SAM Newsletter #16 Spring 2018

A BIG thank you to the Town of Stephenville Crossing for hosting this years AGM! Pictured above (L to R) Yvonne Young, Town of Stephenville Crossing Clerk Manager and Lisa Lucas, Mayor Town of Stephenville Crossing.

SAM Spring AGM: Connecting Municipalities to Stewardship!    The SAM Spring AGM was held on May 25 - 26, 2018 in Stephenville Crossing. All 41 SAM members were invited to send a councillor, a member of staff or a interested resident to the AGM. The SAM Meetings are a time for members to come together to share their stewardship successes and challenges over the past year. They also give members a chance to network and partner on environmental stewardship projects! The AGM opened on Friday night with a Pub Trivia Night hosted by SAM Staff  with food provided by the Town of Stephenville Crossing, held in the Stephenville Crossing Firehall. Trivia contestants were quizzed on their knowledge of municipal mottos, NL outdoor activities, and if they were "Smarter than a Project Webfooter" (Project Webfooters are grade 4 students that participate in wetland field trips).  Pictured left: Friday Pub Night Trivia with SAM Trivia Teams! Pictured right: The Prairie, a restored wetland in the heart of Stephenville Crossing, on May 24th, 2018 On Saturday Morning participants met for breakfast provided by The Town of Stephenville Crossing. It was a great time to chat over coffee before the work began! Our newly formed SAM Executive opened the meeting with the Community Stewardship reports. Each SAM member is invited to deliver a report of their stewardship activities and challenges over the past year. It was great to hear about all the activities happening around the province such as working toward wetland policies, planning for summer events, and the installation of new interpretative signage. SAM Members can find inspiration for stewardship activities on the SAM website under the resources tab! After lunch, which was provided by The Town of Stephenville Crossing, we heard from SAM Staff and their future work plan for the upcoming year, from Ducks Unlimited and their work in the province, and from Kathleen Blanchard with Intervale Associates and their work with Piping Plover and other endangered shore birds. The day ended with a guided tour for participants from a local birder and naturalist Terry Downey. Participants bird watched at the St. Georges River Estuary Management Unit, and at The Prairie, a restored wetland in the heart of Stephenville Crossing.  Bird Watching in Stephenville Crossing! Pictured left: St. Georges River Estuary, Right:Terry Downey, Candace Austin Town of Steady Brook, and Jeff Lawlor Town of Portugal Cove St. Phillip's The AGM came to a close with the SAM networking dinner on Saturday night. SAM executive thanked Stephenville Crossing for hosting this years AGM and providing such warm hospitality with a dragonfly print by Graham Blair Woodcuts. Also, The Town of Gander was presented with a gift to commemorate the 25th anniversary of signing their stewardship agreement with SAM and the Province. Way to go Gander!  Thank you for Hosting the SAM AGM Stephenville Crossing! Pictured left is SAM Secretary, Pat Woodford, presenting a thank you gift to the Town of Stephenville Crossing Councillor  Michael Batt. For more information about SAM's business meetings check out wwww.samnl.org/business-meetings and keep up with all of SAM's activities on our Facebook or follow us on Twitter @SAM_Stewardship!  SAM Network News & Updates The Fall SAM Meeting to be held in Labrador City September 21- 22!Thank you to the Town of Labrador City for offering to Host the Fall SAM Meeting 2018. SAM Members, watch for your "Save the Date" in your towns email! Book your flight and accommodations early to save and avoid disappointment   Looking for some inspiration for your next municipal event? Check out the new "Eco-Calendar" on the SAM Website! If you have a submission of your next environmental stewardship event that you would like on the calendar email samstewardship@gmail.com   Challenges finding funding for your next stewardship project? Use the SAM funding page as your guide! With over 30 links to funding and grants for municipalities, we are always updating the page with current deadlines and contact information.   Check out the latest installment of the SAM Climate Change Blog Series "Keeping it Clean: Wetlands Purifying Water!" An American Wigeon in Tamarack Gully, Labrador City. Image submitted by Fabian Benoit, Councillor Labrador City, NL If you have any suggestions for content or image submissions contact samstewardship@gmail.com Sackville, The Town that Waterfowl Built: Tourism for the Birds!  Laura King, SAM Conservation Biologist I recently returned from the town of Sackville New Brunswick where I was invited to speak about SAM at the Atlantic Society of Fish and Wildlife Biologists spring meeting. The SAM organizational method received excellent feedback! After the talk, participants were curious about how the laws in Newfoundland and Labrador work, what our agreements are like, how we integrate social sciences into our programs, and more! There were many excellent presentations during the day that will help inspire furture partnerships and SAM work. What I also enjoyed was seeing how the Town of Sackville has promoted itself as a bird and wildlife destination. The number one attraction in the town is the Sackville Waterfowl Park  which is a completely free trail and boardwalk system that surrounds a series of ponds. The ponds were created in 1988 to make bird habitat, but their effect on tourism is fantastic as well! The ponds are full of life, with ducks and other waterbirds everywhere. Forest birds flit around you as you walk the trails. You can borrow binoculars at the spacious interpretive centre, which also has a craft shop connecting local artisans to the tourist market. They have great interpretive signage and produce a free bird brochure just for Sackville. They also promote guided tours including a birdwatching package  that includes two guided bird tours, lunch and dinner, and accommodations. There's also a $12 family Wetlands Adventure with snacks and an interpreter! The Town Sackville has bird-themed restaurants and cafes, bird crosswalks, bird art everywhere, and even bird-related poetry. Even the pub is called Ducky's! No doubt this is something that takes a long time for a municipality to develop, but Sackville provides a lot of ideas that could be applied to your town to welcome more tourists, and maybe even bird tourists! SAM is here to help - if you too want to become a "town that waterfowl built" we can help with your nature tourism projects, just email samstewardship@gmail.com

Stewardship Spotlight - Gander: 25 Years of Stewardship In 1993 The Town of Gander became one of the first Municipalities to protect habitat within their boundaries by signing a Habitat Stewardship Agreement. Since then Gander has taken stewardship seriously and has hosted many public outreach events! Such as a youth geocaching event in 2011 held at Thomas Howe Demonstration Forest, and creating walking trails, boardwalks and interpretation around Cobb's Pond. Just this past October, The Town of Gander partnered with Ducks Unlimited and SAM to host a Nestbox Building Workshop with Gander Elementary!  These events and activities help to bring together the community for a common cause... Protecting Habitat!  Gander has also provided two SAM Presidents along with many other SAM executive over the years. Former Mayor of Gander, Claude Elliot, is a strong supporter of SAM and over the past 25 years has been involved with many of the stewardship initiatives. Congratulations Gander on 25 Years of Stewardship, lets keep it going for another 25! Geocaching 101: Starting your outdoor treasure hunt! Geocaching is a technological twist on an outdoor treasure hunt! It has become increasing popular, and SAM has over 30 Geocaches for you to find with the profile nameEHJV_Stewardship!  Here are 5 Tips and Tricks for a successful hunt! 1) Get your equipment ready:You can use either a handheld GPS or a smartphone. The Geocaching App is very user friendly and free! You might also want to use Google Maps which is also free to install.  2) Sign up for the free account:  once you have downloaded the free app on your smartphone, create a free basic account using your email address. 3) Search for a Cache: In the App you can click on the "Map"and this will allow you to see all Caches around you! There are several different types of Caches that will appear in different colors. 4)  Navigate to the Cache: Once you have selected the cache you want to find, select it on the app by using the "Start"button. 5)  Leave your Treasure: When you find the cache you can open it and see what is inside! If there is a logbook you can sign it and there may even be a toy prize. If you take a prize remember to leave a prize for the next treasure hunter! Log your cache by clicking  the "Stop"button, you can then select the cache and reveal its details! Start planning your next outdoor treasure hunt today!  SAM Spring Photos: A Stewardship Photo Essay!  SAM Staff have been working with municipalities and Eastern Habitat Joint Venture partners over the past few months. Check out the photos for some Stewardship inspiration! Crabb's River Restoration with EHJV partners NCCand DUC Trail breaking in Cooks Marsh with DUC Wetland Field Trips with DUC Wetland Clean up in Deer Lake with Elwood Elementary SAM Bird watching in Stephenville Crossing If you have a photo  or a story you would like to submit for the SAM newsletter email samstewardship@gmail.com

Copyright © 2018 Stewardship Association of Municipalities, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you are a member of SAM, or because you subscribed on our website. Email us at: samstewardship@gmail.com

Part 4 - Wetlands Against Climate Change: "Keeping it Clean: Wetlands Purifying Water!"

In Canada we expect access to safe and reliable drinking water, and per person, Canada has the world’s largest supply of freshwater. Newfoundland and Labrador is no exception with an abundance of ponds, lakes, rivers and wetlands. However, when we take a look worldwide, climate change is threatening our access to clean water.

The Human Right to Water (Image from UN Water Decade Programme)

The World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with UNICEF, reported in 2010 that 884 million people did not have access to clean drinking water. At that time, the United Nations made access to clean water a human right. This human right is being threatened in some surprising ways due to climate change.

First, climate change can effect our water quality. Extreme weather events can stir up silt and increase runoff and warmer temperature can cause the over production of biological and chemical elements. For example storm sewers can be overwhelmed by heavy rain and flash floods, leading to untreated water entering our drinking water supplies. 

Also the way we produce clean water impacts climate change. When water is treated in plants that use large amounts of energy, which in many cases are powered by coal, natural gas, oil and other fossil fuels this contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Also, the demand for clean water has increased the use of bottled water. As more bottles are manufactured and shipped around the world this also contributes to greenhouse gases emissions. Coming at us from different angles, climate change impacts our clean water on the global scale.

Bottled Water (Image from Readers Digest)

Wetlands can help! Believe it or not, natural wetlands have the power to clean water! They offset the production of greenhouse gases by doing what they do naturally, purifying water in our environment. The process begins when flowing water meets a wetland. This water can be from rivers, lakes, sewage or agricultural runoff. Once the water meets the wetland it moves very slowly because the thick vegetation, the absorbent peat soils, and the network of roots are able to hold water in the wetland for an extended period of time. This allows for physical, chemical, and biological processes to clean the water.

Physical processes in wetland habitats include the trapping sediment and excess minerals. After a heavy rain fall or extreme weather event, such as a hurricane or flooding, sediment can be stirred up. These heavy sediments can clog our waterways and treatment plants, kill fish, and smother bottom feeding wildlife and plants.When these sediment heavy waters pass through a wetland, the habitat acts like a sieve, allowing sediment to settle at the bottom before it reaches water supplies and wildlife habitat. According to the Ecological Society of America, wetlands can trap and retain 80 – 90% of sediment from runoff!

Besides silt and sediment, wetlands also help remove potentially harmful elements. Phosphorus is a naturally occurring element that is essential for life, but in excess it can lead to kidney disease. Excess phosphorous can end up in water supplies though over fertilization of agricultural crops. In its particulate (or solid) form, it is first removed by the wetland using the physical processes of sedimentation. Once this particulate phosphorous settles out in the slow moving, highly vegetated water of wetlands, chemical processes remove even more phosphorus. Dissolved phosphorus, in the form of liquids and gases, accumulate, react with the wetland sediments, and eventually precipitates (solidifies) into other harmless elements including aluminum, iron and calcium phosphorus.

Nitrogen and phosphorus cycles in a wetland. (Image from IAN University Of Maryland)

Wetlands also use biological processes to filter excess elements and pollution from water. Plants, algae and bacteria uptake and transform chemical elements that in excess, are considered pollutants. Like phosphorus, high nitrogen levels are also present in areas where heavy fertilizer is used. Ammonia, which is in many fertilizers, converts to nitrates when exposed to water and high levels of nitrates can cause many problems including methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome) that inhibits the flow of oxygen in the bloodstream of infants. Nitrogen removal in wetlands is a naturally occurring process. Microbes found on plant roots and stems, take up nitrogen and convert it into harmless nitrogen gas and release it into the air. Wetlands are able to eliminate 70 –90% of entering nitrogen through this process.

Constructed wetland in Stephenville, NL (Image from Abodoz.com)

Wetlands have proven so effective at purifying water, companies around the world are constructing wetlands to clean municipal waste water. Constructed wetlands are a system of wetland beds that can mimic some of the filtration power of natural systems. Several municipalities in Newfoundland have opted for constructed wetland systems including Marystown, Appleton, and Stephenville. Wastewater is first passed through a screen to remove large non-organic materials, then the water passes through several wetland beds where it is filtered and able to return to the natural environment in lakes and rivers. Any settled materials are collected and sent through an additional wetland beds where the native plants re-mineralize the sediments and create compost that can be used for landscaping. 

An illustration of a constructed wetland system (Image from Abydoz.com)

Constructed wetlands can be appropriate for small communities, but do not replace natural wetlands and do not always provide the many other services provided by natural wetlands such as flood control, carbon sequestration and wildlife habitat.

Wetland in Carmanville, NL (Image from SAM NL)

We are learning more about wetlands, their power as natural water filters, and the many other ecosystems services they provide in the face of climate change.  Unfortunately, in Canada we lose 80 acres (32 hectares) of wetland per day. Conserving wetlands, and better understanding their functions, can assist us in keeping water clean by mitigating the effects of climate change.

What can YOU do to conserve wetlands that purify our water?

1) Use natural fertilizers on our home gardens

2) Take your fertilizers, pesticides, oil and other toxic wastes to the Household Hazardous Waste disposal station nearest you

3) Plant native vegetation on your property and in wetland restoration projects (Click to find our link on how to enhance your backyard habitat)

4) Volunteer to monitor and clean municipal and urban waterways – organizations like NA ACAP, Municipalities, and WWF regularly host cleanups where you can do your part!

5) Conserve and protect natural wetlands in our municipalities by supporting parks and organizations committed to protecting wetlands and natural areas

6) Support proper municipal planning that considers impacts on waterways as part of all urban, industry and agricultural development. Attend your local public consultations whenever your municipality asks, and share your concerns about wetlands and waterways being conserved for the future

Resources:

Abydoz. “Projects and Technology” https://www.abydoz.com/  Website.

Ducks Unlimited Canada. “How wetlands take care of Canada’s Water” http://www.ducks.ca/stories/water/how-wetlands-take-care-of-canadas-water/ . Website.

Ducks Unlimited Canada. “Water” http://www.ducks.ca/our-work/water/ . Website.

Ducks Unlimited Canada. “Making a Dam Difference at The Etang Stater Wetland “ http://www.ducks.ca/stories/volunteers/making-a-dam-difference/ . Website.

Ecological Society of America “Reveling secrets about… natural water purification” PDF. https://www.esa.org/ecoservices/WaterPurificationFactSheet.pdf

Grace Communications Foundation, Water Program “The Impact of Climate Change on Water Resources” http://www.gracelinks.org/2380/the-impact-of-climate-change-on-water-resources Website.

Livestrong “Too Much Phosphorus in the Body” https://www.livestrong.com/article/496979-too-much-phosphorus-in-the-body/ Website.

Michigan Environmental Education Curriculum, Wetland Ecosystems “How to wetlands filter harmful substances” http://techalive.mtu.edu/meec/module12/Chemicalfunctionsofwetlands.htm . Website.

National Park Service. “Water Filtering of Wetlands” https://www.nps.gov/keaq/learn/education/water-filtering-of-wetlands.htm . Website.

Nature “Cool Green Science: Building wetlands for clean drinking water” https://blog.nature.org/science/2013/01/30/feature-building-wetlands-for-clean-water/ Website.

(Perma)Culture and Sanity “Wastewater Treatment and Constructed Wetland part I” http://permaculture-and-sanity.com/pcarticles/constructed-wetland-wastewater-treatment-part1.php Website.

Ramsar. Factsheet, “Wetlands: Why Should  I care?” https://www.ramsar.org/sites/default/files/documents/library/factsheet1_why_should_i_care_0.pdf . PDF.

Ramsar. “Wetlands; a sustainable solution for water purification and security” https://www.ramsar.org/news/wetlands-a-sustainable-solution-for-water-purification-and-security-0 . Website.

Sciencing. “How do wetlands purify water?” https://sciencing.com/do-wetlands-purify-water-7585568.html . Website.

The Wetlands Initiative. “Value of Wetlands: Cleaner Water” http://www.wetlands-initiative.org/cleaner-water . Website.

The Wetlands initiative. “Ask a Scientist: Nutrient Removal” http://www.wetlands-initiative.org/nutrient-removal/ . Website.

UN Decade programme on advocacy and communication (UNW-DPAC) “The Human Right to Water” PDF. http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/pdf/facts_and_figures_human_right_to_water_eng.pdf

UN Water “International Decade for Action ‘Water for life’ 2005 – 2015” http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/human_right_to_water.shtml Website.

United States Environmental Protection Agency. “Climate Impacts Water Resources” https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-water-resources_.html#Quality . Website.

Wikipedia “Phosphorus” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphorus Website.