Watershed evaluation session draws interest from all areas

Concern for the local waterways drew a cross-section of participants from across the district to a Watershed Report Card training session last Wednesday.
The training session, designed to teach the average resident how to identify problems in local lakes and rivers, was attended by reps of the Rainy River District School Board, the Rainy River Valley Field Naturalists Club, the Rainy Lake Conservancy, the First Nations Watershed Program, the Fort Frances Sportsmen’s Club, the Northwestern Health Unit, and the Ministry of Natural Resources offices in Sioux Narrows, Kenora, Atikokan, and Kenora.
The session, hosted by Mike Nelson, a university student and environmentalist, was an opportunity for those on hand to learn how to study a watershed’s characteristics and pursue the restoration of damaged areas.
“It’s a tool that took about eight years to develop with over 300 contributors and $2 million in funding, and it’s designed specifically for more technical, non-governed conservation groups interested in the health of the environment deal with the concerns of their own watershed,” noted Gord Earle, president of the Rainy River Valley Field Naturalists.
The Watershed Report Card is divided into three levels, which includes mapping the geography of your local watershed and marking assets and potential problems; taking in-depth looks at the area’s biological, chemical, and physical features; and learning how to actively restore and monitor the watershed and the impact of humans.
“We only have one planet and we only have so much fresh water and if we don’t take care of our natural resources, we’re going to lose them,” warned Walter Rogoza, the math and sciences program co-ordinator for the Rainy River District School Board.
“It’s exciting to see people concerned about it. It’s like the web of life. If you take part of the web out, it collapses,” he stressed.
Rainy River is one of four areas where the Report Card has been tested and applied in Ontario, along with Waring’s Creek, the Bonnechere River west of Ottawa, and the Niagara Peninsula.
“The presentation was for the common people,” said Henry Miller, president of the local sportsmen’s club. “If you have a problem, you go and test for it. You go out and prove that there is some kind of a problem.”
The training began with an in-class session, followed by a field workshop at a local creek.