Upper Thames River Conservation Authority on the Land Conservation Assistance Network

Upper Thames River Conservation Authority
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last updated: January 2021

As early as the 1880s, rural Ontario was facing a serious deforestation problem. By the late 1920s and 1930s, the combination of drought and deforestation was causing extensive soil loss and flooding across the province. Individuals and organizations united to call for a broad new initiative to deal with conservation, flood control and reforestation. The provincial government passed the Conservation Authorities Act in 1946 when several municipalities became involved.

Today, Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities are a model of conservation and resource management for other provinces and countries. Since 1946, the mandate of the Conservation Authorities has been defined in Section 20 of the Provincial Conservation Authorities Act: “to establish and undertake, in the area in which it has jurisdiction, a program designed to further the conservation, restoration, development and management of natural resources other than gas, oil, coal and minerals.” (View Conservation Authorities Act)

The mandate has focused on the management of renewable resources, but what has been significant in the design of the Conservation Authorities is the management of these resources on a watershed basis. Since its inception, the notion of watershed-based management has guided each Conservation Authority’s development and ongoing planning and operational activities. Flooding may have been the catalyst for some Conservation Authorities, but the overall concept of watershed-based management of renewable resources prevails as the pre-eminent organizational strategy.

The objectives of Ontario’s 36 Conservation Authorities are:

• to ensure that Ontario’s rivers, lakes and streams are properly safeguarded, managed and restored;
• to protect, manage and restore Ontario’s woodlands, wetlands and natural habitat;
• to develop and maintain programs that will protect life and property from natural hazards such as flooding and erosion;
• to provide opportunities for the public to enjoy, learn from and respect Ontario’s natural environment.

Conservation Ontario is a non-governmental organization that represents the 36 Conservation Authorities within Ontario.

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Upper Thames River Conservation Authority is not employed by or affiliated with the Land Conservation Assistance Network, and the Network does not certify or guarantee their services. The reader must perform their own due diligence and use their own judgment in the selection of any professional.