From engaging with our community and providing trusted information to putting in the work on restoration and monitoring programs, the Oldman Watershed Council (OWC) has history of punching above our weight. Read on for some of OWC’s successes over the past 20 years, and get up to date on our current projects here.
→ We provide hands-on, unbiased, and experiential education to land users, stakeholders, and members of the public that reside in the watershed and beyond. The OWC has led over 60 school programs educating students about watershed stewardship, and we’ve been joined by over 1,200 volunteers for various projects.
→ We lead and partner on collaborative efforts to expand monitoring and reporting, from aquatic invertebrate monitoring and groundwater monitoring to state of the watershed reporting. Since the start of our Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network (CABIN) program in 2020, with our partners we have sampled 78 sites for water quality monitoring. We’ve also trained over 50 people in this sampling protocol, expanding the capacity of monitoring in our watershed!
→ We develop and implement action plans to address watershed issues. Over the years we completed more than 90 restoration projects, rehabilitated 80 kilometres of water course banks, and planted over 29,000 willows and other native trees. This green infrastructure naturally guards against floods, droughts, and erosion.
→ We organize community initiatives and empower other organizations to join us in watershed stewardship. The OWC has trained 65 people in environmental management, and we’ve worked with landowners to install 55 kilometres of fencing to protect waterways. We’ve also engaged residents at 79 weed pull and garbage cleanup events.
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2004 – Following the approval of Alberta’s Water for Life Strategy in 2003, OWC was officially formed when the Oldman River Basin Water Quality Initiative merged with the Oldman River Basin Advisory Committee.
2006 – Installed wetland interpretive signs in SunRidge.
2009 – Hosted the first Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup and Watershed Science Tour. Through our Prairie Urban Garden program, provided resources for people to transform their yards and provide habitat by using native plants and water-conserving techniques.
2010 – Completed the Oldman River State of the Watershed Report.
2011 – Established eight priority goals for the Integrated Watershed Management Plan.
2012 – Conducted an aquifer mapping and groundwater management planning study in the Willow Creek Watershed.
2013 – Completed the Headwaters Indicators Project and Crowsnest Watershed aquifer mapping. Launched the "Xeriscape Your Yard" workshop.
2015 – Began Engaging Recreationists project and organized the first restoration event at Dutch Creek.
2016 – Released a film project covering a historical timeline, held Voices of the Oldman: Agriculture Matters sessions, and formed the Headwaters Action Team.
2019 – Engaged 2,200 people through the Headwaters Restoration and Education project, offering in-person programs to fishers, farmers, ranchers, landowners, and more.
2020 – Launched the Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network (CABIN) program, and developed virtual reality experiences.
2021 – Invested in Indigenous-led projects, and created the Eastern Slopes Biomonitoring Collaborative.
2022 – Launched the Uniting Urban Consumers and Rural Producers project, which informed urban consumers in southern Alberta about agriculture and watershed stewardship through in-person events and a popular web series, “OWC: Eats!”, which amassed over 110,000 views.
2023 – Focused on drought communications with the launch of ABwater.ca and conducted pesticide monitoring. An Economic Impact analysis revealed OWC’s significant contributions to Alberta’s GDP and job creation.
2024 – Launched a new groundwater monitoring project in partnership with Living Lakes Canada.
Select Completed Projects
Read more about a few of OWC’s completed projects.
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Through education and stewardship activities, OWC encouraged motorized recreationists to keep wheels out of the water and thereby protect our headwaters, water quality, and critical habitat for endangered species. Seasonal outreach assistants talked to off-highway vehicle users in the backcountry, conducted surveys, and provided public education about watershed health. With partner organizations and volunteers, we restored illegal fords (next to bridges) in the Dutch Creek watershed and provided signage to educate backcountry users about the importance of restoration and native fish.
The OWC engaged representatives from local OHV organizations, retailers, and individual riders to form the Recreation Advisory Committee (RAC) — a group that helped inform the OWC on how to educate backcountry users on safe, appropriate, and sustainable motorized recreation. These leaders in the OHV community invited OWC to speak at their events, built OHV bridges over creeks, and organized nature cleanups. In addition, the RAC worked with OWC to provide recommendations to the Government of Alberta on the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan's Land Footprint Management Plans and the Recreation Management Plans for the Porcupine Hills and the Livingstone areas.
Learn more:
Bridging the Gap: Engaging Recreationists in the Alberta Backcountry
Dutch Creek Linear Feature Classification Project (Oldman Watershed Council, 2014)
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Growing on the success of Engaging Recreationists, this project expanded the focus to the engagement of fishers, farmers, ranchers, landowners, and other adult land users through in-person restoration and educational programs.
In the backcountry, seasonal outreach assistants conducted surveys with recreationists about their values, concerns, and stewardship activities in the Oldman watershed headwaters. Responses highlighted trends and helped us identify areas where more education would be helpful. Then, at public events and day use areas, OWC delivered interactive educational programs about benthic macroinvertebrates (insects that live on the bottom of creeks), native fish, and invasive species, with a focus on encouraging recreationists to keep wheels out of water. Education continued with restoration days: together with landowners, volunteers, and partners, OWC hosted events to stabilize streambanks using willow-staking techniques. Finally, OWC collected invertebrate samples using CABIN protocols and conducted riparian health assessments at previous or future restoration sites, providing insight into how healthy our creeks and rivers are and how restoration activities improve stream health in the headwaters.
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This project ran from 2019–2022 and educated urban consumers in southern Alberta about agriculture and watershed stewardship through a suite of communications materials, including a popular web series, OWC: Eats! Check out more here and the project’s 2023 impact report here. The program connected those who are not involved in food production systems, with those who are.
We heard stories from producers firsthand and learned more about the innovative work that is being done in our region to tackle challenges around food production — ranging from process improvements and practice changes, to the addition of new physical infrastructure and the restoration of native plant species. These projects also highlighted the urgency with which we must work to protect our agricultural industry, economy, and watershed from the uncertainty created by a changing climate and severe weather events.
Partnership Initiatives
The OWC is always working in collaboration with our community and many partners. Some of our completed projects include:
Along with representatives from the City of Lethbridge Waste & Recycling Services, the Helen Schuler Nature Centre, and Alberta Health Services, OWC promoted and hosted events and activities that encouraged acts of environmentalism in the Lethbridge community. In 2010, this group (called, at the time, Environmental Awareness Team) spearheaded the very successful Green List, a recognition program for individuals, businesses, and organizations that are taking “green” actions to better the environment. In 2013, Environment Lethbridge was formed as a multi-stakeholder non-profit and took over these activities. The OWC guided the organization by spearheading the development of EL’s first strategic plan and corresponding budget.
The OWC partnered with the City of Lethbridge in 2006 to develop ten wetland interpretive signs around the constructed wetland in the community of Sun Ridge. The signs point out features of the wetland and explain the many important functions the wetland performs — such as filtering stormwater from yards and roads, protecting the Oldman River from pollutants, and offering recreational opportunities. In 2010 the signs were adapted for the wetlands at the Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale.
The OWC provided funding and assistance with organizing a Stewards in Motion workshop in Claresholm in partnership with the Land Stewardship Centre, Environmental Law Centre, and Miistakis Institute. The workshop provided practical information and resources to 30 stewards who are tackling watershed issues so that they have the support they need to succeed and are better equipped to achieve their goals.
The OWC participated in the Crown Managers Partnership Landscape Patterns Workshops to determine priority areas for further collaborative work within the Crown of the Continent. Within Alberta, the Oldman headwaters region and Highway 3 were two of the four priority areas selected for collaborative work with focused working groups. The OWC also participated in a Crown-wide climate adaptation focus on ‘Piloting Adaptation Strategies to Reduce Vulnerability and Increase Resilience for Native Salmonids in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem’.
The Drawn into Action Project through the Alberta Prairie Conservation Forum was an innovative spin-off of community mapping, a useful tool to display and share community-based knowledge, values, and relationships. Field trips were held to connect learners to the local ecosystems and to the community, and pre- and post-mapping workshops incorporated techniques that engaged people’s artistic side to assist them in giving a voice to our watershed, the grasslands, local history and culture, wildlife species, and land-use perspectives. Art pieces developed during this mapping project were displayed in community-wide exhibits. The OWC sponsored the Helen Schuler Nature Centre, which oversaw this project.
The OWC was part of the team that provides advice and recommendations to the Government of Alberta to guide the development and refinement of the Watershed Resiliency and Restoration Program and its alignment with the Agriculture Watershed Enhancement program under Growing Forward 2.
The OWC participated as an observer in the Water‑Sharing Agreement process facilitated by WaterSMART Water Management Solutions on behalf of the Government of Alberta. Major water users — irrigation districts, municipalities, and industry — voluntarily agreed to significantly reduce consumption due to low supply levels. In 2024, agreements were activated for two groups in the Oldman watershed: one for the Oldman River mainstem and one for the southern tributaries. This spirit of collaboration in southwest Alberta remains our greatest strength.
