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Ontario Habitat Heroes Recognized as Ducks Unlimited Canada Celebrates 65 Years 
Kingston, Ont., August 12, 2003 — People concerned about the future of the Muskoka region are at the forefront of environmental policy initiatives that are playing out across the province and the country. These initiatives outline opportunities for inclusion of wetlands, one of Canada’s fastest disappearing wild lands, in long-term water quality management and habitat planning.
A vacation area of choice in Ontario for well over a century, Muskoka is experiencing population growth two times greater than the provincial average. Judi Brouse, director of water programs for the District Municipality (DM) of Muskoka, has been monitoring the region’s water quality for over 20 years.
“Increased development or urbanization, especially in the Highway 11 and Highway 69 corridors, threatens wetland habitat here,” Brouse said. “Wetlands are one component of healthy watersheds that work to keep our water clean. We need to adopt a broader and more strategic approach to watershed and lake system health.” Like many municipalities in Ontario, the DM has taken on greater responsibilities for natural resource conservation. They are finding that information on their region’s wetlands is hard to come by.
In 1992, the Province introduced its Wetland Policy with 56 criteria to identify tax exempt Provincially Significant wetlands. Since then, it is estimated that less than one per cent of wetlands in central Ontario have been evaluated. According to Silvia Strobl, Ducks Unlimited Canada conservation program leader in this region, each wetland evaluation requires significant investments of time and money.
“A wetland inventory can cost as much as $60 a hectare. It’s an investment few people can afford,” Strobl said. With funding from Living Legacy Trust, she and the DM of Muskoka, Muskoka Heritage Foundation, Parry Sound-Muskoka Stewardship Council, Tembec Forest Resource Management, and the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) worked on establishing a faster, cheaper and more inclusive method to identify and evaluate wetlands. Using remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems and technical support from the MNR, DUC helped the DM of Muskoka map its wetlands. DUC also created a model to help score wetlands against the established criteria. This model takes into consideration the habitat surrounding a wetland. It also provides an automated method of grouping wetlands that may be functioning together to provide wildlife habitat benefits within a watershed.
“Although a proposed development project might affect one wetland, it gives a bigger picture of cumulative effects of ad hoc development on wildlife habitat and water quality,” Strobl said. The project has direct links to two other unfolding policy initiatives.
The Province’s Advisory Committee on Watershed-Based Source Protection Planning has factored the established link between wetland conservation and improved water quality into their recent recommendations to the Province. This committee, formed as a result of recommendations from the Walkerton Inquiry, recognizes wetland conservation as one piece of healthy watersheds which, in turn, lead to improved water quality before it enters the pipes that carry it to Ontario homes.
Wetland values are being addressed federally as well. In 2003, the federal government announced the establishment of environmental indicators to measure the sustainability of a country’s economy, not just in financial terms but in human and ecological terms as well. Among the six proposed indicators of the Environment and Sustainable Development Initiative is “extent of wetlands”. The benchmark to evaluate this particular indicator is the development of a National Wetland Inventory—a database that will house status information on Canada’s wetlands. DUC’s work in conjunction with the DM of Muskoka and other regions in Ontario and Canada will roll up into the National Wetland Inventory.
So far, people are keen to better understand how many wetlands are in their area and the functions that they provide.
“The phone is ringing off the hook,” Strobl said. “Landowners who are part of land trusts and cottage associations are contacting us. People are beginning to recognize the connection between having functioning wetlands in a landscape and better water quality in lakes. Clean water and natural land drive the economy in cottage country. They are also integral parts of our Canadian culture.”
As part of its 65th anniversary of conservation in Canada, DUC is recognizing its partner landowners and stakeholders who have been and continue to be essential to its success. DUC has worked with 570 landowners to save 186,000 hectares (459,000 acres) of habitat in Ontario. That’s roughly equal to one-quarter the size of Algonquin Park. DUC has a national landowner network of 16,000 people who voluntarily participate in sustainable land use programs. To date, DUC and its landowner partners have conserved a total of 1.6 million hectares (four million acres) of land.
DUC conserves, restores and manages wetlands and associated habitats for the benefit of North America’s waterfowl. These habitats also benefit other wildlife and people.
