Muskoka Watershed Council
The Muskoka Watershed Council’s mission is to champion watershed health in those watersheds that flow into and through the District Municipality of Muskoka. There is no conservation authority in Muskoka, instead the Council is a volunteer-based organization supported by the District of Muskoka, local consulting firms, and local Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change offices.
The Muskoka Watershed Council is currently undertaking a project to understand the potential impact of climate change in Muskoka to the year 2050. In working with our municipal partners, decision support tools such as Greenland’s new CANWET-5 model could be useful in informing our watershed management planning decisions in relation to policy development, stewardship priorities and education and communication programs.
Peter Sale
Chair
Muskoka Watershed Council
November 17, 2014
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
In March of 2013, Greenland International Consulting Ltd. completed a study for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to estimate nutrient loading in small catchment of about 177 square kilometers in the La Salle River watershed in southern Manitoba using the CANWET 4 model. Given uncertainties in some input data and model parameters, the preliminary results using the CANWET 4 model for baseline conditions of stream discharge, nutrient concentrations and loads were satisfactory in our project team as simulated values were within the range of observed values during the validation period.
This study suggests the CANWET 4 modeling approach could be used to predict changes to nutrient loads from changing land use scenarios in watersheds of this region.
Jason Vanrobaeys
Senior Land Resource Specialist
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
County of Simcoe
The County of Simcoe is the upper tier government and planning authority for most of the South Georgian Bay – Lake Simcoe Source Water Protection Region. The County, in partnership with its member municipalities, other levels of government, floodplain management agencies and two (2) conservation authorities, also provides leadership through policy, and actively in the restoration and protection of the environmental health and quality of these watersheds. As you know, in order to comply with, and be environmentally proactive with respect to the Province of Ontario’s “Places to Grow” legislation, the County of Simcoe utilized innovative decision support tools such as Greenland’s CANWET™ model. In 2012, CANWET™ was also used by the County to prepare a “Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Visioning Strategy”. To this day, the information in the Strategy’s final report is used by local municipalities, development interests and other stakeholders as a background reference to help identify sustainable development solutions.
This letter confirms the County of Simcoe's commitment of support which includes initially facilitating the introduction of this landmark international collaboration with all 16 local municipalities, other governments (small and large) and other agencies that partner now with the County of Simcoe on land use planning; infrastructure renewal; and flooding risk/damage reduction initiatives.
As always, I look forward to our continued working relationship with you and your colleagues and the significant benefits these efforts will have for our residents and environment. The County of Simcoe appreciates your efforts towards developing information based decision making tools and we are confident that this project will prove beneficial in our collaborative goal to improve watershed health for all County residents.
Mark Aitken
Chief Administration Officer
The Corporation of the County of Simcoe
October 19, 2015
