Protecting habitat in Upper Twelve Mile Creek

Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority is launching a citizen science initiative to fill data gaps for nuisance algae, shoreline erosion rates and water level changes in the region.

NPCA’S Visual Assessment Survey Tool (VAST) is just one of 44 community-based projects to receive $1.9 million in funding through Ontario’s Great Lakes Local Action Fund.

NPCA received $48,940 for its initiative.

The provincial government announced funding Monday. It said it’s investing in projects across Ontario that address issues critical to the health of the Great Lakes, including shoreline health, excess nutrients, protecting and restoring habitats and species and improving water quality.

“The health of the Great Lakes is closely connected to our province’s health and prosperity — supplying water to our communities, sustaining traditional activities of Indigenous peoples and providing healthy ecosystems for recreation and tourism,” said Environment, Conservation and Parks Minister David Piccini in a release.

Piccini said the funding allows local organizations and groups to take environmental actions in their communities — building a better future with clean, green growth. The projects are led by community-based organizations, municipalities, conservation authorities and Indigenous communities and organizations across Ontario.

Niagara Chapter Trout Unlimited Canada received $47,875 for its Bring Back the Brookies project.

It will set out to engage community groups and residents in a restoration and learning discovery program to preserve and protect aquatic habitat in Upper Twelve Mile Creek, a tributary of Lake Ontario.

Participants in Bring Back the Brookies will plant vegetation and clean up shorelines to support improvements to water quality, reduce erosion and sedimentation, expand habitat connectivity and mitigate climate change.

Neighbouring Haldimand County received $47,971 for Haldimand Stewardship Council Inc.

The funds will be used to engage community members to enhance and protect ecosystems and species through afforestation (introducing trees and tree seedlings to an area not previously forested) of privately-owned and marginally operable or abandoned agricultural lands in the lakes Erie and Ontario watersheds.

ALUS Norfolk received $50,000 to reduce agricultural runoff flowing into Lake Erie by working with farmers to create natural restoration throughout the Long Point Watershed in Norfolk County.