WELLINGTON COUNTY – Stuart Wright has not been taking advantage of the Wellington Rural Water Quality Program for the full 25 years the program has been in operation, but it’s pretty close.
“We’ve used [it] for many years,” Wright said, explaining every few years or so he has a project that could benefit from the program.
The Wellington Rural Water Quality Program, which was launched in 1999, offers grant money as well as technical assistance to farmers and landowners to implement a variety of different types of projects that improve and protect water quality.
The program is funded by the county, administered by the Grand River Conservation Authority, and delivered by local conservation authority staff.
Wright is a farmer who, along with his son, wife and some extended family members, milks dairy cows and farms cash crops at Wrighthaven Farm, just south of Kenilworth.
The list of projects they have implemented through the Rural Water Quality Program is long and varied.
It includes tree planting to prevent soil erosion and create a buffer zone along ditches; improved manure storage; a nutrient management plan “to make sure manure doesn’t get to where it isn’t supposed to,” said Wright; fencing ditches to prevent cattle and their waste from getting into area streams; cover cropping; and decommissioning an old well.
Wright said these are “small things, but they add up.”
He can’t recall exactly how he first learned about the program, but expects it was probably through his membership in the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association.
“We sort of have the same goals of soil health and water protection and soil protection,” Wright said.
While the projects the program funds are not things farmers or landowners are necessarily required to do, Wright said many farmers do them anyway.
“You educate yourself over the years, and you realize if you want to protect the land and the water that you count on . . . these are the things you have to think about,” he said.
According to a county news release, the program was started 25 years ago with the recognition of the environmental and economic benefits that come from helping the agricultural community with these sorts of voluntary projects.
Since its inception, the program has awarded $11 million in grants to support more than 3,700 projects. Most of that money – $7.6 million worth – has come from Wellington County, with another $1 million coming from the City of Guelph and the remainder coming from a variety of other sources.
Landowners have kicked in more than $19 million for these projects, for a total investment of more than $30 million in 25 years to improve local water quality.
The county recently announced a commitment to renewed financial support for the program for another five years.
“Wellington County is the headwaters for six watersheds and three Great Lakes,” said Grand River Conservation Authority supervisor of conservation outreach Louise Heyming.
Those watersheds include the Grand, Saugeen, Maitland and Credit Rivers, and also watersheds that flow into Hamilton and Halton areas, she said.
The rivers flow to lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario.
Heyming provided a fact sheet, listing some of the program’s accomplishments over the years.
For example, one million trees have been planted on more than 1,500 acres, creating 250 kilometres of windbreaks and 76km of stream buffers.
“Conservation authority staff work with landowners to design tree planting plans and plant their projects,” Heyming said, noting native trees are sourced from a variety of nurseries, including the county’s Green Legacy Program.
As well, fences have been built to keep 5,000 livestock out of 50km of watercourses, and storage has been built to manage more than 533 million litres of manure.
Under “program impacts” the county’s website lists similar stats, as well as stating 622 water wells have been properly decommissioned and another 658 have been upgraded through the program.
An estimated 66,000-plus kilograms of phosphorus is retained on the landscape annually as a result of projects implemented through the program, it states.
The voluntary projects funded through the program help landowners to “go above and beyond” what legislation requires, Heyming said.
They are based on “best practices,” she said. “They are ones we consider to be locally proven.”
GRCA manager of water resources Jan Ivey provided some comments on the program’s impacts, saying that while concentrations of some nutrients like phosphorus and ammonia have been decreasing since the 1970s, they remain high.
“Improvements are a result of the Rural Water Quality Program, increased awareness amongst landowners, and upgrades and optimization projects completed at municipal wastewater treatment plants,” Ivey stated in an email to the Advertiser.
The GRCA looks forward to continuing to work with all levels of government and landowners to further improve the health of the watershed, Ivey said.
The first step for landowners is to reach out to the GRCA or their local conservation authority.
“One of our staff would go out and meet with them,” said Heyming, explaining conservation authority staff help landowners create plans and guide them through the application process.
Applications are reviewed by a committee that includes representatives from Wellington’s Soil and Crop Improvement Association, Wellington’s Federation of Agriculture, the Ontario Agriculture Ministry, and the Christian Farmers Federation, she said.
“That committee decides whether or not a project is approved for funding,” she said. “It’s done with engagement from the farming community.”
Farmers get involved for a variety of reasons, said Heyming, listing among them improving farm efficiency and improving the quality of the land they will pass on to their children.
But they also see the benefit to the wider community.
“Farmers are stewards of the land, and they’re interested in the long-term benefits,” said Heyming.
Wright agreed the program is about “long-term thinking.”
He said the projects implemented don’t necessarily translate to a financial return on investment for farmers in the short-term, but they still make sense.
“Where you’re improving your business is soil and water health,” Wright said. “Those things will always make an impact.”
As landowners, many farmers also believe they have an obligation to look out for the benefit of the broader community, he said.
“You should never take for granted what you’ve been given,” Wright said.
“What we’ve been given here in Wellington County is lots and lots of clean water,” and protecting that resource is important, he said.
