Middle Grand Chapter - Trout Unlimited Canada

04/24/2026

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2025 Oxford Stewardship Award nominees: Middle Grand Chapter of Freshwater Conservation Canada.

The Middle Grand Chapter of Freshwater Conservation Canada is a passionate volunteer group, united by a vision to renew and protect the health and biodiversity of cold-water tributaries along the Middle Grand River.

Over the past three years, the Middle Grand chapter has planted over 2,000 trees along a stretch of Horner’s Creek in Oxford County, between 8th and 10 Concession just outside of Bright. They have a simple goal: to achieve cool, flowing water, which is healthy water. By planting trees, they create a buffer from the stream, reducing runoff and sediment. As the trees mature, they provide shade that helps keep water temperatures down.

Read more here: www.oxfordcounty.ca/news/posts/oxford-stewardship-award-nominee-middle-grand-chapter-of-freshwater-conservation-canada/

The Oxford Stewardship Award recognizes County landowners who have made outstanding contributions to protecting our natural heritage. It is awarded annually and chosen by Stewardship Oxford and the Oxford Soil & Crop Improvement Association from the pool of nominated projects that received financial or technical assistance through the County-supported Clean Water program the previous year. The 2025 Oxford Stewardship Award will be presented at the April 22 meeting of County Council.

04/24/2026

We are so grateful for this recognition! We owe it all to our volunteers, landowners and partners!
Freshwater Conservation Canada

Congratulations to the Middle Grand Chapter of Freshwater Conservation Canada, winners of the 2025 Oxford Stewardship Award.

Project Director Scott Puillandre and President Hajnal Kovacs accepted the award on the group’s behalf from Oxford County Warden Marcus Ryan this morning.
They won for their recent efforts in planting over 2,000 trees along a stretch of Horner’s Creek in Oxford County, between 8th and 10 Concession, just outside of Bright.

With the support of the Oxford Clean Water Program, the group organized a community planting event at a farm property along Horner’s Creek to plant 250 potted and bareroot trees last spring, building on previous plantings by the Grand River Conservation Authority and other plantings supported by Enbridge. The group has been working with landowners to create a continuous buffer of trees along Horner’s Creek, aiming to increase shade, stabilize the banks, and establish a wildlife habitat.

Read more in the news release: www.oxfordcounty.ca/news/posts/oxford-stewardship-award-winner-middle-grand-chapter-of-freshwater-conservation-canada/

The Oxford Stewardship Award recognizes County landowners who have made outstanding contributions to protecting our natural heritage. It is awarded annually and is chosen by Stewardship Oxford and the Oxford Soil & Crop Improvement Association from the pool of nominated projects that received financial and/or technical assistance through the County-supported Clean Water program the previous year.

Photo left to right: Hanne Yager – Oxford County, Cher Sprague – Stewardship Oxford, Middle Grand President Hajnal Kovacs, Middle Grand Project Director Scott Puillandre, Louise Heyming – Grand River Conservation Authority

03/25/2026

03/12/2026

How many Parker's equals a freshet?

A freshet is rush of water that happens in spring — usually from melting snow or rain, or in some cases glacial melt — this causes creeks and rivers to rise. When there are lot of trees around, the creeks tend to rise in a controlled manner.

During our tree plant at Horner Creek in 2025, we observed signs that the spring freshet raised the creek nearly 10 feet — that’s like 4 Parkers high (shoutout to our awesome youth volunteer Parker for being our scale model!).

With fewer trees in this particular area, the spring freshet pours into the creek much faster which results in higher water, major sediment displacement and erosion. That’s why we plant native species like black willows. These trees thrive near stream beds, they can bend with the flow instead of breaking, and help stabilize banks.

We often speak about how trees provide shade and bank stabilization, but trees also help control the annual freshet and help the water absorb into the ground instead of rushing into our local water ways.

Planting trees, especially where humans have clear cut in the past gives so much back to our environment. Help us plant more!

Our 2026 tree plant is May 9th. Sign up at Link in Bio

01/26/2026

Hello, ahead of our AGM this Saturday, the Chapter has put together a survey so we can work on continuous improvement.

Please take a moment and click the link below and fill out the survey.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdjgY4t3sebtY1KF7aox1GomXryafhllHkqVkuxgv3ERZOXbQ/viewform

We will share some of the results at the AGM.

Thanks and we will see you this Saturday January 31, 2026 at our AGM.

AGM Details:
Waterloo Regional Police Association and Recreation Centre
1:00-3:00pm
1128 Rife RD, Cambridge, Ontario

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/43.4765824,-80.510976/1128+Rife+Rd,+Ayr,+ON+N0B+1E0/@43.4152268,-80.5300324,22878m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m1!4e1!1m5!1m1!1s0x882c74fb9c61d8e9:0x65bbd4a39cef8dd5!2m2!1d-80.4184708!2d43.345098?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDEwNC4wIKXMDSoKLDEwMDc5MjA3M0gBUAM%3D

Food and beverage available for purchase

11/28/2025

Thank you to everyone from the and who joined us at our social! What a beautiful wintery night 🎄
Looking forward to seeing you folks at the AGM on Sat. Jan. 31st.

11/10/2025

Join us for a Winter Social on Thurs. Nov. 27th at 7pm - An evening of reflecting and celebrating 2025. This year, we will be joined by our neighbours from the Speed Valley Chapter - Trout Unlimited Canada . Festive sweaters are encouraged!

Location: Waterloo Regional Police Association and Rec Centre
1128 Rife Rd &, Cambridge, ON
Cost: Free -Food and beverages are available for purchase.

Please RSVP online https://forms.gle/TbUnogNrpZK7YsUb7

Freshwater Conservation Canada

10/23/2025

07/24/2025

It's too hot to not be standing in a creek giving back to your watershed!

Our next in creek work night is next Tuesday, July 29th at Landons Creek. Sign up at our website, link in bio.

Sign up and come on out!

06/24/2025

Temperatures peaked at 25.5 C on Whitemans Creek today, which is close to lethal for trout. Please don't even think of fishing there until things cool down below 20 C. You can find real time temperature data on the GRCA website https://www.grandriver.ca/our-watershed/river-data/water-quality-data/water-temperature/. This is why we are planting trees in the headwaters and enhancing thermal refuge habitat in the lower end.

06/12/2025

Our first in-stream work night is coming up on Wednesday June 18, 2025 at Landons Creek.

Sign up at link in bio.

Sediment mats are a natural and effective soft engineering approach to capture silt and sediment within the creek to help reestablish and stabilize the banks in an effort to narrow the stream cross section and increase flow. Last year we used Christmas trees, cedar trees and other foliage to create our sediments mats along a section of Landons Creek. As you can see from the pictures they are working just as we intended! The mats are filled with sediment and will hopefully see vegetation establish in the next year or two. However, there is more work to be done up stream as sections of the creek remain overwide and need narrowing.

Come on out, get wet and have some fun with us!