2022 SCRCA Stewardship Program Highlights

December 2022 | SCRCA Stewardship Team

 

Stewardship and Forestry

The SCRCA promotes and supports activities that will create healthy watersheds and improve local water quality and soil health. Conservation Authority staff achieve this by providing educational opportunities, technical advice, and financial assistance to local landowners interested in establishing Best Management Practices (BMPs) and stewardship projects on their properties, such as tree planting and wetland creation. The SCRCA also offers several forestry services to promote sustainable woodlot practices.

 

Environmental Stewardship

Environmental stewardship projects are completed annually throughout the St. Clair Region watershed to improve and protect rural water quality and soil health. SCRCA staff actively seek grants to provide funding to support the efforts of local landowners. In 2022, $266,285 in grant funding was secured to support 36 projects, with participating landowners contributing an additional $35,964. In total, 27 hectares of agricultural land (valued at approximately $660,000) were taken out of production by local landowners to allow for the implementation of stewardship projects.

 

2022 Stewardship Projects

• 25 tree planting projects (23 hectares)
• 8 wetland projects (4 hectares)
• 1 erosion control projects
• 2 cover crop projects (600 hectares)

 

Tree Planting

The SCRCA had another successful tree planting year in 2022, with 53,630 seedlings and 1,273 largestock trees planted throughout the St. Clair Region watershed. A total of 45,930 tree seedlings were planted by SCRCA staff on 25 properties. Large-stock trees and the remaining 7,700 seedling trees were provided to 98 local landowners and 2 municipalities for plantations, windbreaks, and roadside plantings, among others.

 

Tree Seed Collection

Every fall, SCRCA staff collect seeds from native trees throughout the watershed. These seeds grow into trees that will be used in future afforestation projects in the SCRCA region to ensure the trees produced are genetically adapted to our local growing conditions. Weather conditions in the spring and fall limited seed collection efforts in 2022 with only black walnut seeds gathered (1,260 litres). The reduced diversity of seeds obtained in 2022 will affect what tree stock is available for 2024, 2025, and 2026 afforestation projects.

 

Lambton County Woodlands Conservation By-Law

Since 2011, the SCRCA has partnered with the County of Lambton and has provided professional forestry services in administering the County of Lambton Woodlands Conservation By-Law. The By-law aims to encourage good forestry practices among County woodland owners to ensure sustainable harvesting and maintenance. The SCRCA also implements an educational component to engage landowners on the environmental and social benefits of woodlands and best management practices to promote the preservation of tree cover within the County.

Interested in undertaking a stewardship project?

If you are interested in undertaking a stewardship project on your property or would simply like to learn more, fill out our Healthy Watersheds Program Survey.

We will add you to our contact list and reach out to you if funding becomes available to support the projects you are interested in implementing on your property.

You can also choose to receive occasional updates about upcoming expert-led and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing events.