Cleaning up and maintaining this region's habitat doesn't come without a cost.
The St.Clair Region Conservation Authority has approved its 2015 budget, which totals just over $6-million. That's up 6% or $360,000 from last year. Chair of the board Steve Arnold says taxpayers will foot about 12% or over $701,000 of it.
"So the impact to the regular person is in that $3 per person watershed for the year," says Arnold. "So it's a good investment, I believe, for the value of the service you get, for the price of one-and-a-half cups of coffee at Tim Hortons we get to enjoy a wonderful natural world."
The budget was approved at the authority's recent Annual General Meeting. Arnold says key topics for 2015 include working towards delisting the St.Clair River, eliminating phragmites, and continued education programs.