New Loblaw Water Fund projects will collect vital freshwater data for Mackenzie watershed
WWF-Canada has announced two new Loblaw Water Fund recipients in the Northwest Territories. Ecology North and the Wek’èezhìı Renewable Resources Board (WRRB) will each be receiving grants for freshwater monitoring projects throughout Canada’s largest watershed: the Mackenzie.
With its grant, Ecology North will be leading a water monitoring project to better understand how historic drilling sites in the Upper Mackenzie–Mills Lake sub-watershed may be impacting surrounding water quality. Collaborating with Sambaa K’e Dene Band and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories, this work will also contribute to the long-term efforts of the Aboriginal Aquatic Resource and Oceans Management monitoring program.
Similarly, the WRRB is leading the Tłįcho Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program (TAEMP), a successful community-based monitoring program that works with Tłı̨chǫ communities in the Northeastern Great Slave Lake, Marian, and Great Bear sub-watersheds to help them determine whether fish condition, water and sediment quality are changing over time.
WWF-Canada’s freshwater team is excited to support both these projects, as their work will eventually help inform the recently-launched WatershedReports.wwf.ca, a website detailing the health of and threats to Canada’s major watersheds.
“One of the major issues we ran into in trying to assess the health of Canada’s watersheds was a pronounced lack of data in many areas, including the Mackenzie,” says WWF-Canada’s VP Freshwater James Snider. “We’re very happy to see such an engaged freshwater community in the Northwest Territories who are working to gather vital information on the health of the Mackenzie River watershed.”
Craig Scott, Executive Director for Ecology North, says there is a great desire by aboriginal communities in the lower-NWT to find out how upstream oil and gas activities going as far back as the mid-1950’s have affected water quality. “Trout Lake is one of the biggest lakes in the region, and it is critically important to the Sambaa K’e community who continue to use it for sustenance harvesting, fishing, hunting and trapping, and to maintain their culture,” says Scott. “We need a get a clearer picture of the water health in this area.”
WRRB Executive Director Jody Pellissey says the same principles are at play for Tłı̨chǫ communities. “The lack of information on the health of the water is a primary concern, and one this grant will help to address,” she says. “We look forward to contributing to the creation of a long-term, comprehensive picture of the health of aquatic ecosystems in the NWT.”
The Loblaw Water Fund grants are made possible through partial proceeds from Loblaw’s charge-for-plastic shopping bag program, which has reduced the number of plastic shopping bags from their stores nationally by more than seven billion since 2007.
For more information on the state of the Mackenzie watershed and the threats it faces, visit WatershedReports.wwf.ca.
-30-
For more information, contact
Megan Nesseth, Communications Specialist – Arctic, WWF-Canada
(416) 904-2482
[email protected]
Loblaw Companies Limited
[email protected]
905-459-2500
About WWF
WWF-Canada is part of WWF (World Wildlife Fund), one of the world’s largest and most respected conservation organizations. WWF-Canada has close to 50 years of experience implementing science-based knowledge and research into on-the-ground projects. WWF is creating solutions to the most serious conservation challenges facing our planet, helping people and nature thrive. Visit wwf.ca for more information.
About Loblaw Companies Limited
Loblaw Companies Limited, a subsidiary of George Weston Limited, is Canada’s largest food retailer and a leading provider of drugstore, general merchandise and financial products and services. www.loblaw.ca
About the Partnership
Since 2009, Loblaw Companies Limited has donated $1 million annually, through partial proceeds from the sale of plastic shopping bags in its stores, to WWF-Canada. This donation is used to help mobilize Canadians to take simple but meaningful action towards sustainable living. Loblaw has developed one of the most progressive sustainable seafood policies influencing numerous vendors, suppliers and other retailers to transition to sustainable fishing practices, with support from WWF. http://www.wwf.ca/about_us/howwework/business/