Muskoka Water Web

Water 101

Water Quality

Water is extremely important in Muskoka, for economic, social and environmental reasons. A healthy environment forms the basis of our economy and elevates our quality of life. That is why managing activites that can potentially impact the quality of Muskoka's water is a top priority.

How is your drinking water protected?
Learn about how stormwater impacts water quality and what can you do about it.
Is your septic system healthy and functioning? How can you keep it this way?
How can we reduce the impact road salts have on our environment?
Learn about Muskoka's water treatment plants.

Stewardship

What is Stewardship?

terrestrial Stewardship means to take good care of something. It requires sound planning and informed choices to ensure continuous improvement in environmental, health, and safety and social performance. With the responsible and careful use of the natural environment around us we can become good stewards of Muskoka.

Stewardship can also be a personal commitment to care for your land, sustaining or enhancing it for the enjoyment of future generations. Stewardship programs encourage landowners to manage their lands in ways that maintain, restore or enhance the diversity of native plants and wildlife.

Why is Watershed Stewardship Important?

Watershed stewardship involves understanding and respecting the interrelatedness of the watershed. It will provide significant benefits for current and future generations.

Maintaining a natural balance in the watershed reduces the likelihood of environmental deterioration and the need for expensive remedial action plans. In the long run, proper stewardship is cost effective with economic and environmental savings in the preservation of our natural watershed.

Stewardship is the best insurance policy a landowner can have to ensure long-term protection of the investment made in shoreline property.

Wetlands

Wetlands can be defined as being both:

Lands that are permanently or seasonally flooded by shallow water
Lands where the water table is close to or at the surface

Wetlands are characterized by

Being dominated by water tolerant plants
Developing hydric soils

What are hydric soils?

Hydric soils are soils that are formed under conditions of saturation, flooding, or ponding long enough during the growing season to develop anaerobic conditions (conditions without oxygen) in the upper layers.

Types of Wetlands

There are four major types of wetlands

Find out more about the wetlands in Ontario.

Canada has taken a leading role among other nations in the conservation of wetland areas. Wetlands contribute to the environmental, economical and social well-being of the country.

Importance of Wetlands

They improve and maintain water quality, prevent erosion on shorelines, and help control floods
They trap sediments that would otherwise fill watercourses
They support complex food chains
They provide habitat for a wide variety of plants and animals like waterfowl
They purify water
They breakdown other contaminants into less harmful compounds
They help maintain water quality in surrounding waterbodies
They provide valuable resource products such as wild rice
They provide benefits such as trapping, hunting, fishing which contributes economically and socially
They supply recreational opportunities, such as bird watching, canoeing, hunting and fishing

Does the surrounding environment matter?

Wetlands form part of the surrounding area and are part of a healthy ecosystem. The majority of wildlife that rely on wetlands also live in upland areas for a portion of their life. Some endangered species rely on both the wetlands and the surrounding environment for a portion or all of their life cycle.

Protecting Wetlands

Wetlands are managed and protected through various pieces of legislation and organizations.

Learn more about protecting wetlands.

Muskoka Wetlands

Muskoka has many wetlands that add to its diversity and beautiful landscape. They also help keep Muskoka's watersheds clean and beautiful.

Discover more about wetlands in Muskoka.

Monitoring

Monitoring involves collecting and analyzing information on the state of our water and land in order to identify changes and trends over time. It is also a means of verifying whether policies and programs are effective in protecting Muskoka's environment.

Long-term records of water quality data document changes and helps distinguish between a waterbody's natural variability and the impacts of human activity. In general, a long-term commitment for a modest sampling program is better than an extensive program which cannot be sustained because of a lack of funds or volunteers.

testing More formally, water quality monitoring is a scientifically designed system of long-term, standardized measurement, systematic observation, evaluation and reporting of water quality in order to define status and/or trends.The quality of water is determined by its physical, chemical and biological characteristics. These characteristics are measured in either a laboratory setting or on site in the field.

Lakes

Lakes are formed when glaciers cut holes in loose soil or soft bedrock, depositing material, or leaving buried chunks of ice. These chucks of ice melted to leave lake basins. When these gaps or holes filled with water, they became lakes. The study of freshwater is known as Limnology.

The current chemical and biological conditions of a lake depend on many factors, including: