The Lake Superior Conservancy and Watershed Council – Who we are!

LSCWC is two organizations in one body; a Land Trust or Conservancy and a Watershed Council.  LSCWC is a bi-national non profit organization with charitable status and was incorporated in Canada and the United States in 2004. The Board of Directors is comprised of both U.S. and Canadian citizens. LSCWC is a member of the Ontario Land Trust Alliance and the Land Trust Alliance in the U.S. Our founding members, among others include The Nature Conservancy (U.S.) and Nature Conservancy Canada.

What is a Watershed Council?

LSCWC in its role as a watershed council looks to protect the watershed(s)
within its mission territory, in our case  the Lake Superior basin.
But what exactly is a "watershed?"

A watershed is all the land area that drains to a given body of water.

Depending on where you live, you will cross brooks, creeks, runs, branches, gulches,
arroyos, bayous, ditches, or channels as you travel to work each day. Each stream 
is part of a massive network of perhaps three million streams that drain to the rivers
and, ultimately, to a sea. Each stream has its own watershed that circumscribes all
of the land that drains to the point where we cross it. Collectively, these small
watersheds provide critical natural services that sustain or enrich our daily lives.
They supply our drinking water, critical habitat for plants and animals, areas of
natural beauty, and water bodies for recreation and relaxation. These water bodies are an
important element of our local geography, and confer a strong sense of place to a community.

Communities across North America are turning to watershed protection to sustain the watershed
services that they stand to lose as they grow. Regardless of region, the underlying cause
of threats to watershed quality and health is usually the same - watershed development.
Current or future watershed development has been implicated as a prime threat to
salmon runs in the streams of the Pacific Northwest, coral reefs in the Florida Keys,
freshwater mussel diversity in Midwestern streams, endangered salamanders found in Texas
springs, shellfish harvesting along our coastlines, sea grass beds in Long Island Sound,
invasive species in the Great Lakes and trout streams that feed Lake Superior.

Communities have discovered that they must work at the watershed level
to solve their diverse water resource problems. They have also found that no matter what
watershed they are working in, the same eight basic management tools are needed to
mitigate the impacts of development: watershed planning, land conservation,
aquatic buffers, better site design, erosion control, stormwater treatment practices,
control of non-stormwater discharges, and watershed stewardship. While these basic
tools may need to be applied in different ways or in different combinations, together
they will form the backbone of all Council projects.

LSCWC believes that the most effective way to sustain a watershed for future generations
is through cooperation. Therefore, the Council's approach to watershed management
is to involve as many of the stakeholders around the Lake Superior basin as possible.