U-Links Leverages Funding from Kenneth M. Molson Foundation into Research for Healthier Woodlands and Waterways

March 4, 2022

U-Links Centre for Community Based Research has received funding from the Kenneth M. Molson Foundation to continue a collaborative program to analyze the health of waterways and woodlands across Haliburton County. 

Working with Trent University, Fleming College and organizations such as the Haliburton County Development Corporation, the Woodlands and Waterways EcoWatch initiative is a community-based environmental monitoring program. The initiative utilizes the resources and knowledge of students from Trent University and Fleming College to assist community organizations and monitor the long-term health of the forests and lakes of Haliburton County and the surrounding region.

"The Woodlands and Waterways EcoWatch program is a great opportunity for local organizations to access research endeavours and resources from Trent University students and faculty,” says Sadie Fischer, environmental program coordinator at U-Links. “Our partners in Haliburton County, such as local lake associations and the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust, receive valuable data and recommendations on how to manage the lakes and forests of Haliburton County to ensure their long-term health and viability. In addition, students and community members gain hands-on skills that can be applied in future workplaces or in local initiatives."

Phase II of the project provided valuable research opportunities that aided in the identification and reporting of potential environmental risks. Among the successes:

•    U-Links and Trent University worked together to launch a new Applied Biomonitoring course at the Trent School of the Environment; a class that hosted 46 students and took part in field outings where four lakes were sampled (with a total of 16 sites)
•    U-Links was successful in engaging an entirely new Trent program – Conservation Biology – and provided 8 students with the opportunity to participate in a one-year conservation biology placement with U-Links.
•    The program increased the number of participating lakes from 6 to 20 lakes and expanded terrestrial biomonitoring with the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust (HHLT) from 7 permanent sample plots to 20 sites.
•    The program piloted a small citizen science training effort where they trained 6 community volunteers to assist in benthic sample collection.

U-Links is currently working to make the program sustainable by expanding their citizen science model. They’re also looking to expand water quality testing, and to work with HHLT to further develop monitoring protocols for flora and fauna; and to incorporate these protocols into a citizen science model for terrestrial biomonitoring.

Since 1999, U-Links, the only rural independent Community-Based Research Centre in North America, has been providing support for community-based research and community service-learning projects in Haliburton County and the Kawarthas, by facilitating research in collaboration with professors and students at Trent University and Sir Sandford Fleming College.