The Healthy Watersheds Manager for the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority and the General Manager of the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority were asked recently to update members of the International Joint Commission on their work on the Healthy Lake Huron Initiative.
The ABCAs' Mari Veliz, says they were looking at the influence agriculture and other rural best management practices had on water quality.
Veliz says the best management practices they were able to measure at the site scale level were effective.
“The best management practices that we did measure are, indeed, effective at a site scale level, it's just when you get to broader ecosystems scales, such as watershed scale or in the lake scale, sometimes other factors seem to over ride any of those site scale improvements.”
Veliz says because of those other factors, it's important they continue their work towards solving some of the more complicated problems.
She says they can definitely see water quality improvements for some of the soil health improvements.
“At the site scale, we can definitely see water quality improvements for some of the soil health improvements, such as conservation tillage. And some of the water control work definitely shows improvements in water quality.”
Veliz adds, some of the site scale improvements won't be realized at the watershed or lake scale unless there are more improvements made at the site scale.