RTO7 is committed to the sustainability and increased competitiveness of tourism across Bruce Grey Simcoe

The Biosphere Association wishes to express its thanks for generous project funding by the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, a not-for-profit organization created to help foster our living countryside by nurturing and supporting activities that preserve its environmental and agricultural integrity.

Gay Lea is not an ordinary business but an environmentally responsible co-operative which shares common goals with the Biosphere Association about protecting the environment. Gay Lea has donated 25 pounds of butter in past years to support the Biosphere Chocolate Easter Egg fundraiser which makes a very big difference to our relatively small organisation.

Our thanks to the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change for funding which is responsible for promoting clean and safe air, land, and water to ensure healthy communities, ecological protection and sustainable development for present and future generations of Ontarians.

The Board of Directors of the Association is very pleased to welcome Dr. Katherine McLeod to the position of Executive Director. Katherine's experiece and academic background are major additions to the capacity of the organization. The Executive Director position was made possible through a generous grant from the Dalglish Family Foundation.

The Lake Huron Georgian Bay Framework for Community Action assists the Biosphere Association to address priorities by finding funding and coordinating activities with other stakeholders through a consensus-based, community-driven approach. The Framework is a people-based approach to promote community action to respond to environmental issues. It works on the belief that individuals, communities and organizations in the watersheds of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay operate independently, yet are united by a common cause. Members pledge to uphold a Charter Statement to coordinate actions throughout the watersheds, so as to protect and restore the natural environment.

We received approval of funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund Ontario Government to monitor and restore streams, with the support of area landowners and students by taking and analysing water samples, installing alternative watering systems for cattle, and undertaking volunteer-based restoration projects. The baseline datasets of water chemistry variables from 2013, 2014 and 2015 water sampling to describe stream health in reference to provincial and federal standards have been analysed by Catherine Dieleman of the University of Western Ontario.

A Shoreline Stewardship Workshops were held July to September 2015. The first Shoreline Workshop covered septic systems, gardening, stormwater management and living with wildlife. Funded through the Government of Canada's National Conservation Plan.