Pine River Watershed

Some of the Bruce Beach cottagers had indicated an interest in helping to do some tree planting along the Pine River as part of the PineRiver Watershed Improvement projects. I believe they were hoping to help in the summer while on vacation.

This is very short notice but I wanted to tell you that planting is in progress this week. Last fall, we had arranged with Saugeen Valley Conservation and 12 different land owners along the Pine River watershed to plant 68,000 trees. Understandably we can not plant this many trees by hand. Saugeen Valley Conservation people prefer to machine plant the trees if possible, then have professionals hand plant where necessary. However, they do appreciated help from groups such as 4H Club, Lions Club, cottagers, etc. As I said this is very short notice, because trees are ready and planting needs to be done early spring. We have arranged with Saugeen Valley Conservation people to have 4H and Lions groups to help this Saturday, May 2nd. If any cottagers wish to join in, they would be very welcome.… continue reading »

Written by James Morgan

Local watersheds are not in the best health. According to the Watershed Report Card from Saugeen Conservation, the surface water quality in Kincardine's Penetangore River gets a "C" grade, and forest cover levels only get a "D." The one bright spot is ground water quality, it gets an "A." The so-called "Lake Fringe" watershed along Lake Huron stretches from Kincardine to Southampton. Surface water there still gets a "C," the tree cover grade is slightly better, at "B."

Saugeen Conservation and Trees Ontario are offering a subsidy of 65 cents per tree to landowners who want to reforest their properties. Kincardine Councillor Ron Hewitt says more help is needed. He says farmers can't be expected to pay the full price and the province needs to cover more of the costs.

Hewitt says the Penetangore and Pine River watersheds are probably the two worst in Saugeen Conservation's territory. He says it's a frustrating situation to deal with but if the public isn't made aware, nothing can be done about it.

Saugeen Conservation Water Quality Specialist Martha Nicol says the lack of tree cover and wetlands in the watersheds are to blame for their poor condition.

Brian MacEachern has been composing numerous letters to the council, etc. concerning the algae in the lake, one of which follows. Anyone who wants to be included in Brian's list of names on this correspondence should contact him directly.… continue reading »

The following comments by Geoff Peach at the Pt Clark AGM on Saturday are worth sharing with BBCA members.… continue reading »

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From my perspective, Huron-Kinloss is one of the more active municipalities along Lake Huron with respect to environmental issues.  That being said, the point is that the Province and Feds are essentially invisible on lake issues. There are people attending meetings, but financial commitment to address local issues is absent. Some money is coming in from the federal EcoAction program, but it is onerous to manage, and a drop in the bucket in terms of what is needed.  The Feds are spending more on the remediation of Lake Simcoe, than all of the Great Lakes combined.  Why?  Mainly politics and influential people in the Lake Simcoe area being squeaky wheels.