What Are We Doing?
Moving Forward
The Crowe Valley Conservation Authority (CVCA) covers an area of approximately 2,006 km2, and includes the Crowe River, North River and Beaver Creek sub watersheds. The watershed contains many wetlands, small lakes, a high percentage of forest cover and retains much of its natural landscape.
The Crowe Valley Conservation Authority (CVCA) continues to monitor water quality within the Crowe Watershed and report on the information collected. In moving forward we are paving a path for future generations as well as future development in the Crowe Valley watershed. The data collected has been vital for the Source Water Protection Program and will be valuable for future planning, climate change and environmental challenges that lie ahead.
Crowe Valley
At five sampling sites surface water is collected for seven months of the year in the CVCA watershed. Ground water samples are collected annually from seven monitoring wells and ground water levels are continuously monitored. Benthic invertebrates are collected annually from an average of twelve sites spread throughout the watershed. With funding assistance from the MNR Experience Program, the CVCA is able to hire students to collect Benthic samples starting in May. In addition to the Benthic samples there are also water quality samples taken at the Benthic sites for the province wide Biocriteria Project with the Ministry of Environment.
Report Card 2013
For over 50 years, the CVCA has worked in partnerships with its 10 member municipalities, the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ministry of Environment and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. With its early beginnings in dam management dating back to the 1950s, the Authority has been evolving in response to increasing environmental demands regarding the responsible management of watershed resources. This Watershed Report Card is the first of its kind released in CVCA history. The need for continued monitoring and reporting on all resources - water, forests and the management of these resources - is necessary in order to obtain critical data on the health of the watershed. With local support for sustained monitoring and reporting programs the CVCA can continue to deliver programs to protect and manage the natural resources for local watershed residents. There are some gaps that have prevented the CVCA from generating grades for all the indicators in this reporting format. The CVCA has been consistently working on closing these gaps through monitoring ground and surface water since 2006. With established monitoring programs and local support in place, CVCA will be able to improve its capacity to report on additional watershed indicators within the next reporting cycle.
Where Are We? We are one of 36 Conservation Authorities across Ontario under the umbrella organization of Conservation Ontario.
Watershed
What Does This Report Card Measure?
What You Can Do! In urban areas we can protect water by working with our Municipalities and Conservation Authorities through the Source Water Protection Program to help eliminate potential spills and leaks that could affect our drinking water sources.
Surface Water Quality
Forest Conditions
Groundwater Quality
Why Measure?
Although most of the Crowe Valley Watershed is rural, we can still help to protect our water resources in other ways. By properly maintaining septic systems and preventing spills and leaks near water features or wells we can play a important role in protecting these valuable water resources.
Measuring helps us better understand our watershed. It helps us to focus our eorts where they are needed most and track progress. It also helps us to identify healthy and ecologically important areas that requir protection or enhancement.
By ensuring we think about the impact our actions could make on the environment we can also help with such things like following best boating practises, not releasing live bait, maintain buffers around water bodies, using phosphorus free products and in general incorporate responsible actions to take care of our environment.
What is a Watershed? A watershed is an area of land drained by a river or stream. Similar to the branch of a tree, creeks empty into streams, which then empty into larger streams, eventually forming one main trunk. Within this system, everything is connected to everything else. In other words, actions which take place at the top of the system can and do aect those downstream.
Crowe Valley Conservation Authority 70 Hughes Lane, P.O. Box 416 Marmora, Ontario P. (613) 472-3137 F. (613) 472-5516 www.crowevalley.ca
Crowe Valley Conservation Authority has prepared this report card as a summary on the state of our forests, wetlands, surface water, and ground water resources.
Grading A Excellent B Good C Fair D Poor F Very Poor
The standards used in this report card were developed by Conservation Authorities to ensure consistent reportings across the Province of Ontario and are intended to provide watershed residents with information to protect, enhance and improve the precious resources that surround us.