Water Team News - May 2017

Thanks for your patience as we wait for this year's kit re-supply to arrive.  Half will be arriving by Monday the 29th.  The other half is still two weeks out due to heavy demand at Lamotte.  We will have to abandon the Phosphate test for the time being.  This year we will be monitoring 14 sites throughout the Couchiching Region.  In addition there are two special projects (one at Sundial Creek and the other at Ben's Ditch), and we continue to support the Copeland Forest Friends volunteers who monitor seven sites. A training program for new volunteers will be held on May 31st, and if all goes according to plan we will be welcoming five new volunteers to the team.   In September we are planning for a day of benthic macroinvertebrate identification, and experts from Severn Sound Environmental Association, Ontario Streams, and the Nature Conservancy of Canada have all agreed to participate.  Stay tuned for details.   The  Couchiching Conservancy remains grateful for all the work you do to monitor local streams.  A special thank-you to Meagan Coughlin, who is continuing her internship with us through the summer, and does so much to keep the program running smoothly. -Dorthea

Road Salt In the 1970's, Lake Simcoe had a salt concentration of 10 micrograms per litre of water.   A new study of North American Lakes has found that Lake Simcoe's salt concentration is now 50 micrograms per litre - a fivefold increase.    Read more...

Canadians Conflicted about our Most Precious Natural Resource In 2008, RBC started polling Canadians about their attitude toward water, and the 2017 Report is now out.  Canadians rank water as our most precious natural resource, but at the same time we are apparently  world class water wasters, and took less action last year than we did in 2008 to protect our water. Read More... Thanks to RBC Bluewater who continue to support our Water Quality Monitoring Project.

A National Assessment of Freshwater Health Our Living Waters is hosting a Webinar Tuesday June 13th at 1 pm to present WWF - Canada's first national report on Freshwater Ecosystems.     Register here

Rethinking that Fleece Jacket Experts say there will be more plastic than fish in our lakes by 2050.  That's not just plastic bottles and food packaging, but microplastics - any plastic less than five millimetres in diameter.  Turns out our recycled fleece jackets are a problem, and companies like Patagonia are scrambling to come up with solutions. This short video explores the different types of plastics that are ending up in our lakes.  P roduced by Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and featuring the work of our friends at Ontario Streams!

What feelings does this short film conjure in you?     Pretend you are a river.  Pretend you are a mist who falls so fine - so gentle - that nothing separates water and air.   See the video

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