Big Oil and the Federal Government would have you believe that Canada’s greatest resource is bitumen. It’s not. Canada’s greatest, most spectacular, irreplaceable resource is fresh water. Life depends on water. And Canada is blessed with approximately 25 percent of the world’s wetlands. Wetlands are fabulous ecosystems, brimming with an amazing diversity of life. In fact, wetlands are as productive as rainforests and coral reefs. And wetlands filter and purify the water we all depend on.
But Canadians have not been good stewards. Seventy percent of Ontario’s wetlands have been drained. Sixty-five percent of Atlantic Canada’s coastal marshes are gone. Seventy-one percent of prairie wetlands have been lost. Eighty percent of the Fraser River delta has been developed. Canada is losing its most vital ecosystems.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada works to preserve some of Canada’s most threatened wetlands. You can read more about their work at the Campbell River Estuary, BC; the Minesing Wetlands, ON; Tabusintac Estuary, NB; and Musquash Estuary, NB by following this link to their website. On this, World Water Day, please consider making a donation to the Nature Conservancy of Canada at www.natureconservancy.ca. Help save Canada’s wetlands.
Willow House Chronicles 