World Wetlands Day is February 2, 2025
All day
Wetlands provide water, soil and habitat benefits for our common future
We need more wetlands. Some local landowners, from land to lake, are helping with wetland restoration and enhancement projects.
Local conservation organizations, with funding support from federal departments and provincial ministries and other sources, are providing technical expertise and grants to help landowners, in Lake Huron watersheds, to restore and enhance needed wetlands.
Contact your local conservation authority or other local conservation organization to find out programs that may exist to help you with your wetland project.
Coastal wetlands along Lake Huron's southeast shoreline, and inland wetlands that manage water running off of land to prevent sediment and nutrients from reaching downstream streams, rivers and Lake Huron, are important for water quality (and water quantity).
Wetlands also provide habitat for plants and animals (flora and fauna), including species at risk.
World Wetlands Day takes place on Sunday, February 2, 2025. The theme for this year is ‘Protecting wetlands for our common future’ with a message to ‘value, protect and inspire.’
Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority (ABCA) provides stewardship services in one of the watersheds along Lake Huron's southeast shore.
Angela Van Niekerk is ABCA Wetlands Specialist. She said it is amazing how fast the local dragonflies, turtles, frogs and birds move into the constructed wetlands, once the habitat is provided. She has also observed water being held on the land during storm events to the benefit of water quality and erosion control.
Since 2008, Ausable Bayfield Conservation has helped more than one hundred local landowners create more than 150 wetlands over 950 acres.
In Ausable Bayfield watersheds, a local landowner is working with Ausable Bayfield Conservation staff to improve water storage during flooding events, to reduce sediment reaching a municipal drain, and to create habitat for birds and other wildlife through a lively emergent marsh.
Last autumn, local landowner Phil McNamee, and ABCA, restored a wetland at Serenity Nature Reserve on Corbett Line next to the ABCA Mahon Tract. This wetland was created in a 1.5-acre field. This wetland will provide benefits of water storage during flooding events and reduce sediment to the municipal drain, Parkhill Creek, and Lake Huron at Grand Bend. This area will be a lively emergent marsh providing habitat for many birds and other animals.
Wetland projects in Ausable Bayfield watersheds have been possible with low or no costs to the landowners thanks to the support of funding partners: Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada; the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks; and Huron County Clean Water Project. Other funding partners have included Ducks Unlimited Canada and ALUS Middlesex among others.
Do you think a wetland may enhance your property? Call your local conservation authority or conservation organization about a possible site visit and to find out about financial incentives that may exist to help make your project possible. Where funding incentives exist, staff make it easy for landowners to do these projects with little or no paperwork.
Find out more, about local wetland restoration and/or stewardship programs, here:
- Ausable Bayfield Conservation
- Bruce Peninsula Biosphere Association
- Grey Sauble Conservation
- Lake Huron Coastal Centre
- Maitland Conservation
- Pine River Watershed Initiative Network
- St. Clair Conservation
- Saugeen Conservation
The Healthy Lake Huron Partnership thanks all the landowners, community groups, schools, volunteers and funding partners who help to enhance wetland conditions.
World Wetlands Day has celebrated the importance of wetlands, to all living things, since February 2, 1971.
#WorldWetlandsDay