Did You Know?

March 17-23, 2014 is Canada Water Week, a celebration of water from coast-to-coast. Canada Water Week is held annually in the third week of March so as to coincide with World Water Day, which takes place on March 22.

This year’s campaign is Watersheds 101. A watershed is defined by Canadian Geographic as “an area of land where all the surface water drains into the same place, whether is it a creek, a stream, a river or an ocean.”

Canada has five main watersheds: the Atlantic, the Hudson Bay, the Arctic, the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. There are, however, hundreds of smaller sub-watersheds throughout Canada.

Our area is located in the Thames River watershed, which flows downstream into Lake St. Clair. Nestled in the agricultural heartland of Southwestern Ontario in close proximity to Lakes Huron, St. Clair and Erie.  The second largest watershed in southwestern Ontario, the Thames River is 273 km long and drains 5,825 square kilometres of land. The Thames is accessible to a half million people residing in its watershed.

Sources:

Canada Water Week: http://canadawaterweek.com/

The Canadian Heritage Rivers System: http://www.chrs.ca/Rivers/Thames/Thames-F_e.php