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.
Forest Kit Workbook
This activity book is designed for students to learn about nature and the riparian zone. It provides tips for safely exploring nature, activities to discover wildlife and ecosystems, and ways to help protect the environment. The book includes information on bird identification, native wildflower seed kits, and community science programs. It also provides resources for further learning and encourages students and families to take action to protect nature.
Freshwater Kit Workbook
This booklet is designed for students to explore and learn about nature. It includes activities and exercises to help students understand different species, ecosystems, and the impact of human activities on the environment. The booklet also provides tips on how to safely explore nature and how to contribute to conservation efforts. Through the activities and exercises, students will develop their observation, identification, and critical thinking skills, and gain a deeper appreciation for the natural world.
Frog Life Cycle activity
A handout to guide you through the activity of colouring, cutting, and assembling a handout to create a visual representation of the life cycle of a frog.
Frog identification guide – adapted from Toronto Zoo
This document introduces Ottawa frogs, describing their colors and sounds. The Green Frog has a green to brown color, a bright yellow throat, and dark brown or black spots. The Leopard Frog has a green to brown color and dark colored lines on its back legs. The Bullfrog is also mentioned, but only as a name.
From Rain to Root webinar with Rosmarie Lohnes
This is a handout from our webinar, ""From Rain To Roots: Slowing Shoreline Erosion With Storm water Management Techniques". Native plants along shorelines act as a buffer to protect waterways. Having a large shoreline buffer helps to protect water quality by reducing pollution as well as stabilizing water levels and water temperature. Healthy shorelines also provide habitat for a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial species. Effective storm water and runoff management is critical to protect freshwater areas.
Garlic Mustard webinar with Dr. Michael McTavish
This is a handout from our webinar, "Garlic Mustard: New insights into the ecology and management of an old adversary". Garlic mustard is a non-native invasive herb common in forested habitats. It was brought from Europe in the 1860s and has a biennial life cycle. Management is often labour-intensive and short-term, but can increase community engagement and awareness. Effective management requires prioritizing sites, sustaining long-term efforts, and considering the impact after control.
Garlic Mustard – New insights into the ecology and management of an old adversary handout
Garlic mustard is a non-native invasive herb that competes with native plants, reducing biodiversity and altering soil chemistry. It has a biennial life cycle and can become a dominant understory plant in as few as 5-7 years. Effective management requires prioritizing sites, sustaining long-term efforts, and considering the consequences of control. The document provides information on control methods, including physical, chemical, and biological approaches.
Get to Know your Pollinators
Pollinators are a type of insect or animal that helps plants reproduce. Without them, we wouldn't have our beautiful wildflower gardens, the clothes on our backs, the grains in our bread, the spices in our food, and so much more. Get to know the major groups of pollinators that are native to Canada, from bees to hummingbirds, in this blog post!
Giving Back to Your Freshwater: Using The Natural Edge to create a resilient and beautiful shoreline
Natural shorelines, those with lots of native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers, are healthy shorelines. This blog post reviews current trends in shoreline ownership with regards to shoreline health, and provides an overview of The Natural Edge program which seeks to improve it. It also provides some advice on how everyday people can take action to improve conditions for their own lake.