Your Land & Water

What Can I Do to Protect the East Credit Countryside?

Be a part of protecting the land you love by caring for the East Credit countryside.

Landowners are invited to carry out voluntary projects on their properties to help protect water quality, enhance wildlife habitat and contribute to a healthy community.

Landowners will receive help from experienced staff, technical assistance with projects and access to funding programs that help reduce costs.

Contact a Stewardship Coordinator who can help get you started.

Here are a few ideas of what you can do:

Buffer Strip Planting
Creating more natural vegetation beside rivers, streams, ponds and wetlands helps improve the quality of the water and habitat.  Planting native trees, shrubs and grasses in this area helps shade the water, keeping it cooler, which is good for fish and wildlife.  The roots of plants stabilize banks, reduce erosion and filter contaminants such as sediment, pesticides and fertilizers before they enter ponds, wetlands and waterways.

Retrofits to On-line Ponds
An on-line pond is one that is built on a stream by dredging or damming the stream.  On-line ponds and dams block natural movement of fish and other aquatic animals throughout the watercourse.  By disrupting a stream’s natural flow, on-line ponds cause water temperatures to rise, create erosion downstream and act as nutrient sinks causing algae blooms and oxygen depletion.  All of these conditions impair habitat for sensitive fish species.

On-line ponds can be retrofitted by removing the dam or by creating a by-pass channel around the pond.  This allows the natural movement of fish and wildlife and improves water quality and temperature.

Stream Restoration
Erosion is a natural process caused when water, wind or glacial action wears away the earth’s surface.  Streams and rivers migrate and meander naturally, water levels rise and fall, and banks and shorelines shift with erosion.  This dynamic process is sometimes accelerated by activities or processes such as flooding, increased water levels associated with land use changes, land drainage, human activities (e.g., lawn mowing), and/or climate change.

Under certain circumstances it may be necessary to alter stream beds and banks to recreate the natural stream.  This is called stream restoration.  It allows the stream to better provide habitat for aquatic wildlife and improves overall water quality.

Managing Your Trees and Forests
Your woodlot is special.  It serves as habitat for wildlife; holds rainwater and snow on land allowing it to filter into the ground slowly and recharge the groundwater supply and provides recreational and economic opportunities.  Managing your woodlot ensures environmental, economic and social benefits are preserved and enhanced.

You can learn more about your forest by having a managed forest plan prepared by CVC. As an additional benefit, you may be eligible to save on your property taxes.

To improve overall health and function of your woodlot, try planting trees and shrubs in open areas that link two or more forest patches together.  These newly planted areas provide a corridor for animals to move freely.  Increasing the size of an existing woodlot improves wildlife abundance and diversity.

Monitor your woodlot for invaders.  Your mature, healthy forests could be under attack from invasive plants and pests.  Invasive species out-compete native plants and animals, decreasing overall species diversity.  A high level of species diversity is essential for maintaining healthy forest.

For more information on any of these stewardship projects, download information at the bottom of this page.

General Landowner Stewardship

Visit Countryside Living and/or Farm Gate sections of CVC’s website for more ways to improve your property and protect the East Credit countryside.