Check Your Watershed Day is a 1-day stream survey where volunteers and agency staff are out sampling the streams in their watershed.
In Stream Teams, volunteers check for the flow of water in small streams at road crossings. We will train you to use easy low-tech methods and provide you with all the maps and equipment to carrying out the monitoring. Agency staff will also be out monitoring flow in larger streams in the watershed.
This information helps to build a better understanding of how water is moving throughout the watershed in a single point in time. It will also help to inform stewardship activities and management of the watershed.
What Happens on "Check Your Watershed Day"?
- Stream Team Leaders get training in the morning of the event
- Stream Team Members arrive to join the Leaders for a free lunch
- All volunteers get an overview of the sampling methods
- Stream Teams are assembled, assigned a sampling zone, and pick up their sampling package (maps, protocol, data sheets, and equipment)
- Stream Teams drive out to their assigned sites to check small stream crossings for flow**
- Stream Teams return back to home base at the end of the day
**Volunteers may need to volunteer the use of their personal vehicles for Check Your Watershed Day. One vehicle is need for each Stream Team.**
Uxbridge Brook includes the Townships of Uxbridge, Scugog and Brock in Durham Region, and the Town of Georgina in York Region.
Home Base: Uxbridge Public Library, Lower Meeting Room, 9 Toronto Street South, Uxbridge, ON
Click here for more info about Check Your Watershed Day in Uxbridge Brook.
Nonquon River
Nonquon River includes the Townships of Scugog and Brock in the Durham Region, and City of Kawartha Lakes.
Home Base: Greenbank Community Hall 19965 Highway #12, Greenbank, ON
Click here for more info about Check Your Watershed Day in Nonquon River.
Click on image to enlarge. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 832.06 KB]
Wilmot Creek, Graham Creek and West Lake Ontario Tributaries
This sampling area covers portions of the Municipality of Clarington within Durham Region and the Municipality of Port Hope within Northumberland County.
Home Base: Ganaraska Forest Centre 10585 Cold Springs Camp Road, Campbellcroft, ON
Click here for more info about Check Your Click on image to enlarge. Watershed Day in this area. [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 818.25 KB]
Cold Creek
Cold Creek covers portions of the Township of Alnwick/Haldimand, the Township of Cramahe, and the Municipality of Brighton in Northumberland County, and the City of Quinte West.
Home Base: Goodrich-Loomis Conservation Area, 1331 Pinewood School Road (North of Brighton off Highway 30)
Click on image to enlarge. Click here for more info about Check Your [Adobe Acrobat PDF - 289.35 KB] Watershed Day in Cold Creek.
16 Mile Creek
16 Mile Creek cover portions of Milton, Halton Hills, and Oakville in Halton Region, and Mississauga in Peel Region.
The success of this event relies on volunteers like you to help check an entire watershed in 1 day. You can volunteer to be a Stream Team Leader or a Stream Team Member.
Teams are usually made up of 3 people (1 Stream Team Leader and 2 Stream Team Volunteers). Bring your family and friends to create your own Stream Team, or meet new people by joining a new Stream Team.
* This event is intended for adults (18 and over). Individuals under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult.*
Stream Team Leaders
Volunteer Stream Team Leaders are needed in each watershed to lead a team of volunteers in monitoring small stream flow. Leaders will receive free training in an Ontario Stream and Assessment Protocol (OSAP) module.
Stream Team Volunteers are needed to check for small stream flow in their watershed in Stream Teams of up to 3 people, 1 of which is a Team Leader. Volunteers will receive training and resources, and a free lunch!
"Check Your Watershed Day" started in 2006 as a pilot project in Wilmot Creek. Since then, the project has expanded and taken place annually in watersheds across southern Ontario.
What is a Watershed?
A watershed is an area of land where its water drains into a specific point of a water feature, such as Lake Ontario or Lake Simcoe. Headwater streams are the smallest streams located at the upper part of the watershed that act as the source of water for larger streams and rivers.
Why small streams?
Every watershed is important no matter how big or small. Check Your Watershed Day focuses on small streams (less than 3 metres in width) because:
Small streams are not surveyed as often as larger streams
Small streams are sensitive to changes in water levels
Small streams are safer and faster to check
Why stream crossings?
All of the sites checked on Check Your Watershed Day are at road side stream crossings on public lands. Visiting these sites helps to identify barriers to fish movement, and potential sites for restoration.
What is OSAP?
The Ontario Stream Assessment Protocol is a series of stream assessment techniques for evaluating habitat, benthic invertebrate and fish communities in Ontario's wadeable streams. The methods in the OSAP Manual are provincially recognized by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, federally recognized by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Uxbridge Brook includes the Townships of Uxbridge, Scugog and Brock in Durham Region, and the Town of Georgina in York Region.
