Crop and live stock farmers

The SAA has worked on projects that aimed at teaching and demonstrating the importance of riparian areas for water quality and fish habitat.

Thanks to several financial sources, 11 farmers with the help of volunteers we have been able to restore over 20 Km of riparian zone along the rivers of the region. Now we can be proud to demonstrate the restored sites and discover an all-different biodiversity.

Private Landowners

We also had projects to inform the waterfront landowners of the importance to maintain a healthy riparian area. The SAA also worked to educated permanent and seasonal homeowners about the importance of riparian areas relative to water quality. Several documents have been prepared to inform property owners by means of simple, inexpensive ways they can engage to improve the health of the riparian zone.

What is a riparian area?

The riparian area is the interface between land and lakes, rivers, streams or wetlands.

Why is maintaining a healthy riparian area so important?

Healthy riparian areas have a great biodiversity and are essentially act as buffer zones, filtering stormwater that often carry pesticides, organic matter, nutriments and sediments into waterways. A healthy riparian area is also the best defense against an increasingly common problem in our region: erosion.

The roots of grasses, shrubs and trees found in healthy riparian areas hold the soil together and prevent it from being washed away.

In the past, the SAA has concentrated its efforts on informing and educating the landowners of waterfront properties about the importance of maintaining a healthy riparian area relative. In 2013, we obtained funds for a riparian area restoration project. This enables us to recruit landowners, assess their riparian areas, make suggestions for improvement and even help with the purchase and plant native plant species in this latter. We are currently looking for more landowners that own a property along the Bouctouche, Little Bouctouche, Cocagne or Chockpish rivers and that would like to participate in this project. If you are interested, please let us know by communicating with us through the “Contact Us” page.

Useful resources

Several documents have been prepared to inform property owners by means of simple, inexpensive ways to improve the health of their riparian zone. These documents can be found below:

Click this link to download our brochure Protecting our Watercourses

Click on the following image to download our Waterfront Property landscape guide