Maitland Valley Conservation Authority General Manager Phil Beard and John Cox, a 2010 board member provided an overview of the 2011 priorities to councillors on Feb. 15.
For the benefit of the new councillors, Beard explained the MVCA is owned and governed through the 15 member municipalities in the watershed. “We were established 60 years by the municipalities to help them deal with water and related land management issues that go beyond municipal boundaries.
Conservation authorities were developed as a mechanism to deal with issues such as flooding, erosion, and rural water quality and to help work with landowners and municipalities in reforestation, soil and water conservation and water quality work.
“The mission that the authority has is to provide leadership to protect and enhance our water, forests, and soils.”
Beard said some of the major services include flood forecasting and flood control.
“We have a flood forecast system set up across the watershed to monitor precipitation and stream flow, so that we can provide warning to the municipalities which have flood prone development.”
He said that equipment allows the MVCA to provide information to municipalities so that they have time to warn their residents.
“The system is monitored 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. We also assist municipalities in the development of flood emergency plans and mock exercises to test those plans, hopefully before an emergency occurs.”
The MVCA helps municipalities keep flood plain mapping up to date, and works with municipalities on short and long term flood damage reduction plans. A number of land stewardship programs are offered to land owners.
One of the key services is reforestation for municipalities and landowners who wish to plant along waterways, floodplains, and marginal lands, he said.
“We help landowners plant between 35,000 to 55,000 trees each year. Our long term goal is to see 46 million trees planted across the watershed over the next 40 years.”
Beard explained that is the amount of marginal land, fragile land, and stream buffering needed across the watershed.
“We have to build up that program quite a bit over the next 40 years. But thanks to programs such as Wellington’s Rural Water Quality Program and the increased funding they are putting into that.”
Beard said there is also the drinking water stewardship program. In Minto there have been 11 projects undertaken, valued at $82,500 – many of the projects being well-head protection or decommissioning.
Another program allows the conservation authority assist residents in water and soil conservation projects.
Beard pointed out one such large project near Wingham undertook a large amount of work to stop erosion and adapt to the effects of climate change. They have constructed grass waterways, berms, artificial wetlands, and restored the municipal drain into a Class 1 trout stream,
Beard said the farm has been set up as a demonstration and tour site as well. to show others what is possible on farmland, and in turn reducing maintenance on municipal drains.
“We’ve had over 200 people look at that project over the past five years, and Beard invited members of council to take a tour as well. We’re now expanding that project upstream of that location.”
One of the major new areas of emphasis is stormwater management as a result of trends toward more high intensity, short duration rainfall dropping large amounts of moisture over a short time.
“We’re looking at working with landowners to slow that water down with more stormwater management on farms.”
Beard sees that as a key service for watersheds in the coming years.
There is also a public education component through schools and meetings such as the one held in Harriston last year regarding flood risks in the community.
The authority also owns almost 4,400 acres of floodplain, wetland, and forest.
He said that last year, the board adopted a strategic plan to guide activities for the next five years.
“It also guides the priorities within our limited resources,” Beard said.
One of the key components is to help municipalities and landowners build resilience on the landscape – to reduce the potential for flooding, resist soil erosion, and improve water quality.
He said warmer temperatures and fewer days each winter where temperatures drop below zero, and more short, high intensity storms are all having an impact. As well, lake effect flurries and thunderstorms are becoming more common as Lake Huron does not freeze over like it used to, Beard said.
He noted that Harriston remains the watershed’s most flood susceptible community.
Beard said some floods in the past few years have caused the municipality to enact is emergency management plan.
“We’ve worked with the town to help them to try and improve our ability to forecast floods by installing five rain gauges upstream.”
When asked what land the MVCA owns in Minto, Beard explained it no longer does.
At one time it had a park in Harriston, but when a review was done of its holdings the land was declared surplus and the municipality expressed an interest in taking it over.
Minto deputy-mayor Terry Fisk was appointed as a representative to the Maitland Source Water Protection Board for the period of Jan. 1 2011 to Dec. 31, 2013
Council subsequently approved the proposed MVCA levy of $74,046.
