Nottawasaga Valley Integrated Watershed Management Plan

The Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority (NVCA), representing 18 local municipalities in Ontario in the counties of Dufferin, Grey and Simcoe, is developing an integrated Watershed Management Plan (IWM) for the Nottawasaga River Watershed. This plan will help municipalities reduce their vulnerabilities to climate change by increasing watershed resilience and increasing their ability to mitigate the effects of climate change through conservation, restoration and improvement natural ecosystems. Climate change is expected to lead to increased vulnerability of targeted assets, and the risks include: Increased flooding leading to infrastructure damage and erosion; Changes to groundwater recharge leading to vulnerabilities for municipal drinking water sources; Increased summer drought leading to vulnerabilities around water taken for economic purposes; decreased ice cover on the Great Lakes leading to vulnerabilities around winter road safety; and changing ecosystems leading to vulnerabilities around loss of biodiversity and habitat, increasing invasive species and risks of vector borne disease.The IWM Plan will outline actions and implementation strategies to reduce regional vulnerabilities to climate change and growth. A local framework for the development of green infrastructure to deal with increased rain fall duration and frequencies, and increasing the watershed’s capacity to sequester greenhouse gases by protecting sensitive natural heritage features will also be included in the Plan. The development of an integrated watershed management plan is strongly supported by all 18 local governments in the watershed, as the plan will assist the watershed municipalities in further considering climate change in their planning and servicing decisions associated with growth. To facilitate development of the plan the NVCA will form an internal steering committee comprised of key disciplines including engineering, groundwater, ecology, information management and land management to guide the project. NVCA will engage an external consultant to assist in stakeholder engagement, preparation of background material and preparation of the final study. A stakeholder committee of experts from municipalities, development communities, agricultural sector, environmental non-government organizations and other key residents groups will be formed to provide input into the tasks and development of the report.