Municipalities honoured with Decade Award
Ausable Bayfield Conservation presents first Decade Award during 80th anniversary year
Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority (ABCA) honours member municipalities as first winners of Decade Award presented, during ABCA’s 80th anniversary year, to honour contributions in each decade of ABCA’s history
Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority (ABCA) celebrates its 80th anniversary (1946-2026) this year. During this anniversary year, ABCA is honouring contributions in each decade of the conservation’s authority’s history.
ABCA presented its first Decade Award to member municipalities. Local member municipalities received the honour at the Partner Appreciation Evening held at Ironwood Golf Club on Thursday, March 26, 2026.
Those municipal representatives attending the event were invited to accept the award on behalf of their municipalities.
This award recognized the vision and leadership of municipalities, having formed the former Ausable River Conservation Authority (Ontario’s first conservation authority) in 1946. This Decade Award is also to recognize their continued decades of partnership, from the 1940s until today, helping to create healthier and more resilient watersheds.
Davin Heinbuck, ABCA General Manager and Secretary-Treasurer, said ABCA wants to recognize partners in conservation over the decades that the conservation authority has been working with the community.
The conservation authority plans to recognize one decade award recipient, each month of 2026, for each decade of ABCA’s history from the 1940s to the 2020s.
“Each month we’re going to acknowledge a new recipient and a deserving winner,” the ABCA General Manager said at the partner appreciation evening. “The first Decade Award, tonight, we look at the 1940s. We were formed in 1946, and we were formed by our member municipalities. It was a grassroots initiative for the formation of conservation authorities in Ontario. Thank you to those founding members that saw the need for conservation in the watershed and across Ontario.”
PHOTO CAPTION – ABCA HONOURS MEMBER MUNICIPALITIES AS FIRST DECADE AWARD WINNER FOR 80TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR – 2026 is the 80th anniversary year for Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority (ABCA) which was formed, as the former Ausable River Conservation Authority, in 1946. During this anniversary year, ABCA is acknowledging community partners, from each decade of its history, with Decade Awards. In recognition of the creation of Ontario's first conservation authority in the 1940s and for the partnership in local conservation since then, ABCA has recognized its member municipalities with the first Decade Award. The award was announced and presented at the Partner Appreciation Evening on March 26, 2026. Shown in photo (from left to right): Municipality of South Huron – Ted Oke, Marissa Vaughan, and Jim Dietrich, Deputy Mayor; ABCA – Davin Heinbuck, GM, presenting the award; Huron East – Ray Chartrand (ABCA Chair); North Middlesex – Adrian Cornelissen; Middlesex Centre – Wayne Shipley (appointed to ABCA Board by Township of Adelaide Metcalfe and Municipality of Middlesex Centre); West Perth – Walter McKenzie, Mayor; South Huron – George Finch, Mayor; and Lambton Shores – David Marsh (Appointed to the ABCA board by Municipality of Lambton Shores and Township of Warwick). ABCA plans to present the award, each month, to a different community partner based on the decades of ABCA history.