The stewardship services coordinator with the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority said they're working on the last phases of the Garvey Glenn Watershed project.
Geoff King said they started the project on about 4,000 acres of land between Dungannon and the lake shore in 2010. They started by working with landowners on improving soil health, and cover crops was a big issue.
"The key was prevention, working with landowners first on improving soil health and especially cover crops was a big issue," said King. "We have a lot of long-term monitoring and the results showed that a lot of our major impacts were happening in winter when there was no cover on the land."
King said they've done a lot of monitoring on the area and that shows a lot of the major impacts of climate change, among other factors, occurs in the winter when there isn't any cover on the land.
The second phase was looking at things like erosion control, berms and grass waterways to slow the water down and let it soak in instead of letting it run off quickly. The final stage was along the water courses, trying to get the buffers back in place.
The project will be completed in the next two years but King said one of their biggest challenges now is funding.
"Now we have more landowners wanting to do additional projects and we don't have funding available to do all the projects that we have lined up at this point, so we're always re-applying for additional funding to keep it moving," said King.
