Volume 2 March, 2019

PRC Update
Moving ahead on demonstration sites
There has been a lot of activity over the past few months, preparing for and setting up demonstration sites across the Thames River watershed.

Three sites are up and running and two more are close to being started up. At each site, technologies are being tested to determine how efficiently they extract phosphorus from surface and ground water. 

This picture shows a Hickenbottom inlet surrounded by an inner ring filled with MetaMateria (a sponge that absorbs phosphorus) and an outer ring filled with wood chips. Silt Sock Environmental is running the project, which is located near Woodstock.

More details about the sites and the technologies are here.


Outreach Activity

Staff have been busy with outreach, explaining the collaborative's work at a number of conferences and meetings through the winter months.

Project co-ordinator Charlie Lalonde and Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative Deputy Director Sarah Rang attended the Western Ontario Warden's Caucus on January 18th. Here's the presentation they gave.

Charlie attended the Land Improvement Contractors of Ontario conference from January 21 to 24.

Sarah attended the Rural Ontario Municipalities Association conference January 27 to 29, 2019. Sarah also met with Chatham-Kent, Township of Huron-Kinloss, Leamington, Kingsville and Tecumseh to discuss the Thames River PRC and other Great Lakes issues. 

Both continue to take meetings with town councils, local farm organizations and others to spread the word about our work.

There has also been good interest from the farm media, with profile articles inserted in Better Farming and the Drainage Contractor. Thanks for the support!

This project was funded in part through the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (the Partnership), a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. The Agricultural Adaptation Council assists in the delivery of the Partnership in Ontario.
Collaborative Strategy

On October 26, 2018, an independent panel with experts launched an 18-month process to develop recommendations for the federal, Ontario and Quebec governments to safeguard Canada’s greatest reserve of freshwater, the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River estuary.

The  Collaborative Strategy for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River will focus on four key challenges: climate change, toxics and other harmful pollutants,  nutrients,  beaches and bacteriological contamination.

The Nutrients Issue table is co- chaired by Dale Cowan, Senior Agronomist and Sales Manager with AGRIS and Wanstead Cooperative a large farmer owned cooperative serving SW Ontario and  Gayle Woods, a former CAO for multiple Conservation Authorities.
Upcoming events

May 8&9, 2019

May 26 to 31, 2019
Canadian Water Summit , Blue Mountains Resort, Collingwood, Ontario

June 5 to 7, 2019
Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative’s 2019  Annual Conference  in Sheboygan, WI. The theme is "Living Blue: Transforming Waterfronts.”

New on the web

  • Check out Us in the News for coverage from Farmtario and Nation Valley News.

  • Read about how cyanobacteria can live through the winter in the sediment of Lake Erie, and how 4R nutrient management is important to control runoff. See our Idea Pool page for stories.
Please feel free to pass this newsletter along!
| Thames River PRC| info@thamesriverprc | thamesriverprc.com