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Community Conservation
for Watershed Protection

Since Autumn 2008; Falls Brook Centre with generous financial support from EcoAction has been working to raise healthy watershed awareness and promote responsible water use. This project focuses largely on the Becaguimec watershed of the St. John River Basin in Carleton and Victoria counties. If you do not live in the Becaquimec watershed that’s okay, because all of the activities and conservation techniques can be enjoyed and applied to the watershed in your neighborhood.

For updates on Falls Brook Centre Community Events and Activities join our listserv by sending an email to dana@fallsbrookcentre.ca

Trout Tales ~ Puppet Show

Are you planning an event for your school or community youth group? Consider booking the FBC Puppet Troupe to add environmental entertainment to your event. Contact us for more information about our puppet shows and rates or to book our troupe.

Watershed Awareness

Water is an important aspect in our lives. We drink it to survive, use it to clean, for recreation and as irrigation to grow food. But do you know where the water you consume comes from? Where does it go once it goes down the drain? The Watershed!

We all live on a watershed. Every stream or river that we pass flows into a larger body of water. Even underground water sources are flowing downstream with the watershed. At the Falls Brook Centre, here in Knowlesville, New Brunswick we are part of the Becaguimec Watershed that flows into the Saint John River Basin. Learn More.

Community Conservation for Watershed Protection ~ Quarterly Newsletter

Throughout the project year the CCWP team has written and published a quarterly newsletter featuring themes that are linked to our workshop series topics. If you would like to read the 2009 newsletters please click on the links below to read them in pdf form.

Winter 2009 ~ Every Drop Counts

Spring 2009 ~ Waste Water Treatment for Un-serviced Rural Housholds

Summer 2009 ~ Native Plant and Tree Species as Natural Water Filters

Autumn 2009 ~ Manure Management and Composting Basics

The Water Cycle

"Did you know...? The water the dinosaurs drank millions of years ago is the same water that we are drinking today!"

The total amount of water in the world never changes. This means that the world's water supply is continuously being recycled, but onlya small fraction of the water in the cycle is fresh. Water in glaciers, ice/snow-caps, streams, lakes and the ground is considered our freshwater supply; it is a very small amount of water compared to the amount of water filling our oceans. Only about 3% of the earth's water is fresh and suitable for safe drinking (usually after treatment or filtering). Canada is home to about 20% of the total freshwater on earth, it is a pretty big responsibility that we as Canadians have in protecting this water supply.

Canada is ranked second in the world for water consumption and we average 340 litres per person per day, we could easily reduce that amount by 50% without sacrificing quality of living. It takes a long time for water that is no longer fresh to be cycled through the system and become fresh water again. Through our use and abuse of freshwater, we push the water cycle to its limit. By reducing our freshwater consumption and caring for our watersheds we could give nature a chance to filter water as it is meant to do.

There are many online resources that can help us to visualize and gain a better understanding on how the water cycle works. Below is a link to an interesting website of New Brunswick and Canada.

Government of New Brunswick - Hey Kids! Our Water!

What you can do at home to conserve water:

• Take shorter showers
• Install a low-flow shower head
• Toilet dam - click here to find out how to reduce the amount of freshwater going down the drain.
• Make sure the taps aren't running when you brush your teeth and wash your face
• Operate washing machines and dishwashers only when they are
  fully loaded
• Store drinking water in the fridge to avoid running taps for water to cool down and drink
• Harves rain water in barrels to water lawns and gardens - click here to find out how to build a rainwater catchment system.

Consider this:

** Just because water is sold in a bottle does not mean that it is safe. A study by NRDC in 1999 showed that much bottled water is no safer than tap water. Improving the public water supply will not only improve water quality and reliability, it will help support the health of both people and the environment. There are many health problems caused by making the plastic bottle, filling, transporting and then disposing of them. In the end, the cost of bottled water is higher than providing safe drinking water from our home faucets.

** The only way to make sure water is free of toxic chemicals is to prevent pollution at the source.

**Remember, when you waste water, it's not just water you waste, but the energy to heat the water, and the chemicals to treat the water.

For more information on the privatization of water and to read more of an international perspective see: www.thirdworldtraveler.com - This is a link to Maude Barlow's report by the International Forum on Globalization (IFG), Blue Gold.

For more information contact Falls Brook Centre at (506) 375-4310 or email agriculture@fallsbrookcentre.ca