Watershed Monitoring
Watershed monitoring helps us identify threats to the river and land. The program is essential to understanding existing aquatic conditions and species (native and invasive), identifying changes to chemical levels, clarity and temperature as well as measuring water quality and quantity. The information collected is used at the watershed level for proper management of the river. Provincial and federal program and departments rely on watershed-based data collection to complement more broad ranging monitoring programs.


MVC watershed monitoring activities have a large impact on the way the watershed is managed, how landowners understand their region and how MVC can successfully continue to meet the needs of the natural environment with the needs of the community. Monitoring helps staff understand the impacts of land use activities (e.g. urbanization) on water quality so that we can make informed decisions about managing and protecting our water resources. Monitoring also helps MVC measure the effectiveness of programs and policies that are designed to protect and restore water quality.

Education and stewardship activities too, rely on the monitoring data to understand where work needs to be done and what areas are models for natural success.

The MVC watershed monitoring department provides information to the benefit of the following programs and partner projects:

•    MVC released a Watershed Report Card in 2007 (see report card attached). This report was based on a standard set of guidelines from Conservation Ontario and used by conservation authorities across the province to determine watershed grades. Completion of the MVC watershed report card was heavily dependent on monitoring data. The watershed received an A+ grade. The A+ grading is encouraging and proper management using current data and proactive measures is essential to maintaining this level of health in the watershed. Watershed Report Cards will be released every five years.

•    Watershed Watch is a partnership between MVC and the Mississippi Valley Lake Stewardship Network. This program, with the help of volunteer sampling efforts, accumulates environmental data to determine the limits of which lakes can assimilate nutrient input. Forty-three lakes are monitored in five year cycles (approx. 8 lakes per year) to identify and document long-term trends in water quality. The key parameters (total phosphorus, dissolved oxygen, temperature and water clarity) provide a means to quantify the extent of aging of the lakes. The collected data is put into a central database to identify long-term trends in water quality. Water quality results are published as State of the Lake reports available to shoreline residents and interested parties. The data is used to encourage shoreline property owners to undertake restoration projects and to adopt sound stewardship practices. 

•    The Ontario Stream Assessment Protocol (OSAP) is a series of standardized methodologies for identifying sites, evaluating benthic macroinvertebrates, fish communities, physical habitat, and water temperature in wadeable streams. The OSAP addresses a variety of stream assessment issues, ranging from very specific questions (such as determining maximum summer water temperature) to broader issues (such as changes in fish community composition over time). The OSAP data provides standardized methods that ensure data repeatability and allow data to be shared through a common database for use by environmental groups across the province.

•    The Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network (OBBN) is an aquatic macroinvertebrate biomonitoring network for Ontario lakes, streams, and wetlands. It is built on the principles of partnership, free data sharing, and standardization. Biomonitoring is important because benthos (animals and plants that live on or in the sediment at the bottom water bodies) are commonly used as indicators of aquatic ecosystem condition.

•    The Provincial Water Quality Monitoring Network (PWQMN) uses a standard set of water quality indicators that are monitored at designated PWQMN stations in the watershed. Indicators include chloride, nutrients, suspended solids, trace metals and other general chemistry parameters. The information generated by the PWQMN supports the development and implementation of water protection programs and activities such as source protection plans, nutrient management plans, assessing applications for water takings and setting water quality standards. Partners include the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE), conservation authorities, municipalities and Ontario Parks. Water samples are analyzed at an MOE laboratory.

•    Other monitoring data use: cold water stream characterization, benchmark/background data for currently undeveloped/natural areas. Monitoring data is also used in the plan review and regulation department of the conservation authority. (Analysis of surface water data over time will support the ongoing development, implementation and refinement of source protection plans and other water protection activities. Monitoring information is used to characterize water quality conditions and trends on a watershed basis, to identify water quality issues and to measure the ongoing effectiveness of source protection plans.)