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.
The only way to protect the shoreline is to plant - Natural Edge testimonial
Mike and Margo are two volunteers from the Thousand Islands Area Residents Association (TIARA) in Ontario. In this video, they share why they helped with a recent The Natural Edge restoration planting and why they think native plants are so important for protecting the health of shorelines and their local river.
This World Water Day, see the amazing fish habitat projects you have already helped complete!
This blog post centers around Long Sault Creek, a beautiful cold-water creek that was able to be restored thanks to the generosity and hard work of individual donors and community groups. It shows a before and after photo of the creek, and provides context about the value of cold-water creek restoration projects for building up native trout habitat.
Three Summers with Watersheds Canada
This personal reflection was written by a past intern that describes her experience supporting the pilot years of Love Your Lake, our shoreline assessment program. Step into the field with her to hear of her experience performing shoreline assessments and interacting with passionate lake stewards at events. Expand your horizons through hearing her views on building up freshwater stewardship around lake communities.
Time is Running Out: An Interview with Al Best
Al Best is the President of Carson, Trout, Lepine and Greenan Lakes Association, and has participated in Watersheds Canada’s Love Your Lake program and Natural Edge program. Al was a strong advocate on his lake association, which resulted in him getting our Love Your Lake on his lake to assess the shorelines and also in him restoring his shoreline through our The Natural Edge program. Read this blog post for a full interview with Al to hear his thoughts on our Love Your Lake program, the impacts of the program on his lake, how it has changed his views on lake health, and much more!
Top 5 Ways to Support Winter Wildlife blog
Winter in Canada can be difficult, especially for wildlife. Moreover, the increased development of natural areas has placed stress on species throughout the year but particularly in the wintertime. However, the silver lining is that there are things you can do to help support your shoreline wildlife this winter, though. Read this blog post to learn about some ways to do so, including supporting native plant growth, reducing your disturbance around shorelines, winterizing your chemicals, and more.
Turn Off the Lights! by Love Your Lake
The light from ongoing construction can disrupt species’ feeding or breeding behaviours. This blog post provides some more information on this topic, using the example of birds and their migratory patterns.
Twenty years of Watersheds Canada
Watersheds Canada was proud to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2022. This blog post, written by executive director Robert Pye, reflects on our organization's impact on freshwater ecosystems across Canada and all the diverse wildlife they host. He also discusses how much more work there is do, especially in the face of a changing climate, invasion by alien species, blooms of harmful algae, and other issues affecting our freshwater.
Using Benthic Macro-invertebrates as a Way to Assess Aquatic Pollution Levels blog
Benthic macroinvertebrates are excellent bio-indicators of freshwater health, since they spend large parts of their lifecycle in the water and are very sensitive to different levels of pollution they encounter over their lifetime. Read this blog post to learn about how biomonitoring works, what some of the key species are, and how you can take part in benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring yourself.
Valley Heritage Radio 98.7FM CJHR interview - December 16, 2021
Monica Seidel from Watersheds Canada speaks to Andrew Cartright of Valley Heritage Radio about a fish habitat restoration project that took place on Olmstead and Jeffrey Lakes in Renfrew County.