Nepahwin Lake Watershed Stewardship Group

10/01/2026

09/17/2026

Naturalization of your shoreline protects the lake and pollinators

06/29/2026

Black-Crowned Night Heron. I have never seen one on our lake and at first it looked like a penguin!

04/24/2026

It’s GNIO Contest time.

That’s right…Guess Nepahwin’s Ice Out Contest is back! Our 6th year!

Submit your guesses here as soon as possible, but before April 26th! We will then announce the winner(s).

Once again, NLWSG has appointed John Closs as our Grand Adjudicator of all things ‘ice out’.
John will make accurate observations from his dock (see below) after his morning coffee and again after his afternoon tea. That is Citizen Science!

In 2025 the ice-out date was April 29, in 2024- April 12, in 2023 - April 29! in 2022 - April 25. See below for previous winners, who entered for the sheer pleasure…

Past winners:
2022: Megan Yeo
2023: Dieter Buse, Stacey Greene
2024: Ruby Lougheed-Yawney
2025: Celeste Courville

The dates in the graph were provided by ‘Citizen Scientists’ who had historical records. We hope you find them interesting. Some ‘Real Scientists’ are also finding these dates interesting! There are some ‘gap-years’ in our record. If you have some records that would fill the gaps, please submit them to: [email protected]

04/11/2026

An ideal shoreline buffer is a strip of native wildflowers, trees, shrubs, and grasses at least 30 metres wide that extends from the waterline upland to protect the water from both natural and human-induced impacts.

If your property has a manicured lawn to the water’s edge, try leaving a 10-15 metre (or more!) strip of shoreline un-mowed to allow for natural regeneration of native vegetation.

➡️ Planting deep-rooted vegetation, like trees and shrubs, will bind and stabilize the soil along your shoreline, reducing property loss caused by erosion.

➡️ Using their extensive root systems, trees and shrubs will also act as barriers to reduce surface runoff, slow floodwaters, and filter pollutants and excess nutrients.

➡️ Planting native shrubs that produce berries and flowers will provide birds, pollinators, and small mammals with shelter and a year-round food source.

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Restoring your shoreline with native plants is a great way protect the health of your water and create areas for wildlife viewing!

The Natural Edge program helps property owners, municipalities, and community groups to create custom planting plans to restore shorelines with native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. Get in touch with Chantal from The Natural Edge team to inquire about a free site visit:
http://naturaledge.watersheds.ca/contact

04/11/2026