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.
Are There Alternative Solutions to Road Salts?
There is no doubt that managing road salt pollution is a top priority issue here in Canada. But what other options do we have? How can we keep our roads safe without sacrificing the health of our freshwater ecosystems? This blog post outlines some possible alternatives that researchers are investigating, including organic de-icers, traction agents, geothermal heated pavements, and more.
Bank Swallows webinar with Heather Polowyk
This is a handout from our webinar, "Bank Swallows: Life history, threats, and ways you can help". Bank Swallows are aerial acrobats that eat insects while in flight. They are a group at risk, with Canada losing 59% of its aerial insectivore populations. Habitat loss, degradation, and climate change are major threats. There are ways to help, including joining the SwiftWatch program and taking action at home.
Best Practices for Municipalities: Reducing Pollution from Pools and Hot Tubs
This blog post shares the best ways municipalities can help the public reduce pollution from pools and hot tubs. Learn about everything from wastewater management planning, to enacting by-laws, to monitoring and reporting, to raising public engagement and awareness and more.
Best Practices from the ECCC Code of Practice: Aiming for Reduced Salt Pollution
Environment and Climate Change Canada's document, the “Code of Practice for the Environmental Management of Road Salts”, is an important contribution to the discussion about managing road salt pollution. This blog post discusses and summarizes the practices endorsed by this code to facilitate the process of making prudent decisions about road salt pollution.
Biomonitoring is for everyone webinar with STREAM and Living Lakes Canada
This is a handout from our webinar, "Biomonitoring is for everyone: How project STREAM combines citizen science with DNA technology". Benthic macroinvertebrates are aquatic insects without a backbone that are used as biological indicators to assess the health of a waterbody. Biomonitoring is a method that combines citizen science with DNA technology to understand watershed health. The project STREAM uses DNA metabarcoding to identify taxa present in benthic macroinvertebrates.
Blog Posts (Community Gardens) by Watersheds Canada
This collection of blogs covers various topics related to community gardening, including pollinators, native plants, and urban flora. The authors provide tips and information on how to support local ecosystems and promote sustainability. The blog also features guest posts and articles on related topics.
Blog Posts (Community Science)
This collection of blogs features various articles about community science. The authors discuss topics such as the importance of native plants, the impact of plastic pollution, and the benefits of natural shorelines. They also share tips and resources for creating wildlife habitat and reducing plastic waste.
Blog Posts (Fish Habitat) by Watersheds Canada
This collection of blogs covers various topics related to fish habitat. The articles provide information on how to create a resilient shoreline, the importance of aquatic vegetation, and ways to enhance fish habitat. The blogs also include references and resources for further learning.
Blog Posts (Invasive Species Management) by Watersheds Canada
The Watersheds Canada Blog is a collection of articles about environmental conservation, lake health, and shoreline restoration. The blog features articles on topics such as seed and genetic diversity, pollinators, and the importance of native plants. The authors discuss the impact of human activities on the environment and provide tips and advice on how to protect and restore lakes and shorelines. The blog also features personal stories of individuals who have participated in shoreline restoration programs and the benefits they have experienced.