Over 70 people gathered at the community centre here on Oct. 28 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Rural Water Quality Program.
It began in 1998 in Kitchener-Waterloo, and Wellington County and Guelph began taking part in the program the following year. They provide cash incentives to farmers for practices that improve water quality.
The program is an initiative of the county and Guelph. The city joined to improve rural water quality because its council of the day understood clearly that good rural water quality meant good quality water for the city, too.
The program is run through the Grand River Conservation Authority, and a large number of partners who developed the ways it would operate, including:
– Guelph;
– Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario;
– Environmental Farm Plan Program;
– Grand River Conservation Authority;
– Ontario Federation of Agriculture;
– Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs;
– Wellington County;
– Wellington County Cattlemen’s Association;
– Wellington County pork producers;
– Wellington dairy producer committee;
– Wellington Federation of Agriculture;
– Wellington Stewardship Council;
– Wellington Society for the Countryside; and
– Wellington Soil and Crop Improvement Association.
The benefits of improved water quality include a safe, secure water supply, a healthy aquatic ecosystem, increased recreational opportunities, sustainable agricultural operations and a vibrant economy. Everyone benefits when water quality is improved and protected.
The program is administered by the Grand River Conservation Authority but is delivered locally by all five conservation authorities that have part of their watersheds in Wellington County – Saugeen, Maitland, Credit, Halton and Hamilton.
The county and the city have allocated approximately $4.5-million to the program. Funds have also been contributed by Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs, Environment Canada, Trees Ontario and the Ministry of the Environment.
Partnerships with groups include the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association, Environmental Farm Plan, Wellington Stewardship Council, Trees for Mapleton and Wellington County’s Green Legacy Nursery. The biggest partners in the program are the agricultural landowners in Wellington County.
More than 750 farm families have participated.
The GRCA’s Tracey Ryan said in an interview before the anniversary banquet that more than 1,200 environmental projects have been completed in rural areas since the program’s inception ten years ago.
“That’s pretty phenomenal,” she said, adding that over 38km of streams have been fenced off to prevent cattle from entering them. That prevents erosion and improves water quality.
“The health of the fisheries downstream of the Conestogo dam are due to the cooperation of the landowners” she said, adding that the world famous brown trout fishery in the Grand River below the Belwood dam is continuing.
“We’ve seen a great increase in tree planting, and that is a great partnership,” Ryan added.
Farmers who use loans and grants through the program to enhance the environmental sustainability of their farming operations must first complete an environmental farm plan, which guides them in their efforts. That has led to many projects and a much improved environment in general.
Ryan noted fencing off rivers and creeks was so important organizers reconfigured the grant program to encourage that part of the stewardship efforts. The program also helps farmers with such things as manure storage and preventing run-off that could pollute streams.
Manure storage and nutrient management planning are a success story. Before mandatory nutrient management plans, farmers in Wellington were making investments in proper manure storage and completing nutrient management plans. There are 119 improved manure storage systems representing more than $7-million.
The staff from the local conservation authorities work with the landowners to ensure their projects meet the program guidelines and will provide water quality improvements.
Ryan said while the GRCA has the lion’s share of the watershed, all five conservation authorities have staff available to help landowners in their quests for environmental improvements.
The landowners have implemented projects worth over $11-million to protect and enhance water quality in Wellington County and to downstream communities. For every dollar spent by the Rural Water Quality program, landowners are contributing approximately $3. That represents a massive investment in “green infrastructure.” It also supports the local economy.
The program has led to over 230 tree planting projects such as windbreaks, shelter belts, stream buffers, wetland buffers and slopes, resulting in more than 162 hectares of land being planted in native trees and shrubs.
The program started before the Walkerton water crisis and source water protection – so it indicates how proactive the municipality and the landowners in Wellington are.
The program has helped them properly plug 188 abandoned wells and upgrade 136 wells. The success of the program led the county to provide $25,000 in the 2009 budget to help other rural non farm landowners to properly decommission wells. To date 10 projects have been completed, and 15 are approved for funding.
Mapleton Township landowners have been among the most active in taking part in the Rural Water Quality Program, and that pleases Pat Salter.
The former reeve of old Peel township is the Mapleton area representative on the GRCA board of directors and was at the anniversary celebration.
“I see so many improvements in the environment, especially in the rural areas,” she said.
She noted it was the leftover profits from the township’s history book that kick started tree planting in Mapleton Township, which now features a Trees for Mapleton group as well as a connection to the Wellington County Green Legacy program.
She said between County Road 12 in Mapleton (the old Centre Sideroad) and Wallenstein, there are 14 farms. Of those, eight took part in the Rural Water Quality Programs, and the remaining six took on environmental initiatives on their own without the aid of the program “because it was the right thing to do.”
