Robert Pye, executive director of Watersheds Canada, said last week’s inaugural national conference held at Pinestone Resort in Haliburton was “a bit of a homecoming” for the non-profit.
The event was a sellout, with 116 scientists, environmentalists, and water enthusiasts from across the continent descending upon Haliburton County May 1 and 2 for speeches, workshops, and live demonstrations from more than a dozen partnering presenters.
“We’re a conservation organization that works at the community level, and our mandate is all about shoreline protection, water quality, fish habitat, education and outreach on the importance of freshwater,” Pye said.
“The organization is approaching its 24th birthday and we’d never had our own event… we wanted to change that. Haliburton was deliberately picked as the host community, because we have a lot of history in these Highlands,” he added.
Twelve years ago, Haliburton County was chosen as the guinea pig for a new ‘Love Your Lakes’ initiative launched by Watersheds Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Federation. Working alongside Paul MacInnes and the Coalition of Haliburton County Property Owners’ Association, Pye said the non-profit delivered the program on around 50 lakes in the County.
In the years since, Love Your Lakes has assessed more than 50,000 individual properties on over 300 Canadian lakes, Pye said, including in Alberta, Ontario and on the east coast. The evaluation program is designed to encourage lakefront property owners to take proactive steps to improve lake health by maintaining healthier shorelines.
Pye spoke of his personal connections – recalling an elementary school trip to the Leslie Frost Centre in the 80s, where he met Barrie Martin and Barb Elliot, one of the instructors at the site. Elliot was drafted in for last week’s conference, where she ran a ‘Bugs with Barb’ workshop inviting people to collect water samples and analyze them under a microscope.
There were five other outdoor activities – Watersheds Canada staff discussed the benefits of native plants for shoreline protection, leading live planting on the Pinestone property; Water Rangers showcased enhancements in water quality testing; attendees were taught how to make brush bundles, which can serve as habitat for small fish species like bass and pike; while Birds Canada taught people how to utilize modern bird identification tools.
“This conference was unique because it wasn’t just people sitting in a room listening to someone talking on stage. We took people outside, there was strong audience participation… people got a chance to see nature in action in Haliburton,” Pye said.
Keynote speeches were delivered, on Friday, from Mark Cullen, an expert gardener, author, broadcaster and tree advocate, and on Saturday from Mark Mattson, president of Swim Drink Fish and Lake Ontario’s Waterkeeper.
“We brought in the best of the best… Mattson is one of Canada’s leading environmental lawyers. He was so inspiring about his message on how looking after our waters has to be a community effort. He got personal with everybody, asking what waterbody changed their life,” he said.
Cullen’s presentation didn’t focus on gardening tips or techniques, instead delving into his theory that plants have a way of speaking and listening to us. “He talked about going from a self-described tree-hugger to a tree activist. How plant and tree life are living organisms, and we need to respect their place in our world.”
Pye said he made tons of new connections at the conference, including with U-Links Centre for Community Based Research, based in Haliburton County.
“We’ve had some discussions about how Watersheds Canada can support their work… our specialty is shoreline restoration, habitat creation – if that physical work can connect with the research, studies, and assessments, then I think we could be great partners.”
With this conference taking two-and-ahalf years to put together, Pye said he isn’t sure if or when another will take place. But he hopes to bring the event back to the Highlands someday.
“I think Haliburton County is a leading example of good environmental stewardship at work. We want to keep the momentum going… I’d love to stay in Haliburton for the next one, if we can make it happen,” Pye said.
