GODERICH – The Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation was awarded a $13,389 provincial grant to help restore three Lake Huron beaches recently.
It is among dozens of organizations across the province to share more than a half-million dollars in funding from the Ministry of the Environment’s Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund. The fund provides grants of up to $25,000 for projects in Ontario in the Great Lakes or St. Lawrence River basin.
The Coastal Centre, along with municipalities and two local schools, will use the funds to roll out the Living Beaches program to area 
students. In-class instruction will teach students about Lake Huron beach-dune ecosystems and coastal science. It will provide students with hands-on field experience harvesting and replanting beach grass at sites along the Lake Huron coastline.
“Congratulations to the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation for helping to protect Lake Huron,” said Jim Bradley, who is the province’s environment minister. “This is a great example of community groups coming together to help ensure that our Great Lakes are drinkable, swimmable and fishable.”
Ontario is helping communities protect their part of the Great Lakes through the Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund which offers grants to grassroots community groups for activities such as cleaning up a beach or shoreline, restoring a wetland, or creating a costal or riverside trail.
Under the same program, it was recently announced The Bayfield River Valley Trail Association will receive $24,750 to help it plant trees and expand community access to trails with the support of local partners and community volunteers, with the goals of protecting the Bayfield River water quality and making it easier for older and disabled visitors to enjoy existing trails.
The Mid Huron Beach Property Owners Association received $25,000 to construct barriers to slow stormwater runoff with the help of the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority and area landowners. Its goal is to reduce erosion and fertilizer runoff into Garvey-Glenn Shoreline Watershed and ultimately into Lake Huron.
For more information on the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation project, contact Geoff Peach, who is coastal resources manager at the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation, by calling 519-523-4478 or emailing [email protected]
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Bluewater Beach Gully, the largest and fastest growing gully on the West Coast of Ontario. Is it a politician’s nightmare or will those in power just let it slide?