Tree Planting on Medway Creek Thanks to Home Hardware and Tree Canada On October 27, UTRCA staff worked with grade 7 and 8 students from London Christian Elementary School to plant trees on a property just north of Arva on Medway Creek. Almost 120 native tree species were planted, including red oak, black cherry, sugar maple, black walnut, bur oak, hackberry, red maple, and white pine. Although the day [...]

First Extended Season a Success!  This fall the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) offered a new Extended Season providing an additional six weeks of Day Use access to Fanshawe and Wildwood Conservation Areas (CAs).  The expanded access to the CAs has been very well received with hundreds of day users visiting them each week. There is still time to take advantage of the Extended Season as it runs until [...]

GIS Day 2023 at Western University  The Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) participated in Western University’s GIS Day on November 15th, displaying GIS (Geographic Information Systems) expertise used in various projects at the open-house event hosted by Western Libraries. The event brought students, colleagues, and community leaders together showcasing the latest in GIS products and applications. UTRCA staff brought our Flood Hazard Water Table, teaching attendees about the [...]

Blue Jays and Acorns  In fall, acorns begin to drop from oak trees. It is amazing to think that this little nut may someday grow into a mighty oak.   However, not all the seeds are viable. Some may become infested with a fungus or acorn weevils which lay their eggs inside the acorn. When the eggs hatch, the growing larvae feed on the nut.   To determine viability, acorns can [...]

UTRCA Hosts LID Workshop On October 18th, the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) in collaboration with the University of Western Ontario Water Centre hosted a half day workshop on “Storm Water Management (SWM) Low Impact Development (LID) Operation and Maintenance” at the UTRCA Watershed Conservation Centre (WCC). Fifty six people attended the workshop which included staff from consulting engineering firms, municipalities, local conservation authorities, First Nations and graduate [...]

Groundwater Sampling is Underway with the Addition of Pesticides Sampling October and November are very busy months for the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) staff who are out sampling groundwater throughout the watershed. This fall, 22 of the 28 Provincial Groundwater Monitoring Network (PGMN) wells are being sampled. PGMN was developed in 2001 in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP). The program was designed to [...]

Don’t Fear the Foam!  From time to time there is unsightly foam flowing down the river or accumulating along the shoreline in the Upper Thames River watershed. If you have every experienced this, you may have immediately thought this was some chemical flowing down the waterway. In a majority of situations, the foam is a natural phenomenon.  What causes foam?   Natural foam is composed of dissolved organic matter, specifically [...]

Savanna Restoration Project Update  A project to transition a stagnant pine stand next to the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA)’s Watershed Conservation Centre parking lot into a diverse pine-oak savanna and tallgrass prairie habitat is progressing nicely.  The pine stand consisted of spindly 40-year-old pines that were planted too densely and had stagnant growth. Invasive plants such as Chinese Elm, Russian Olive, and buckthorn had spread throughout the [...]