(Photo from Tara King - Nature Conservancy of Canada.)
The Grey Sauble Conservation Authority (GSCA) is releasing the results of its watershed report card, achieving good to excellent scores in water and forest conditions.
The authority says the grades indicate many of Ontario’s watersheds, especially those in southern, more urban areas are stressed.
The report card looked at regional surface water quality, forest, and wetland conditions, and are graded from very poor to excellent.
Some of the areas examined included Big Bay Creek, Indian Brook, Little Beaver River, Sauble River, and Sydenham River.
The report card found the water quality grades are high, with most watersheds achieving a grade of good or excellent. It adds ongoing efforts are needed to maintain high water quality grades and improving areas which have lower grades.
Regional forests also scored between good and excellent. In areas with more intensive agriculture, however, the forest condition grades were lower and takes time to improve as it can take several years before any planted trees forms a measurable canopy.
Most watersheds across the regional also scored well, however, there are some areas which did score very poor, including Indian Brook, Sauble Headwaters, Johnson Creek, Little Beaver, River, and Waterton Creek.
Authority CAO Tim Lanthier says, “we are happy to see that our watersheds are generally in very good to excellent condition, though there are areas where we, as a community, need to focus our efforts for improvement. Healthy watersheds provide important benefits to everyone who lives or visits our area. They help to drive recreational tourism, encourage healthy living, and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Together with our partners, stakeholders, and the community, GSCA will continue to provide services that monitor and improve the environment in which we all live, work and play.”
The report identifies one of the challenges the GSCA is facing is limited resources and funding, as it constrains the programs and services which support the watershed.
The GSCA collects water samples multiple times a year and collects quality and quantity information. To date the GSCA has planted close to 4.2 million trees in the area, and manages nearly 30,000 acres of land which enhances the health of the local watersheds.
The report recommends municipalities and agencies work with them on adopting by-laws to protect watercourses and wetlands, adopting their own environmental sustainability initiatives, and supporting local watershed studies and initiatives to monitor water quality and quantity.
The Grey Sauble Watershed encompasses Owen Sound, Arran-Elderslie, Grey Highlands, Meaford, The Town of the Blue Mountains, South Bruce Peninsula, Chatsworth, and Georgian Bluffs.
