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.
Plants for the Pugnose Shiner handout
This document highlights native plants that can help improve watershed health and support species recovery in eco-zone 6a. The plants listed are tolerant to a wide range of soil, light, and moisture conditions. They provide benefits such as stabilizing banks, controlling erosion, and supporting pollinators. Choosing native species will help shorelines and the wildlife that live there.
Pollinator Champion Feature – Alan and Joyce
Let us introduce you to two pollinator champions: Alan and Joyce. After participating in our shoreline naturalization program, The Natural Edge, their shoreline became a hub of biodiversity. This interview with them shares their experience with our program and the changes they saw after the project was completed.
Protecting Canadas Water Quality with Native Plants: My Time at Watersheds Canada
Read this blog post to learn about the experience of Chantal Lefevre, National Edge Regional Coordinator, with our shoreline naturalization program. Hear about the highlights of her time with The Natural Edge, about the impacts she has seen so far, about the process behind our work, and much more.
Protecting habitat for the Pugnose Shiner fish in the Quinte watershed
The Pugnose Shiner is a small but vastly important species of fish. It is currently listed as threatened in Canada under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA) and is also listed as Threatened under Ontario's Endangered Species Act. This blog post tells of our efforts to enhance and restore their habitat in the Quinte Watershed by focusing on education about actions shoreline property owners can take on their lands to protect wildlife habitat quality and availability.
Pugnose Shiner fact sheet
The Pugnose Shiner is a threatened species due to declining habitat quality. The species is vulnerable to waterfront development, removal of aquatic vegetation, and decreased water quality and quantity. A shoreline stewardship and education program is available for property owners in the Quinte watershed. The program provides tools and funding support to protect Pugnose Shiner habitat.
Pugnose Shiner Landowner Engagement and Shoreline Habitat Restoration Project
The goal of this project is to focus on education and actions that you as a shoreline property owner, can take on your land to protect wildlife habitat quality and availability for the Pugnose Shiner fish, a Species at Risk. This project will focus on some of the last remaining habitats of the Pugnose Shiner in the Quinte watershed.
Pugnose Shiner - Wellers Bay and East Lake partner spotlight and individual actions video
The Pugnose Shiner is a small fish in the minnow family that is found in Southern Ontario including near the Quinte watershed. It is assessed as “threatened” by COSEWIC (Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada) and listed as such under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) Schedule 1. It is very vulnerable to declining habitat quality which is often caused by human activities on land. This project thus focused on landowner engagement and action to help enhance and restore local Pugnose Shiner populations and habitat quality.
Restoring Shorelines along the St. Lawrence River, Ontario
A collaborative project between Watersheds Canada and Cataraqui Conservation restored degraded shorelines by engaging community members on shoreline naturalization activities. These native species of trees, shrubs, and wildflowers will reduce shoreline erosion, improve resilience to climate change and safeguard wildlife habitat in the St. Lawrence River Watershed. This project is generously funded by the Great Lakes Local Action Fund through the Government of Ontario.
Restoring Shorelines with the Help of Technology - Latornell 2019
Watch Watersheds Canada's Chloe Lajoie present at the 2019 Latornell Conservation Symposium. Her presentation, "Restoring Shorelines with the Help of Technology", focuses on the Natural Edge program and working with property owners to naturalize their shorelines with native shrubs, plants, and wildflowers. Using Watersheds Canada's self-developed tablet app, planting plans can be created on-site with landowners to meet their property and personal needs.