The rise of invasive species in local waterways is putting native habitat at risk.
Senior Conservation Biologist Dan Kraus co-authored a report for the Nature Conservancy of Canada, which includes a warning about protecting biodiversity in the Sydenham River and Lake St Clair.
“What this report was looking at is where freshwater species of global conversation concern occur across Canada and we have a few in Ontario including the Sydenham River and the St. Clair delta,” says Kraus. “And those two places were identified because they have species of fresh water mussels that are not just rare in Canada but globally rare and for some of these species their best chance of survival is to protect them here.”
Kraus says what we do on the land has a big impact on life in the water, with urbanization and climate change putting additional pressure on the watershed.