A grant for $50,000 was presented Friday to the Severn Sound Environmental Association (SSEA) by Simcoe North MPP Jill Dunlop, who was made an honorary member of the organization by executive director Julie Cayley as a result.
The grant will fund the Severn Sound Healthy Soils = Healthy Watersheds pilot program, which aims to create efficiencies for local farms through the improvement of soil health, the optimization of nutrient use, and more.
“We’ll be helping farmers in increasing the amount of soil sampling that they’re doing, and putting cover crops on the ground, as well as putting up a real-time weather monitoring station,” said Cayley in conversation with MidlandToday.
“This was our final ‘yay success’ moment,” Cayley added with a large smile, “where we were fortunate enough to get approved into a grant through the Great Lakes Local Action Fund.”
The fund will provide $1.9 million to 44 community-based projects in supporting initiatives which protect and restore coastal, shoreline, and nearshore areas of the Great Lakes.
The presentation was held on the farm of Robert Moreau in Lafontaine, with Dave Ritchie, president of Simcoe County Federation of Agriculture, and Paul Maurice of Monpiero Farms in Tiny in attendance, along with many SSEA staff and the MPP.
Dunlop remarked, “It really shows the cooperation of the SSEA with our local municipalities, and the work that’s being done with the agricultural sector.”
Tiny Coun. Cindy Hastings was on hand as representative for the township.
“It means that we’re supporting our agricultural community. And they’ve been so great working together with the SSEA,” Hastings praised, “As you can see, they’re very passionate about their stewardship of the land and wanting to do better.
“This is just the start. To think what will happen here in Tiny can be rolled out to the rest of the watershed, and quite possibly to the rest of the province. So this is a big deal.”
Supporting local actions to protect the Great Lakes is a commitment in the province’s plan to protect land, air and water, said Cayley.
“The project itself is a year long for funding,” Cayley explained, “and we’re hoping we’ll be successful in finding more funding to expand it geographically throughout the Severn Sound watershed, and for more years to come.”
For more information about Severn Sound Healthy Soils = Healthy Watersheds, visit the SSEA website.
