge
This video walks you through step-by-step what a site visit from one of our 'The Natural Edge' program staff entails. Learn what makes our tried and true methods so effective for bringing back life onto our shorelines, with benefits for you and for native wildlife.
An Overview of The Natural Edge
This video is an introduction to The Natural Edge program, telling of our process and the many benefits afforded by a naturalized shoreline.
CBC segment May 20/21: Shorelines not a backyard swimming pool, lakefront landowners reminded
This segment originally aired on May 20, 2021 on CBC Ottawa News. Watersheds Canada was featured to share information about why keeping shorelines natural is so important for maintaining lake health.
Coming together to protect the health of Ontarios St. Lawrence River
A three-year, collaborative project between Watersheds Canada, Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, Raisin Region Conservation Authority, River Institute, and Great River Network restored shoreline health in the St. Lawrence River Area of Concern from 2021 to 2024. This project supported important shoreline restoration in the St. Lawrence River AOC. This videos introduces some of these partners and how they became involved with this project.
Creating a Resilient Shoreline: Keeping a natural shoreline that benefits your family and local wildlife
Naturalized shorelines aren't just more beautiful than developed ones: they also provide so many benefits including preventing erosion, providing critical wildlife habitat, preventing geese from entering the property, maintaining water quality, and so much more. Read more about the value of naturalized shorelines, about the process of restoring your waterfront property's habitat, about some great options for plants that you can use, and much more in this blog post!
Currents of Change: Latornell 2019 Vlog
This vlog captures the energy of the Latornell Conservation Symposium, hosted in 2019 in Alliston, Ontario. Follow Digital Communications and Marketing Intern Monica Seidel as she takes you for a tour of the symposium and shares some of what she learned.
Daniel and Susan Gottlieb Lake Stewardship Grant Helps Community Freshwater Initiatives
In 2019, the Daniel and Susan Gottlieb Foundation provided funding support to go towards stewardship projects in their local lake community. This blog post outlines some of the positive impacts made possible by this Lake Stewardship grant, including water quality sampling, invasive species management, and outreach projects.
Doreens Natural Edge testimonial
Wanting to naturalize their property to protect the shoreline and wildlife habitat while also reducing the amount of lawn they had to constantly maintain, Doreen and her husband Rob turned to the Natural Edge Program. Over 600m2 of shoreline was naturalized using over 200 native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. This video shows the progress that has already been made on the property in just three years!