5. Stewardship and Protection
The RVCA and its partners are working to protect and enhance environmental conditions in the Middle Rideau Subwatershed. Figure 59 shows the location of all stewardship projects completed in the Barbers Creek catchment along with sites identified for potential shoreline restoration.
Rural Clean Water Projects
From 2003 to 2008, two well decommissionings and one well replacement were completed. Prior to 2003, two manure storage facilities, two livestock fencing projects and one milkhouse washwater treatment facility were completed. No projects were undertaken between 2009 and 2014. Total value of all eight projects is $119,772 with $51,500 of that amount funded through grant dollars from the RVCA.
Tree Planting Projects
Through the RVCA Butternut Recovery Program, 40 butternut trees were planted in the Barbers Creek catchment between 2009 and 2014, as part of efforts to introduce healthy seedlings from tolerant butternuts into various locations across Eastern Ontario.
Valley, Stream, Wetland and Hazard Land Regulation
The Barbers Creek catchment covers 48 square kilometres with 13 square kilometres (or 27 percent) of the drainage area being within the regulation limit of Ontario Regulation 174/06 (Figure 60), giving protection to wetland areas and river or stream valleys that are affected by flooding and erosion hazards.
Wetlands occupy 13.7 sq. km. (or 29 percent) of the catchment. Of these wetlands, 7.7 sq. km (or 56 percent) are designated as provincially significant and included within the RVCA regulation limit. This leaves the remaining 6.0 sq. km (or 44 percent) of wetlands in the catchment outside the regulated area limit.
Of the 60.9 kilometres of stream in the catchment, regulation limit mapping has been plotted along 23.5 kilometers of streams (representing 39 percent of all streams in the catchment). Some of these regulated watercourses (13.8 km or 23 percent of all streams) flow through regulated wetlands; the remaining 9.7 km (or 41 percent) of regulated streams are located outside of those wetlands. Plotting of the regulation limit on the remaining 37.5 km (or 61 percent) of streams requires identification of flood and erosion hazards and valley systems.
Within the regulation limit, “development” and “site alteration” require RVCA permission. The “alteration to waterways” provision of Ontario Regulation 174/06 applies to all watercourses.
Vulnerable Drinking Water Areas
The Barbers Creek drainage catchment is considered to have a Highly Vulnerable Aquifer. This means that the nature of the overburden (thin soils, fractured bedrock) does not provide a high level of protection for the underlying groundwater making the aquifer more vulnerable to contaminants released on the surface. The Mississippi-Rideau Source Protection Plan includes policies that focus on the protection of groundwater region-wide due to the fact that most of the region, which encompasses the Mississippi and Rideau watersheds, is considered Highly Vulnerable Aquifer. For detailed maps and policies that have been developed to protect drinking water sources, please go to the Mississippi-Rideau Source Protection Region website at www.mrsourcewater.ca to view the Mississippi-Rideau Source Protection Plan.