Submission for input to the Alberta online engagement on water availability
Aquatic ecosystems include rivers, stream, lakes, ponds and wetlands as well as the riparian areas on their periphery. These landscape features capture, store, release and convey the water that falls as snow and rain. They are critical for sustaining life in a watershed and provide nature-based functions and services including resiliency to floods and droughts, erosion prevention, sediment capture and transport, recharge of groundwater aquifers, water purification, productive vegetation and important habitats for fish and wildlife. Man-made reservoirs and canals store and convey water but fail to provide other nature-based services. The health of aquatic ecosystems is a measure of how sustainably we live in a watershed.
Over the past century making large and increasing amounts of water available for human uses and significantly altering natural storage and flow regimes has resulted in degraded aquatic ecosystems with reduced resiliency and less ability to provide nature-based functions. Natural water storage in our watersheds is reduced. Large amounts of withdrawal are shrinking rivers. The suggestions that follow focus on water and watershed management that strives to ensure sufficient water is available at the appropriate times to maintain and restore healthy, functioning aquatic ecosystems.
- Enhance headwaters storage and yield using nature-based approaches. This includes managing land use to support aquifer recharge and protecting and restoring wetlands including beaver pond complexes.
Snow and rain falling in the Eastern Slopes provides 80% of water flowing in rivers of the South Saskatchewan River Basin. Groundwater recharge, late-summer flows and overall water yield are influenced by the natural storage capacities of headwaters. The maximization of ecosystem services of this type in headwaters includes curtailing industrial and recreational activities that have large water demands and result in surface disturbance footprint, both spatial (mine site) and linear (roads and vehicle trails). It also includes transitioning forest management approaches away from clearcut logging and towards small-scale selective harvest and use of prescribed fire designed to maintain snowpack and vegetation cover and reduce rapid runoff that erodes soil into headwater rivers and their tributaries. Reclamation of existing footprint is also beneficial. Another key component of this approach is protection and restoration of riparian zones and wetlands, including beaver ponds.
A youth conservation corps has been suggested as a means to achieve substantial progress in headwaters restoration. Several watershed stewardship organizations recognize the wisdom of this approach and are working towards it although constrained by inadequate coordination and resourcing as well as lack of enforcement to prevent damage from inappropriate land use. - Determine science-based environmental flows* that will support healthy and resilient aquatic ecosystems. Require collaborative basin water management planning that defines instream flows needed for protection of the aquatic and riparian environment, including protecting biodiversity, and corresponding limits on water available for allocation. Publicly communicate instream flow needs determinations for specific river reaches.
*“Aquatic ecosystems such as rivers, streams and lakes, need certain levels of water flow throughout the year to remain healthy and sustainable. Environmental flows, also known as instream flows or instream flow needs, are a measure of that water quantity and quality over time. Monitoring and planning for environmental flows conserve freshwater ecosystems, and protect the life that depends on them.” Source: https://www.alberta.ca/about-environmental-flows
Instream flow needs determinations were completed for the South Saskatchewan River Basin and documented in a 2003 report (Clipperton et al. 2003) for consideration in development of the Water Management Plan for the South Saskatchewan River Basin (Alberta Environment 2006). The determination considered fish habitat, water quality, riparian vegetation and channel maintenance.
Albertans’ understanding of water management performance to support healthy aquatic ecosystems would benefit from including instream flow needs determinations on yearly graphs of river flows on the Alberta River Basins website (https://rivers.alberta.ca/).
For the full letter, click … here.