Twenty-two projects across Canada receive funding through the Government of Canada’s Environmental Damages Fund

The Environmental Damages Fund (EDF) is a Government of Canada funding program administered by Environment and Climate Change Canada. Built on the premise that environmental good must follow environmental harm, the program provides an effective way of responding to environmental damage by directing funds received from fines, court orders, and voluntary payments from environmental violations, to carry out projects that benefit our natural environment.

The most recent round of funding involves 22 projects in eight provinces and territories across Canada—four in Alberta, three in British Columbia, five in Newfoundland and Labrador, two in Nova Scotia, one in Nunavut, one in Ontario, five in Québec, and one in Saskatchewan.

Alberta

1. Northern Alberta Institute of Technology ($349,025)
   This restoration project will protect, conserve or restore the environment in the province of Alberta with a priority of conserving or restoring healthy freshwater ecosystems. The project aims to reclaim mineral features (well pads and access roads used for resource extraction) that have been built in boreal peatlands. This will, in turn, reduce the negative impact of mineral fill on peatland hydrology, chemistry, and vegetation.
2. Smoky Lake County ($115,000)
   The project aims to stabilize and restore ecological integrity to the decaying shoreline within the Mons Lake recreational area. Planned activities include the installation of natural armour materials to stabilize the area and reduce sedimentation in the lake, thereby improving water quality.  Additional activities include planting native grasses and willows to reinforce the bank with a natural vegetation barrier and creating managed access points along the bank to protect public safety.
3. Trout Unlimited Canada ($109,810)
   The project aims to improve aquatic and riparian habitat in the Trout Creek watershed to rehabilitate Westslope Cutthroat Trout. The organization will work with stakeholder groups, resource managers and community members to implement a rehabilitation program and increase public awareness on the threats facing native trout populations and measures to address them.
4. Alberta Riparian Habitat Management Society (Cows and Fish) ($336,165)
   The project aims to improve riparian health through improved knowledge, skills and the implementation of management changes among local landowners. Planned activities include delivering outreach activities, identifying and working with landowners to select priority riparian areas and assess their health and management needs, restoring riparian areas through installation of off-site watering systems, installing fencing, and planting trees and shrubs.

British Columbia

1. Fraser Valley Watersheds Coalition ($189,176)
   This restoration project will protect, conserve or restore fish habitat in the Fraser River watershed. The project’s overall objectives are to restore and create new fish habitat by targeting off-channel flood plain habitat in the Vedder River. Project activities include constructing a pond, constructing a stable outlet berm and weir, extending a groundwater channel, adding stream habitat enhancements, such as boulders and large woody debris, addressing encroachment of reed canary grass, planting native species, managing invasive species and installing permanent signage.
2. British Columbia Conservation Foundation ($95,824)
   The British Columbia Conservation Foundation will help protect, conserve or restore fish habitat in the Fraser River watershed through the development of a stream-mapping database for the Lower Fraser River Valley. The project aims to prioritize fish-habitat restoration projects for areas affected by the cumulative impacts of activities including transportation, industrial and residential development and agricultural activities.
3. Okanagan Nation Alliance ($30,750)
   The project aims to restore ecological function and improve the environmental quality of a 15-hectare area within the 890 hectares of Fort Shepherd Conservancy lands south of Trail, British Columbia, owned by The Land Conservancy of British Columbia. Planned activities include conducting forest health surveys, replanting the micro-sites with native trees, conducting invasive plant inventories, manually removing noxious plants and developing long-term treatment prescriptions for all the proposed restoration areas.

Newfoundland and Labrador

1. ACAP Humber Arm Environmental Association Inc. ($115,000)
   This project will engage western Newfoundland’s agricultural sector in restoring and protecting the environment.  ACAP Humber Arm will conduct ten farm-based ecological assessments, which will lead to appropriate restoration activities to improve fish habitat, lower in-stream temperatures and reduce flooding. These activities may include planting and fencing, reducing fecal bacteria, nutrient loading, erosion, siltation, pollution run-off and invasive species.
2. World Wildlife Fund-Canada ($85,000)
   World Wildlife Fund-Canada will restore critical coastal habitat for a unique localized population of Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) in Parker’s Brook, Newfoundland. The project will ensure the migratory pathway is protected from blockages caused by erosion and siltation in the river system and will benefit Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) returning to the river.
3. Bay St. George South Area Development Association ($35,000)
   This project aims to develop habitat conservation and improvement plans for rivers in the areas of Bay St. George, Newfoundland. Surveys of tributary streams will be used to create an inventory of habitat factors that could be affecting Atlantic salmon and other aquatic species. Debris and barriers within the rivers will be removed and water-quality monitoring will identify sources of water contaminants from residential and agricultural activity.
4. Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society-NL and Labrador ($89,000)
   This education and awareness project will target coastal communities and businesses in eastern Newfoundland about the harmful effects of lighting on Leach’s Storm-Petrels. The project will monitor dark coastlines to understand the effects of light on young Leach’s Storm-Petrels, and will teach volunteers how to capture and release birds that become stranded due to light pollution. Techniques to reduce harmful lighting will be developed in collaboration with businesses and community members.
5. Bird Studies Canada ($81,391)
   This project will document the distribution, abundance, and status of breeding birds in insular Newfoundland through the production of a Breeding Bird Atlas.  The atlas will benefit the environment by collecting the information needed to allow for informed decision-making in regard to conservation, management and policy related to breeding bird populations, including species at risk, at multiple spatial scales.

Nova Scotia

1. Acadia University ($50,000)
   This project will examine upstream migration timing and passage success of alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) at the White Rock Dam on the Gaspereau River, Nova Scotia. To test the stress of migration, the research team will tag alewife with Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags, track their movement with an antenna system, and conduct biological sampling for physiological stress markers. The research has the potential to aid Nova Scotia Power Inc. in the management of fish passageways for upstream migrating fish species, including alewife and the endangered Atlantic salmon.
2. Nova Scotia Salmon Association ($30,000)
   This project aims to restore Atlantic salmon and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) habitat by improving spawning substrates and juvenile breeding habitats. This project will also work to improve adult salmon migration through the creation of holding pools for adult fish. The project will apply fish habitat restoration techniques, like stream-bank stabilization to reduce erosion, and rock sill and deflector installations to re-establish the natural flow of the stream and riverbank vegetation.

Nunavut

1. University of Waterloo ($50,000)
   The project aims to characterize fish habitat features that block  Arctic Char migration in Freshwater Creek and to increase the monitoring capacity of local Nunavummiut. Planned activities include deployment of water temperature and water level loggers, characterization of physical aquatic habitat, and incorporation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in the final restoration recommendations.

Ontario

1. Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority ($138,777)
   This project aims to engage Nottawasaga Valley watershed residents to implement over 20 water quality improvement and on-the-ground habitat restoration projects. Approximately 44 hectares will be restored by increasing forest cover in critical groundwater recharge areas to increase infiltration and reduce flood potential. Over three kilometres of stream bank will be restored to provide shade for aquatic habitat.

Québec

1. Institut de développement durable des Premières Nations du Québec et du Labrador (IDDNLPQ) ($130,000)
   This project aims to rehabilitate degraded sites in the Atikamekw traditional territory (Nitaskinan). The project will provide a mapping inventory of orphaned sites, such as abandoned forest camps, mineral exploration sites, wild deposits and abandoned oil reservoirs for the purpose of restoration. The project will engage First Nations and local communities through public meetings to incorporate traditional and local knowledge, and to maximize restoration efforts.
2. Société Provancher d’histoire naturelle du Canada ($35,000)
   This project aims to restore and protect habitats on the sites managed by Société Provancher through the control of invasive species, especially  common reeds and Japanese knotweed. Restoration activities will be implemented following an intervention protocol recently developed specifically by a committee of scientific experts for the special conditions of these environments.
3. Fédération de l’UPA de Montérégie ($66,080)
   This project targets aquatic and rural habitats of threatened, troubled and local species in the Pot au Beurre River watershed. This project aims to raise awareness among agricultural stakeholders on best practices to improve the natural habitat in this watershed. A series of wildlife management projects, including shoreline improvements, will be carried out, and a set of best management practices will be created to encourage stakeholders to improve wildlife habitat in this watershed.
4. Water First Education and Training Inc. ($108,920)
   Water First will partner with Long Point First Nation to improve fish habitat on the Nation’s traditional territories. The project aims to restore two walleye spawning areas in the Lake Simard area by removing sediment from spawning substrate, stabilizing the shoreline to prevent erosion and sedimentation, and creating optimal spawning substrate. The project will hire and train community members from Long Point First Nation in the assessment, planning, execution and monitoring of restoration activities for walleye spawning habitat.
5. Éco-Nature ($25,000)
   This project aims to restore and sustain wildlife habitat along the Mille Îles River in Laval. Project activities include removing an asphalt surface from the shoreline, restoring the original natural plant succession, and stabilizing the bank using techniques inspired by plant engineering to recreate quality wildlife habitats. By transforming a highly artificial environment into a natural environment of quality, the shoreline and coastline will return to their original ecological functions and the habitat will once again be favourable to the rich fauna and flora of the region.

Saskatchewan

1. Flying Dust First Nation ($150,000)
   The project aims to improve the quality of the water on the Flying Dust First Nation territory. The organization wants to gain a better understanding of the nearby Meadow Lake and Meadow River and decrease sedimentation by restoring habitat for fish, birds and other species in and around the local river. Planned activities include conducting a bathymetric survey and hydrogeological study, creating a model that will include a visual and topographic survey of the river corridor and show flow velocity, removing derelict vehicles and debris, installing erosion control blankets along riparian areas identified as part of the study, and planting indigenous shrubs and plants.