Gravenhurst Council supports next steps for Integrated Watershed Management

The goals of the project include maintaining/improving water quality, flood control, and climate change adaptation

Gravenhurst Council supported next steps for Integrated Watershed Management, in the June 17, 2025, meeting.

According to the staff report, “Integrated Watershed Management (IWM) is a modern approach to environmental management which integrates information and decisions made to achieve collective watershed-wide goals.”

It adds that IWM requires a collective effort between the Ontario government, regional and area municipalities, First Nations and stakeholders.

As a step forward, Director of Development Services, Melissa Halford, recommends the Town form a working group called the Muskoka River Watershed IWM to assist in advancing management planning. This step involves authorizing staff to establish the IWM group.

As a whole, area municipalities will also be required to participate in in IWM initiatives, which will be primarily informed by the District of Muskoka, with the aim of integrated information and decisions to achieve collective goals.

District of Muskoka Manager of IWM, Glenn Cunnington, advised that the aim is to identify problems that can be dealt with on a regional level, including learning as a region from events that happen in individual area municipalities.

The report continues that IWM goals include “maintaining/improving water quality, flood control, climate change adaptation, forest management, effective planning, and community development and/or economic development.”

It adds, “IWM manages human activities and natural resources within areas defined by watershed boundaries rather than jurisdictional ones while aiming to protect and manage those activities and functions today and into the future.”

It continues that managing water and land conforming with natural boundaries will lead to greater success than management that could change according to other borders, such as municipal ones.

Potential collective endeavours to advance the IWM in the Muskoka River include a provincially established conservation and management initiative which includes a $5 million investment to support it, the Muskoka Watershed Advisory Group being appointed to provide the MOE with recommendations for safeguarding the Muskoka River Watershed, establishing a Community Round Table, completion of the District’s 12 technical IWM studies funded by the MOE, use of First Nations IWM data supporting management efforts, and ongoing community outreach and education.

Halford advised Council that the IWM approach “has gained some steam as of late.”

She added that staff will set up a meeting to discuss potential participation and next steps in the summer and define a taskforce.