Saugeen Conservation released its third set of Watershed Report Cards this week. The grades in the Report Cards are based on data gathered over the past five years.
Water Quality Specialist Shaun Anthony explains the data comes from water sampling in local rivers and groundwater wells, and from calculating the amount of forest and wetland cover in the jurisdiction.
According to Anthony, conditions in most of the ten sub-watersheds have improved slightly, although the lake-fringe tributaries, including the Pine and Penetangore Rivers, continue to show stressed environments. Valuable wetlands and woodlands continue to disappear.
Since the last set of report cards, SVCA has planted thousands of trees, initiated programs to improve local waterways, and established additional partnerships with major watershed players.
Collecting this data allows the SVCA to analyze the overall health of the watershed and apply the appropriate grade, from A to F.
The new Watershed Report Card Summary is now available online at www.svca.on.ca.
Saugeen Conservation has one of the largest watershed jurisdictions of all 36 Conservation Authorities across Ontario.
The Saugeen Conservation watershed jurisdiction has been broken down into 10 major sub-watersheds. Individual Report Cards will be completed for each one of these sub-watersheds over the next few months. (Saugeen Conservation image)