Bruce Biosphere Association supports Healthy Lake Huron

The Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association is now a supporting partner in the Healthy Lake Huron initiative.

This grassroots, community–based group is a 10-year-old charitable organization dedicated to implementing the UNESCO World Biosphere Reserves concepts of conservation and sustainable economic development within the Bruce Peninsula portion of the 750 km Niagara Escarpment Biosphere Reserve.

The association is governed by a community board, has no permanent staff and has previously led award–winning projects in the program areas of ecological monitoring and restoration, community engagement, youth and education, and sustainable economic development.

Since late 2011, the association has been moving forward quickly on a number of fronts, including:

• Developing a Conservation and Stewardship Plan, and building a network of local environmental organizations, with funding from the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation
• Developing a multi-year plan for the restoration of six streams that flow into Lake Huron and Georgian Bay
• Securing a $3,500 grant to train volunteers for water testing and hiring a part-time co-ordinator to manage water and benthic testing, and analysis
• Using a $25,000 grant from the 2012 Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund to undertake a full year of water quality sampling and benthic testing for the Six Streams project, and to implement a cattle exclusion demonstration project
• Submitting grant applications to develop watershed plans for the Old Woman’s River and Stokes Bay watersheds, and carrying out demonstration projects for cattle exclusion from creeks and new drain management on agricultural lands, and
• Hosting a dinner in August 2012 to encourage the participation and support of the farming community.

For more information on the Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association, visit www.bpba.ca or contact the association’s Chairperson, Elizabeth Thorn, by email at elizabeth@thorn.ca or by telephone at (519) 900-0352.