What is it?

Ecosystem monitoring is a way to measure changes in ecosystem health over time. An ecosystem is considered healthy if it has ecological integrity, which means it has:

• Biodiversity – a diversity of native species present

• Natural functioning ecosystems to sustain life processes (e.g., wetlands that can filter water and provide habitat for frogs, turtles and many other fish and wildlife species)

• Minimal or No Stressors – factors that impact the health of our lakes include invasive species, climate change, nutrient loading, large scale development, shoreline alterations and water level fluctuations

Objectives Of Our 2020 Monitoring Program

1. To increase understanding, awareness and response to reduce the spread and mitigate the impacts of invasive species including Starry Stonewort and other aquatic invasive species in Stoney, Clear and White Lakes.

2. To inspire and engage youth volunteers and cottagers to participate in citizen science in collecting and reporting

wildlife observations, including species at risk.

3. To initiate research and monitoring projects that support long-term ecosystem monitoring objectives to monitor and report on the state of aquatic ecosystem health. This will enable a proactive and science informed response to development proposals on the lakes.