Restoring an iconic Canadian river for future generations

At WWF, we are working to help make Canada’s waters healthy for nature and people, specifically, for future generations.  We support approaches to managing our waters that will protect and restore our freshwater resources.  In Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, that means helping the river return to its natural rhythm helping to save 20-plus animal and plant species that are listed as vulnerable, threatened, or endangered by Canadian and American Governments.

 
Plan 2014, developed by the International Joint Commission (IJC), is the final iteration of Plan Bv7  and is intended to restore the environment and compromises to meet the needs of people.  We’re really excited about the potential this plan has to repair a long degraded ecosystem.   It’s also very complicated. Making informed decisions in complex systems with multiple interests, decisions that benefit the environment and the economy takes a long time – a really long time!  I first introduced the process in November 2011 on this blog . I also happened to be working on building our future generation at the time – my daughter is now 14 months old.  Since these two developments took place at the same time, I’ve created a chart to illustrate the process and the time it has taken to protect this iconic Canadian river for future generations:

The intent of Plan 2014 is to restore more natural flows to the St. Lawrence River for the health of the river, shoreline and animals that live there while respecting the concerns and needs of all stakeholders.  We are thrilled that the IJC has announced public hearings, because we are one step closer to ensuring the health of this iconic river for the next generation – which, like Chloe, is quickly growing, ready to enjoy healthy rivers and wildlife!