Watershed council to lead integrated management plan for Muskoka River Watershed
By Peter Sale | September 19th 2026
At its Sept. 18 monthly meeting, Muskoka Watershed Council (MWC) announced it would be leading the development of a management plan for the Muskoka River watershed.
Directors Peter Sale and Kevin Trimble provided a detailed history on the progress that has been made on Integrated Watershed Management (IWM) and outlined the steps involved in producing a management plan.
“We have been overwhelmed by the readiness of stakeholders to get on board to bring in management effective for the 21st century. While we will continue to engage additional stakeholders, now is the time to begin moving on the path that will lead to integrated watershed management in this region,” said Kevin Trimble.
Peter Sale provided a summary of recent progress, and outlined the steps needed to develop a watershed management plan.
“MWC has been particularly impressed by the response of municipalities across the watershed who have asked repeatedly, ‘when do we start?’ The District Municipality of Muskoka has played a vital partnering role encouraging the 13 lower-tier watershed municipalities to pass resolutions and form a municipal working group for this made-in-Muskoka, collaborative effort,” said Sale.
MWC recognizes that if we are to nurture this wonderful environment successfully in coming years, we have got to introduce more effective ways of looking after it.
There are many threats to our environment, but the two most obvious at present are the growing impact of development and the changing climate. While we can’t stop climate change from within one watershed, we can do our part locally to reduce carbon emissions and make our communities more resilient. Likewise, we can’t stop development and local economic activity that we depend on, but we can improve the ways in which we conduct ourselves.
Residents living in our region are beginning to recognize that business-as-usual will not be sufficient to retain the resilient watershed on which our economy and our quality of life depend.
Integrated management, which works across jurisdictions, between government and private actors, and across environmental problems is a non-siloed, holistic approach which focuses on maintaining ecological resilience (environmental health). IWM has been applied successfully in other regions of Canada and elsewhere, and the Ontario Provincial Policy Statement requires municipalities to apply integrated management policies and procedures.
Moving from the status quo to IWM will require effort over a number of years, by government, the private sector and communities. This represents a major change in perspective on environment, a change MWC actively supports. Over the past 18 months, there have been three meetings of municipal staff and councillors designed to build consensus and political will for integrated management.
MWC has been educating the public through our social media platforms, newspaper articles and our blog, talks to community groups, conferences and public events. A first meeting of local environmental NGOs took place this spring, convened by Muskoka Discovery Centre and MWC. These efforts have been met by widespread public support.
Now, in addition to continuing these educational efforts, it is time to begin moving down the path toward integrated management. The development of an Integrated Management Plan for the Muskoka River watershed is a first major milestone on that path. MWC is prepared to lead and is confident that many stakeholders will partner with us as we move forward.
Consider helping MWC by sharing your expertise and/or by sponsoring the development of the integrated management plan.
This article was first published by MuskokaRegion.com.
Peter Sale
This is article No. 37 in the current series, Nurturing Our Watersheds, from Muskoka Watershed Council. Its author is Peter Sale, director and a former chair of Muskoka Watershed Council. Peter also edits the series and thanks Kevin Trimble for input on this article.