Trout Unlimited Canada is announcing they’re focusing efforts on restoring vegetation along freshwater areas across the country.
The organization is launching a pilot project along the Armstrong Creek Trail in Markdale and also marks the completion of a multi-year dam removal and cold-water stream rehabilitation campaign.
Trout Unlimited’s Cooling Stream program specifically focuses on riparian areas, which are the areas of vegetation between the water and the land along streams, rivers, and lakes.
Plants within these buffer zones are adapted to handle spring floods and summer low-flow periods, which in turn makes the local ecosystem more resilient.
Funding for the rehabilitation is a part of the federal government’s 2 Billion Trees program, which provided $296,000 toward the effort.
In a media release, Lesley Peterson, the director of Trout Unlimited Canada, says that ensuring riparian ecosystems are healthy is an easy way to encourage plant growth and help curb carbon emissions and global warming.
Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, was quoted as saying that protecting plant life along the Armstrong Creek Trail also provides a safe spawning ground for native brook trout, which is a vulnerable species.