More than $700,000 is available this year to farmers and rural landowners throughout the Grand River watershed for environmental improvement projects.
Applications are being accepted for grants from the Rural Water Quality Program, which is administered by the Grand River Conservation Authority.
Farmers and rural landowners can apply for grants for projects such as:
– tree planting along streams, on retired farmland or to create a windbreak;
– construction of fencing along streams to keep livestock out;
– development of nutrient management plans,
– improvements to fuel, chemical, or fertilizer storage and handling systems;
– well upgrades;
– erosion control; and
– in Waterloo Region and Wellington County, construction of manure storage facilities.
In Wellington County, the program is also open to landowners in Minto, Wellington North, and Erin even though some or all of those municipalities are outside of the Grand River watershed.
“This is a good time of year for landowners to be thinking about what projects they want to do this year,” said Tracey Ryan, supervisor of conservation services for the GRCA. “We have staff available to talk to landowners and help them with their applications.”
Grants range from 30 to 100 per cent, depending on the type of project. The landowner contributes the balance in cash, materials, or labour.
Most of the money for the program comes from the Region of Waterloo, County of Wellington, City of Guelph, City of Brantford, and County of Brant. In addition, additional money is provided by Trees Ontario, the RBC Blue Water Fund, Environment Canada, and the Monsanto Conservation Fund.
Since the program began in 1999, landowners have invested more than $30-million in 3,000 projects, with grants totaling more than $10-million.
More than one million trees have been planted on 1,500 acres of fragile land, along watercourses or to create 50 kilometres of windbreaks. Fences have been installed along 130 kilometres of stream banks. In Waterloo and Wellington, about 310 farms have improved their manure storage facilities.
