OMAFRA's Great Lakes Program (OGLP)

Table of Contents

1. COA Annex 2 – Harmful Pollutants
• Goal 2
2. COA Annex 3 – Lake and Basin Sustainability
   • Goal 1
   • Goal 2
   • Goal 5
3. Annex 4 – Coordination of Monitoring, Research and Information
   • Goal 1
   • Goal 2

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs' (OMAFRA) Great Lakes Program (OGLP) was launched in October 2007. The OGLP helps fulfill OMAFRA's commitments under the 2007-2010 Canada-Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem (COA). The COA is a Federal-Provincial agreement between Ministry of Environment, OMAFRA, Ministry of Natural Resources, and six federal departments:

• Environment Canada
• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
• Health Canada
• Natural Resources Canada
• Transport Canada
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

• Collection from farms of unwanted and expired agricultural pharmaceuticals and pesticides across the Great Lakes Basin
• Feasibility study for instituting an ongoing waste stream management program for unwanted agricultural pharmaceuticals and pesticides

• Transfer to on-line learning format 15 chapters of the Grower Pesticide Safety and Pesticide Vendor Certification Courses
• Create two pilot e-learning modules for new course "Health and the Environmental Aspects of Farming"

• Administration of a survey distributed to all farmers certified to purchase and apply pesticides in Ontario
• Identification of trends in pesticide use
• Environmental, human health risk assessment of current pesticide use patterns

COA Annex 3 – Lake and Basin Sustainability

• Identification of barriers to cover crop adoption
• Organization of workshops and invited speakers on cover crop and water quality issues
• Development of cover crop database and associated website
• Creation of research and demonstration sites for cover crops after early harvested vegetables, after soybeans and in high residue removal (bio-product/bio-energy) systems

Best Management Practices for the Ontario Greenhouse and Container Nursery Industry to Protect Surface and Sub-surface Water Quality

Collaborators:

Ontario Greenhouse Alliance, Flowers Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, Landscape Ontario, Aqua Treatment Technologies, Agri-Food Laboratories, Soil Resource Group

Project Deliverables:

• Demonstration and evaluation of nutrient and water management options for greenhouse and container nursery operations
• Development of draft Best Management Practices document
• Organization of three to five Water and Nutrient Symposia targeted to producers
• Evaluation of a portable wetland treatment system

• Creation and distribution of 75,000 copies of a revised brochure (Septic Smart)

Integrated Watershed Based Stewardship: Collaborative Environmental Farm Plan and Community Based Stewardship

Collaborators:

University of Guelph, Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association, Trout Unlimited Canada, Grand River and Hamilton Region Conservation Authorities

Project Deliverables:

• Piloting watershed based environmental farm planning process
• Inventory of land stewardship activities, attitudes and motivation for stewardship. Multiple stakeholder defined watershed stewardship plan

• Incorporation of agri-environmental stewardship principles into the local secondary school curriculum. Conduct two high school field classes at landowner sites

• Adaptation of Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI) to Ontario. Pilot testing and monitoring of QHEI in test restoration channels

• Development of ways to use the research findings towards new public communications strategies to strengthen and expand OMAFRA's COA and Great Lakes overall efforts

• Support for enhanced water quantity/drainage and erosion characterization components of the Big Creek Watershed Plan

Sponsorship of 16th Annual International Conference on the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence River Ecosystem

Collaborators:

St. Lawrence River Science Institute

Project Deliverables:

• Public sharing of research on tributary impacts on water quality in the St. Lawrence Great Lakes ecosystems

Examination of Barriers and Benefits of Nutrient Management in Innisfil Creek area

Collaborators:

Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

Project Deliverables:

• Determine current nutrient practices used by farmers for managing nutrient loss, research the barriers of farmer adoption of other nutrient Best Management Practises and what behavioural changes would be associated with the successful adoption of these practices

• Delivery of the annual “Lake Huron-Georgian Bay Youth Summits” to bring together senior high school students to learn about the Lake Huron-Georgian Bay Watershed Canadian Framework for Community Action and commit to action as Youth Ambassadors in their home communities

• Digitization of landscape features
• Collection of field information on crop and tillage management in select watersheds
• Geographic Information System (GIS) products to be used in modelling and for sharing with partners

Establishing a process to identify priority agricultural issues and watersheds for future actions

Collaborators:

OMAFRA

Project Deliverables:

• Develop a decision making framework for directing and prioritizing agri-environmental program resources on a geographic and/or on an issue focussed basis for the agricultural sector in the Great Lakes Basin within Ontario

• Preparation of high resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM) derived from Light Detection and Ranging System (LiDAR) data
• Modelling results to inform location of potential nutrient source sites and mitigation strategies
• Co-ordinated implementation of nutrient and sediment Best Management Practices in field areas upland from constructed wetlands
• Exploration of community based social marketing approach with the agricultural community for phosphorus reduction

Agricultural land management and water quality data evaluation in representative agricultural watersheds in the Grand River and Thames River basins

Collaborators:

Soil Resource Group, Grand River and Upper Thames Conservation Authorities, University of Guelph

Project Deliverables:

• Document current and historical land use and management in two Pollution from Land Use Activities Reference Group (PLUARG) watersheds
• Report trends in agricultural land use/management and water quality in these agricultural watersheds since the 1970’s

Annex 3 – Lake and Basin Sustainability

• Development of a field-based tool to allow site-specific characterization of sediment nitrogen and phosphorus retention capacity within streams in watersheds characterized by agricultural nutrient loadings

Influence of extreme weather events on export of bacteria, nutrients, water colour and mercury from agricultural lands and wetlands

Collaborators:

University of Ottawa, St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences, Raisin Region Conservation Authority

Project Deliverables:

• Investigation and comparison of exports from wetland areas (drained and un-drained) to diverse agricultural areas in the Raisin River headwaters of nutrients, organic carbon, total suspended solids, bacteria and mercury

Effect of climate change on soil erosion, soil productivity and drainable water quantity and quality in the Ontario Great Lakes Basin

Collaborators:

University of Guelph

Project Deliverables:

• Model and evaluate the effect of climate change on soil quality (soil erosion and soil productivity), surface and subsurface drainable water quality, and stream water quality

Annex 4 – Coordination of Monitoring, Research and Information

• Organization of a workshop to:
  • evaluate ability of current monitoring efforts to demonstrate effectiveness of stewardship efforts in agricultural watersheds
  • form a strategy for how to better integrate and optimize monitoring efforts to evaluate and direct agricultural stewardship programs

• Organization of a forum for research and extension specialists to identify practices and research needs for managing non-point source phosphorous contributions from land under agricultural production

Application of Satellite Data to Agricultural Resource Inventory (ARI) Modelling Project

Collaborators:

OMAFRA, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Project Deliverables:

• Pilot a technique to extract agricultural resource inventory information from satellite imagery data

Developing a framework to evaluate effectiveness of land management projects: Non-point nutrient loadings and near shore ecosystem behaviour in Lake Erie

Collaborators:

University of Windsor, Environment Canada, Ohio and US Environmental Protection Agencies, Lake Erie Millennium Network

Project Deliverables:

• Organization of workshops to:
  • develop a Geographic Information System (GIS) based sampling framework to predict loadings and establish land monitoring locations to describe nutrient delivery from headwater lands to near shore
  • to align this plan with aquatic initiatives for the 2009 bi-national Lake Erie Collaborative Intensive Monitoring study

Annex 4 – Coordination of Monitoring, Research and Information

• Digitization of remaining 1:50,000 Canada Land Inventory (CLI) Present Land Use maps from 1967
• Wetland Conversion Analysis indicating historic wetland extent and types of conversion for three years, 1967, 1982 and 2000

2006 Census of Agriculture data by watershed and dissemination area

Collaborators:

OMAFRA

Project Deliverables:

• Purchase of watershed based census data for analysis of agri-environmental practices and trends

• OMAFRA Great Lakes Program and Lake Erie: Pamela Joosse, 519-826-3853
• Lake Huron and Georgian Bay: Stewart Sweeney, 519-826-4478
• Lake Ontario and Lake St. Clair: Peter Roberts, 519-826-3578
• Lake Superior: Deborah Brooker, 519-826-4109