So far, 10 landowners have restored eight hectares (20 acres) with swamp white oak, shagbark hickory, ninebark and other native trees and shrubs in the Rondeau Bay area on Lake Erie’s north shore, one of North America’s most valuable resting areas for migrating birds.
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| Ninebark, a native shrub planted to create riparian buffers along Lake Erie’s Rondeau Bay. Photo: Wasyl Bakowsky/MNR |
The long-term goal is to boost the range and amount of natural vegetation in the surrounding watershed by 30 to 75 per cent.
Decades of intensive land clearing have reduced protective forest cover, and farm fields press against the remaining sliver of vegetation edging Rondeau Bay, Water quality is suffering. Excess nutrients from fertilized fields and lawns flow into the bay, feeding the growth of nuisance aquatic plants and frequent algae blooms and making the water unpleasant for swimming and boating.
To improve the quality of surface water entering Rondeau Bay and to increase the diversity and abundance of natural habitats throughout the watershed, the local stewardship council network and its partners are working with landowners to encourage “best management” land practices.
Those include planting “buffers” of native vegetation, including a variety of Carolinian zone and other native southwestern Ontario trees and shrubs, in strips along Rondeau Bay. These forested riparian (or shoreland) buffer strips will prevent eroded sediments from flowing into the bay, filter nitrogen, phosphorus and other chemicals in agricultural run-off, and provide habitat and travel corridors for wildlife. Landowners are also re-establishing wet meadows and tall grass prairies on their properties, in addition to a variety of cool season grass mixtures to help reduce erosion into the watercourses.
Visit Stewardship Kent for more information about the Rondeau Bay riparian buffer project.
Click here to view a map of the project area
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Riparian Buffers – Coming Between Field and Stream
• A landowner using “best management practices” makes simple changes in how they use their land in order to slow soil erosion and nutrient flow into nearby waterways.
• One of the most effective “best practices” is planting trees and shrubs between fields and streams. The roots trap fertilizers, pesticides and other pollutants that would otherwise lower the quality of drinking water and spoil fish habitat. The plants change some pollutants into less harmful substances before they are released into nearby waterways. Other pollutants may remain in the soil, where bacteria and other micro-organisms break them down so they are no longer harmful.
• Riparian buffers also provide food and cover for wildlife, and travel corridors for wildlife such as deer and songbirds.
Project Partners:
- Ducks Unlimited Canada
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada
- Friends of Rondeau
- Kent Cloverleaf Conservation Club
- Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority
- Municipality of Chatham-Kent
- National Wild Turkey Federation
- Ontario Trillium Foundation
- Private landowners
- Rondeau Watershed Coalition
- Stewardship Kent
For more information, contact:
- Don Hector, Coordinator, Stewardship Kent, Ministry of Natural Resources, Aylmer District (519) 354-6274
- Khahy Ho, Lake Erie COA Basin Coordinator, Lake Erie Management Unit, Ministry of Natural Resources, London (519) 873-4647