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.
Natural Edge – Spring Planting Success!
This blog post highlights the impact made by The Natural Edge program in 2015 with regards to shoreline naturalization, and provides an overview of how the program is structured.
Natural Is Gorgeous!: Jane Discovers the Benefits of the Natural Edge
We at Watersheds Canada love stories about the impact of our programs on participants. This blog post is an interview with Jane, a past participant of The Natural Edge program. She explains what made her want to decide to restore her shoreline, what has changed since she completed the project, what her experience was like with our organization, and much more.
Nature Discovery Backpack workbook
This booklet is designed for students to explore and learn about nature, specifically the Tay Watershed. It provides tips for safely exploring nature, activities to discover local species and biodiversity, and ways to help protect the environment. The booklet includes information on the riparian zone, water quality, and the importance of native plants. It also encourages students to participate in community science and nature journaling.
Nature Discovery Backpack – A Checklist to Pack-Your-Own Adventure! by Watersheds Canada
This document provides a checklist for packing items for outdoor adventures. It includes items such as a backpack, water bottle, hat, notebook, and pencils. The checklist also covers specific items for different types of adventures, such as a tick safety kit for forest adventures and goggles for aquatic adventures. The checklist is intended to help individuals prepare for their outdoor activities and minimize their impact on the environment.
Nature Search
The document is about an activity called Nature Search. It focuses on ecosystems, specifically freshwater and riparian areas. The activity aims to explore biodiversity and the impact of human activities on the environment. It also touches on the importance of native species, such as the monarch butterfly, and the effects of plastic pollution on the shoreline.
Non-native earthworms: Entering the second wave of invasion webinar with Dr. Michael McTavish
This is a handout from our webinar, "Non-native earthworms in Canada: Entering the second wave of invasion". Non-native earthworms are highly influential ecosystem engineers that fundamentally change the habitats they invade. They are a major challenge to conservation and restoration as there are currently no practical, large-scale options to control them. The invasion of non-native earthworms in Canada is a recent phenomenon, with the second wave of invasion being led by species from Asia. The handout provides information on the signs of an invasion and what can be done to control the spread of non-native earthworms.
Nora Hammells Natural Edge shoreline renaturalization program testimonial
Using 50 native shrubs and wildflowers that came in the Natural Edge Shoreline Re-Naturalization Starter Kit, Nora's property is well on its way to providing shade and habitat to wildlife, and shoreline stabilization and filtration.
North Saskatchewan River Basin Councils Natural Edge testimonial through RBC Tech for Nature grant
The North Saskatchewan River Basin Council is a non-profit in central Saskatchewan that has been working on source water protection & land stewardship projects since 2008. They work with RM’s communities, First Nations, schools, and industry on environmental stewardship initiatives and programming, including delivering the Natural Edge shoreline renaturalization program. This year they were able to provide the program to shoreline property owners thanks to generous funding from RBC Tech for Nature.
On the Ice Road to Restoration: Reflecting on our recent Walleye Habitat Enhancement Project
On February 6th, 2025, staff from Watersheds Canada's Fish Habitat program met with volunteers and partners on the shores of Big Clear Lake to restore a historic walleye spawning bed. This blog post provides an account of what happened that day and the impact that it made on both the lake ecosystem and its surrounding community.