Question: What's a great way to help provide communities with clean water, reduce flooding and ensure good fishing?
Answer: Maintain local rivers and wetlands in a natural state so they can do their jobs, naturally.
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| Ontario Natural Resources Minister Linda Jeffrey at the September 11, 2010 opening of the expanded Upper Credit Conservation Area |
Four organizations have taken an important step toward that goal by working together to protect a stretch of the Credit River and the surrounding wetlands, forest and grasslands in the Town of Caledon.
It's all part of the new 57-hectare (142-acre) addition to the Upper Credit Conservation Area. Located just outside Orangeville near the intersection of highways 9 and 10, the property was secured thanks to contributions from Credit Valley Conservation, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, the Region of Peel and Ducks Unlimited Canada.
Adding the property to the Upper Credit Conservation Area protects an important piece of the natural corridor that will help sustain a cleaner, healthier Credit River. The wetlands, forest and grasslands provide habitat for species such as Monarch butterflies, snakes and muskrats, and contribute to a thriving brook trout fishery downstream.
This acquisition will also provide local community residents with opportunities to experience the natural world and explore Ontario’s rich biodiversity close to home.
The property is part of Ontario’s Greenbelt, an area of permanently protected green space, farmland, vibrant communities, forests, wetlands, and watersheds surrounding the Golden Horseshoe. The Greenbelt was created in 2005 to protect key environmentally sensitive land and farmlands from urban development and sprawl.
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| Einstein, a Great Horned Owl, was a guest at the opening of the expanded Upper Credit Conservation Area. The species is found in the area. |
Wetlands – also known as marshes, swamps, fens and bogs – were once seen as undesirable areas that should be drained or filled. Only about 30 per cent of the wetlands found in southern Ontario before European settlement survived. And many riverbanks have been altered from their natural state. Filling wetlands and altering natural river courses deprives communities of valuable benefits.
"Allowing rivers and wetlands to function naturally provides important ecosystem services that would be expensive or even impossible to supply artificially," says Rae Horst, Chief Administrative Officer of Credit Valley Conservation.
Wetlands often act like filters to remove sediments and absorb nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen. And along with natural riverbanks they can also help reduce flooding and erosion and harbour a wide variety of plants and animals.
The benefits of wetlands and natural riverbanks have led the Ontario government, municipal governments, conservation authorities and other organizations to identify and seek to protect wetlands and important natural corridors along waterways.
By doing so, they're helping rivers and wetlands do what comes naturally, and allowing us to reap the benefits.
For more information on wetlands, and on the Ministry of Natural Resources Land Securement Program, visit the wetlands page and the Land Securement Program page on the Ministry of Natural Resources website. More information on the expanded Upper Credit Conservation Area is available at the Credit Valley Conservation website.
Photo Credits: Credit Valley Conservation
