Pine River Watershed

Province gives $40,000 to Pine River Watershed Initiative

On hand for the presentation are Don Farrell (L) and Dave Gibson of the Pine River Watershed Initiative Network, Huron-Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell, Huron-Kinloss councillor and network director Anne Eadie, Arran-Elderslie mayor Ron Oswald of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and network co-ordinator Adrienne Mason
The Pine River Watershed Initiative Network received a significant financial boost Thursday (May 27), with a total of $40,000 from the province to put toward this program, helping to improve water quality in the watershed.

Huron-Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell was on hand to make the presentation, beside one of the group's signs on property owned by Dave Gibson on Bruce County Road 7, just north of Ripley.…continue reading»

Here's a short but fascinating federal survey of manure use across Canada, with a chart showing which watersheds use how much manure (in tonnes per hectare).

Southern Ontario has six of the country's Top Ten manure-producing regions, including the top three, so we own the podium on that. The Penetangore, Saugeen and Maitland watersheds are all up there. The survey is from Stats Can, based on 2006 Census of Agriculture data, and published in December of 2008. Access is free, so it might be of interest to the whole Bruce Beach Cottagers' Association.

A geographical profile of livestock manure production in Canada, 2006

Tom Spears… continue reading »

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.