World Wetlands Day is February 2, 2025
Ausable Bayfield Conservation, ‘your local wetland expert,’ has links to grants for projects and encourages residents to consider local wetland restoration; Wetlands provide water, soil and habitat benefits for our common future
World Wetlands Day takes place on Sunday, February 2, 2025. The theme for this year is ‘Protecting wetlands for our common future’ with a message to ‘value, protect and inspire.’
Angela Van Niekerk is the Wetlands Specialist with Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority (ABCA). She said she has seen how constructed wetlands have provided habitat for local dragonflies, turtles, frogs, and birds. She has also observed water being held on the land during storm events to the benefit of water quality and erosion control.
Since 2008, Ausable Bayfield Conservation has helped more than one hundred local landowners create more than 150 wetlands over approximately 1,000 acres.
Last autumn, local landowner Phil McNamee, and ABCA, restored a wetland at Serenity Nature Reserve on Corbett Line next to the ABCA Mahon Tract. This wetland was created in a 1.5-acre field. This wetland will provide benefits of water storage during flooding events and reduce sediment to the municipal drain, Parkhill Creek, and Lake Huron at Grand Bend. This area will be a lively emergent marsh providing habitat for many birds and other animals.
Please watch for social media events in late May for the public planting event to add 500 pollinator and wetland plants to the site.
Visit the website for Serenity Nature Reserve.
The wetland projects have been possible with low or no costs to the landowners thanks to the support of funding partners: Fisheries and Oceans Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada; the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks; and Huron County Clean Water Project. Other funding partners have included Ducks Unlimited Canada and ALUS Middlesex among others.
Do you think a wetland may enhance your property? “Give us a call at Ausable Bayfield Conservation for a site visit and to find out about financial incentives to make your project possible,” Angela said. Staff make it easy for landowners to do these projects with little or no paperwork, she said.
World Wetlands Day has celebrated the importance of wetlands, to all living things, since February 2, 1971.