Landowners and stewardship councils across southwestern Ontario — are doing something once unthinkable. They are using The Drainage Act to restore wetlands.
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| Restored wetlands, like the one shown, help to recharge the groundwater table - Photo: Jason Mortlock/MNR |
Landowners once welcomed the act as guide to tile and ditch swampy areas and flooded fields and create more space for growing crops. The problem: in many cases, too much water was taken, too many wetlands erased.
Now, provisions – always there in The Drainage Act – are being used to restore those wetlands. The initiative is called the Wetland Drain Restoration Project, and began modestly in Norfolk County. It now has the support of landowners, municipal engineers and drainage superintendents in eight Southwestern Ontario counties – Essex, Chatham-Kent, Lambton, Middlesex, Elgin, Oxford, Norfolk and Haldimand. Work is already underway at 161 investigated sites, and it’s expanding rapidly.
Crews are re-engineering or disabling tile drainage systems in some agricultural fields, or installing structures and spillways to control water flows in and out of ditches and wetland areas. In many areas, native trees, shrubs and plants are being planted to add to the vegetation already growing along drainage ditches.
The payoff? Restored wetlands recharge the groundwater table, prevent erosion, decrease the incidence and intensity of downstream floods, improve water quality and lower water temperatures to benefit native coldwater fish species, such as brook trout. Stored waters recharge local groundwater tables as conditions become drier, providing better growing conditions for adjacent farmers.
And the urge to restore is spreading. Projects are being contemplated in Brant, Huron, Niagara, Perth and Wellington counties, and from there, the plan is to expand the drainage restoration into Southeastern Ontario. Ducks Unlimited Canada, Ontario’s conservation authorities and Stewardship Ontario are launching similar and equally welcome restoration projects.
Click here to view a map of the project area
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The Drainage Act: It’s How You Use the Tool
• The Drainage Act is a regulatory tool that landowners may use to resolve their drainage problems. In farm country, the problem was usually defined as oversupply, and wetlands were drained for their rich, fertile soils – sometimes drained too enthusiastically.
• But what may be used to take can also be used to give. The Drainage Act also allows for features to be included in drainage systems to create or restore wetlands – while still protecting the agricultural interests of the private landowners.
• For years, The Drainage Act – or rather, how it was used – frustrated anyone working to conserve wetlands. Today, the balance is being restored. The Wetland Drain Restoration Project – made possible by The Drainage Act – has returned some 1,321 hectares (3,264 acres) of southwestern Ontario wetlands to their natural state, without lowering yields from farm crops.
Project Partners:
| Canadian Wildlife Service (Habitat Stewardship Program) | Norfolk Land Stewardship Council |
| Conservation Authorities: Ausable-Bayfield, Catfish Creek, Essex Region, Grand River, Kettle Creek, Long Point Region, Niagara Peninsula, Lower Thames River, Upper Thames River and St. Clair Region | Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs |
| Drainage Superintendents of Ontario | Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association |
| Ducks Unlimited Canada | Private landowners |
| Environmental Farm Plan | Rural Lambton Stewardship Network |
| Essex County Stewardship Network | Stewardship Kent |
| Fisheries and Oceans Canada | Wetland Habitat Fund |
| Middlesex Stewardship Council |
For more information, contact:
- David Richards, Water Resources Coordinator, Ministry of Natural Resources, Aylmer (519) 773-4731
- Khahy Ho, Lake Erie COA Basin Coordinator, Lake Erie Management Unit, Ministry of Natural Resources, London (519) 873-4647