Most of us know that Lake Simcoe needs our help. But we don’t always think about how citizens can help the lake by taking
action far from its shores. Across the Lake Simcoe watershed, citizens, organizations and governments are caring for
and protecting headwater (also known as source water) areas. In this way they are all giving Lake Simcoe a helping hand by
giving its water a healthy head start.

Flowing down from the Oak Ridges Moraine through Holland Marsh and into Cook’s Bay, the West Holland River is Lake Simcoe’s second largest subwatershed. From the air you see the fertile fields of Holland Marsh, wetlands such as Pottageville Swamp and a number of large woodlands. Harder to detect is the river’s growing “green halo” - a series of double-duty protected lands around the river that conserve both wildlife habitat and water quality.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), along with partners and private donors, has been protecting natural areas on the Oak Ridges Moraine northwest of King City for more than 10 years. Through land donations, purchases and formal agreements with willing landowners, NCC is helping to protect the core of the Happy Valley Forest and the headwaters
of the West Holland River.

Forests and ponds in these areas capture rainwater which then soaks into underground sand and gravel deposits, emerging in clean, cool springs downstream. Local wetlands hold water, helping to reduce high water flows and filtering pollution.

According to the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, Pottageville Creek, which flows from the Happy Valley Forest, is one of the best quality Brook Trout streams in the watershed.
The coldwater stream is in great shape because landowners in its headwaters have cared for its banks and have kept the
forest canopy largely intact.

Pottageville Creek flows into the deep woods of Pottageville Swamp. The Lake Simcoe Conservation Authority (LSRCA)
and partners including NCC have protected close to 525 acres (212 hectares) of this wetland. LSRCA has protected other
wetlands around Holland Marsh as well.

Further west, on Hall Lake in King Township, the Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust and the LSRCA worked with the
Glassco family to protect more than 400 acres (162 hectares) in perpetuity through conservation agreements. Nearby the
Land Trust has protected an additional 100 acres (41 hectares) through generous donations of easements by the Groombridge
families. Within Schomberg, the Township of King, along with local citizens, has protected the much-loved local wetland known as Dufferin Marsh.

To the east, the West Holland River waters are buffered by the large protected forest of the Koffler Scientific Reserve, an extraordinary donation by the Koffler family to the University of Toronto. The high hills of the reserve overlook other intriguing sites to the north. The 270-acre (109-hectare) Cawthra Mulock Nature Reserve was donated to Ontario Nature by the Mulock family; its woods, meadows and West Holland feeder creek are
looked after by Ontario Nature and a local naturalist club, the York-Simcoe Naturalists.

Upstream from there, York Region and NCC collaborated in the protection of the 40 acre (16 hectare) Peggy’s Wood at the
Newmarket – East Gwillimbury border, through a generous donation by the Dunlap and Robarts families. Additional
lands adjacent to Peggy’s Wood are being protected and acquired by the Towns of East Gwillimbury and Newmarket.
Eventually, between 200 and 250 acres (80 and 100 hectares) of this sensitive Peggy’s Wood area will likely be protected in public ownership for the benefit of people and nature.

This is but a glimpse of the West Holland’s growing “green halo”. Landowners and conservation groups are looking after many other lands in other parts of the watershed, creating a halo effect all around Lake Simcoe. NCC salutes the efforts of those who are part of the halo and who are helping build a sustainable, clean future for Lake Simcoe’s waters.

For further information: please contact Mark Stabb, Central Ontario Program Manager, Nature Conservancy of Canada;
mark.stabb@natureconservancy.ca; 905-862-2642.
www.natureconservancy.ca/hvf