2016 Loblaw Water Fund grantees announced
For Canada Water Week, March 21 to 27, explore freshwater issues at the heart of WWF-Canada’s work.
This World Water Day, WWF and Loblaw Companies Limited are excited to announce the 2016 Loblaw Water Fund grantees.
The United Nations created World Water Day to focus international attention on the importance of freshwater and to advocate for people to take action to make a difference. In this spirit, the Loblaw Water Fund aims to inspire people to care for their local waters. We encourage all Canadians to contribute to the good work of monitoring, restoring and protecting water done through local watershed organizations.
Now entering its third year, the Loblaw Water Fund supports people and projects working to improve freshwater health as well as reduce threats to freshwater environments across the country. Projects were chosen based on those that could have the largest conservation impact on freshwater ecosystems, as well those that engage local communities in on-the-ground project work.
This year we had another huge response to the call for applications, with more than 100 applications received from across the country. We are excited to announce these 15 winning projects, which take place from Dartmouth, N.S. to Pitt Meadows, B.C., to our first ever Loblaw Water Fund project in Nunavut.
Trout Lake Hazardous Waste Clean Up Project
Ecology North: Providing community members with hands on training and capacity development for hazardous waste management and monitoring of Trout Lake, Northwest Territories.
The Atlantic Canadian Culvert Assessment Toolkit
Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance: Creating a toolkit of resources for Atlantic Canada for groups wishing to assess culverts in their local area, including creating a standardized culvert assessment protocol that can be applied anywhere.
Upper Athabasca Basin Long Term Community Based Water, Sediment and Benthic Invertebrate Monitoring
Keepers of the Athabasca: Building capacity for community based monitoring throughout the upper Athabasca River Basin in Alberta, expanding on previous successes in filling data gaps and raising awareness and monitoring capacity in communities of the watershed.
“Blue Canoe” Lake Management Plan Implementation Project
Kawartha Conservation: using The Blue Canoe team to reach landowners by traveling “dock-to-dock” via canoe, attending community events, and through social media to sustain the health and ecological integrity of the Kawartha watershed in Ontario.
2016 Dartmouth Watershed Restoration and Monitoring
Clean Foundation’s Watershed Restoration team will restore and monitor streams in the Dartmouth, NS area that have become degraded due to development, urbanization, and severe weather.
Brook Trout Habitat Enhancement & Channel Form Restoration of Bauman Creek
The rare Charitable Research Reserve: working to restore the Blair Flats-Bauman Creek floodplain system, by expanding and improving the habitat available to brook trout in Bauman Creek, Cambridge, Ontario.
Connecting the data dots: Building CBM capacity in the Red and Assiniboine Watersheds
Lake Winnipeg Foundation: fostering and supporting a collaborative community based network for Lake Winnipeg in Manitoba by engaging existing and new groups who are committed to water health.
Centralizing Community-Based Water Quality Data Across Canada
Community-Based Environmental Monitoring Network (CBEMN): building off of the momentum and success that CURA H2O has had in Atlantic Canada and expanding the water quality dataset westward.
Restoring the Katzie Slough
Watershed Watch Salmon Society: is aiming to restore good overwintering habitat for salmonids in Katzie Slough, British Columbia, while improving water quality and instream and riparian habitat.
Three Little Watersheds: Monitoring and Mitigating Threats in the Saint John and Southern Bay of Fundy Sub-watershed
Atlantic Coastal Action Program (ACAP) Saint John : will monitor water quality and fish in three local watersheds that feed into the lower St. John River, NB, carry out a stream restoration project within each local watershed, and engage with local youth through selected area schools which neighbour the project sites.
Protecting the Outoauais last truly wild river
CPAWS Ottawa Valley: aims to engage local youth in developing a baseline of the state of the Dumoine River and its wetlands to increase our knowledge of the area in order to better protect it.
Water quality and fish safety monitoring in the Keewatin Watershed of Arviat, Nunavut
ARCTIConnection: will employ both Inuit knowledge and community-based science to establish a baseline for water quality and fish health near Arviat, Nunavut.
Tłı̨chǫ Aquatic Ecosystem Monitoring Program (TAEMP)
Wek’èezhìı Renewable Resources Board (WRRB) will continue a successful community-based monitoring program meeting the needs of the Tłı̨chǫ people in the Northwest Territories in determining whether fish, water and sediment quality are changing over time.
Water Watch at Riverwood: A Youth and Community Engagement in Water Quality Monitoring and Protection
The Riverwood Conservancy’s Water Watch at Riverwood program will protect and improve the health of the Credit River as well as vulnerable tributary creeks and wetlands in the heart of Mississauga, Ontario, by engaging community volunteers in monitoring and stewardship activities.
Lake Ontario microplastics monitoring program
Ontario Streams: will engage volunteers in a large-scale microplastics monitoring program in three urban watersheds and near shore open water in Lake Ontario. Collaborating with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and the University of Toronto, this work will contribute to long-term microplastics monitoring and will get students involved in real-world water sampling from freshwater systems.
Congratulations to our 2016 Loblaw Water Fund grantees! Applications for the 2017 Loblaw Water Fund will be available in Fall 2016 online here.
To see the full list of Loblaw Water Fund projects that we’ve supported since 2014, please check out our Watershed Reports page.
