Media Release – Lake Links 2020

“Effective Engagement for Positive Action” 2020 Lake Links Webinar Workshop Join us at our 19th Annual Lake Links Workshop, “Effective Engagement for Positive Action”, on Saturday, October 24th, 2020 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. as a free online webinar. At this year’s workshop, learn how to better engage with your lake, family, and lake community and discover ways to protect the lake environment and ecosystem. To stay connected this year amidst COVID-19 and physical distancing, we will ... Read More

Attend a shoreline naturalization planting workshop with Chloe Lajoie of Watersheds Canada! Learn best practices for fall planting and how to choose suitable native plant species to naturalize your shoreline. Advanced registration is required so contact tracing can take place if needed (see below). Participants must also fill in a COVID assessment form before arriving on Friday morning. This form is confidential and can be filled out here: ... Read More

Join our Executive Director, Barbara King, for "Standing on the Dock in the Rain: Landscaping your shoreline property for wildlife and water quality", a free online webinar hosted by the River Institute on August 5th @ 7pm. Watersheds Canada has been working on freshwater issues for 12 years. They develop programs such as ‘Love Your Lake’ which promotes healthy shorelines for healthy lakes, ‘The Natural Edge’ which is a shoreline naturalization program, Fish Habitat Programs and many others. ... Read More

July 27, 2020, Perth, Ontario – Watersheds Canada, Canadian Wildlife Federation, private donors, and the Love Your Lake Program are helping property owners across Eastern Ontario naturalize their shorelines with the new Natural Edge shoreline re-naturalization starter kit. Lakes in Ontario are dominated with high levels of shoreline development and nutrient loading. Water quality studies show that much of the poor water quality is linked to land-based activities and lack of shoreline ... Read More

Watersheds Canada staff Maggie and Mel were recently on Mississippi Lake to do their Love Your Lake training. They will learn how to use the peer-reviewed, detailed protocol to evaluate shorelines, noting the degree of impact on and near the shore. These protocols will create property-specific reports outlining voluntary actions that property owners can take to improve the health of their lake. These reports will be ready later this year. This year, Watersheds Canada will survey Kashwakamak ... Read More

Thanks to incredible community partners like the Muskrat Watershed Council and Algonquin College Waterfront Campus, last year the Natural Edge program was able to plant 15,000 native tree and shrub species to help remediate current water quality issues including sedimentation and nutrient loading from agricultural properties lacking critical vegetative buffers. On a recent site visit to check on the plants, we discovered many of them were thriving! These species will be critical in naturalizing ... Read More

Spring planting update from Melissa Dakers, Watersheds Canada lake stewardship coordinator: "While following the strict health and safety measures in place during the pandemic, a few staff from Watersheds Canada and Quinte Conservation, and a few tree planters, were able to plant 4,000 native trees and shrubs. We all travel by ourselves to the site, use our own equipment, and are 6m apart or more from each other to safely complete the project. The planting was done along a tributary through ... Read More

I hope that all of you are doing well and staying safe during this time. At Watersheds Canada, we are working to adapt our programs to help all of you keep our freshwater healthy during these unprecedented times. Our staff of 6 are currently working reduced hours from home; however, we are also facing our own challenges with the impacts of COVID-19 on our organization. Unfortunately, we have been heavily impacted by the loss of funding and changing grant priorities. Some of our funding ... Read More

To celebrate Earth Week, the Natural Edge Program is releasing the updated version of the Shoreline Habitat Creation Manual. This free resource offers over 14 resources to enhance habitat for landowners. Some of them are as easy as "retiring" your lawn by creating a no-mow zone, while other projects will see you creating habitat structures to provide habitat and protection from animals, like creating a turtle nest protection cage. Download the Natural Edge - Shoreline Habitat Creation ... Read More

                      Media release Love Your Lake Program Celebrates Expansion April 9, 2020, Perth, Ontario – Watersheds Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF) are celebrating another successful year of their Love Your Lake program as it expanded to British Columbia in the summer of 2019. “The Love Your Lake program helps engage lake communities, bringing awareness on the importance of taking individual actions on their properties. If everyone focuses on the ... Read More