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.
Hidden Dangers: How Could your Septic System be Affecting Water Quality
This webpage discusses the potential impact of septic systems on water quality, highlighting the risks of untreated wastewater contaminating freshwater sources. Septic systems, commonly used in rural areas, can fail due to excessive water use, improper design, or lack of maintenance, leading to the release of pollutants such as bacteria, viruses, and excess nutrients into the environment. These pollutants can cause algae blooms, deplete oxygen levels, and harm aquatic life, ultimately affecting biodiversity in both freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. Regular maintenance and responsible use of septic systems are crucial to preventing these environmental impacts and protecting Canada's freshwater resources.
History of Cyanobacteria (Blue-Green Algae) in Canadian Waters
Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, have a long history in Canadian waters, dating back approximately 2.7 billion years. These ancient organisms played a crucial role in shaping Earth's ecosystem, but their ability to produce toxic cyanotoxins has led to a bad reputation. Cyanobacteria occur naturally in most water bodies, but large blooms can cause significant harm to aquatic life and human health. Read more in this blog post!
Hot Tubs, Pools, and Freshwater: How to Properly Drain Your Water
If you are a hot tub or pool owner, it is your responsibility to know the proper procedures for their use to limit their impact on native freshwater. This blog post provides a primer on the primary risks brought about by these property features, in addition to a step-by-step guide on how you can properly drain your pool or hot tub water to limit your impact on freshwater.
How Are People Impacting Nature
Shorelines are becoming more developed, changing the way they look and the species that can live there. This has led to various threats to wildlife and water health, including plastic pollution and habitat removal. To help, replanting shorelines with native plants can create a buffer that filters out pollutants and prevents erosion. This can be achieved with the help of organizations like Watersheds Canada.
How are you helping freshwater this year? An Earth Day celebration event
Learn about exciting new projects being delivered this summer to help community groups, property owners, students, and organizations take action for their lakes, rivers, and shorelines.
How Can I Help – Nature Discovery Backpack
Take photos and observations of animals and plants in nature and submit them to online databases. Participate in a shoreline cleanup and report what you found. Volunteer with a local nature group or field naturalist group. Plant native plants or wildflowers to help local wildlife.
How can residents have the greatest impact for their lake? A Natural Edge testimonial
Daryl Neve is the current President of the Dog and Cranberry Lakes Association (DCLA). Recently the DCLA partnered with Watersheds Canada's Natural Edge Program to restore two properties with hundreds of native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. Hear what Daryl shares is the key way residents can have the greatest impact for the lake and water quality.
How Can We Care for Our Lakes?
Shoreline ecosystems, or riparian zones, are especially valuable habitat for terrestrial and aquatic wildlife. The shoreline area includes the first 30 metres of land and is considered the ribbon of life because it supports 70% of land-based wildlife and 90% of aquatic species at some point in their lifetime. Native wildlife like fish, waterfowl, and migratory birds depend on healthy water and natural components like woody debris and aquatic vegetation for food, shelter, nesting, and breeding. Waterfront development has on-land impacts, as well as our freshwater resources. How humans manage different factors like stormwater runoff and natural buffers has impacts on wildlife communities, the local environment, and humans.
How Curtis is protecting the health of the St. Lawrence River
Meet Curtis Lazore, a participant in the Natural Edge shoreline renaturalization program. Curtis lives along the shores of the St. Lawrence River in Ontario and enhanced and protected the shoreline of his property using many native species of trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. Get to know Curtis more in this video and learn about his connection to nature and why he sees individual actions as a key influence in determining freshwater health. Curtis' property was restored thanks to generous funding from the Great Lakes Protection Initiative – Areas of Concern Program by Environment and Climate Change Canada, and through a collaborative project of Watersheds Canada, Mohawk Council of Akwesasne, Raisin Region Conservation Authority, River Institute, and Great River Network.