May 29, 2026 · 1 hr 9 min · 14 segments
In 2003, the Wallaceburg Advisory Team for a Cleaner Habitat (WATCH) began as a committee under the direction of the Wallaceburg Chamber of Commerce, in response to several chemical company spills…
Chris LeeGuest
Lawrence GuntherHost
What you've been doing with, uh, the St. Clair River angling community, and getting them involved in citizen science, and bringing these two sides of the equation together, right? Because, you know, we can have all sorts of meetings about water quality and repairing past, um, you know, damages that have occurred to the ecosystem, and, and there's tons of committees and commissions and scientists looking at all this stuff, but who's doing the work? Who's doing the s- data collection? Who's doing the monitoring? You know, you need people on the water and, and who's best to do that but all those people who go fishing, the million people that go fishing.
But nobody ever talks about the connecting channels, because you can't have a lake without a connecting channel to another lake.
Uh, if you had a boat and you wanted to just float down, it would take you maybe about 12 hours, depending on the wind, whether it's a north wind or a south wind, and you would end up on the south end of the St. Clair River, which is where you would find the Walpole Island delta, the Aazholdeenong First Nation.
And by the way, I should mention that Aamjiwnaang First Nation is at the north end.
So we are sort of blessed in having two very active in the environment First Nations at the north end and one at the south end.
So the sediment quality and the, the, um, health of the fish and the wa- uh, the aquatic life is very important to the First Nations on Walpole.
So as well as that, a little bit of more geography here, there are, uh, connecting channels from the St. Clair River into Lake St. Clair, and one of them is called Chenal Écart, or the Snye.
And the Snye, or the Chenal Écart, is, um, borders on one side, on the, the, the, uh, I guess the west side is Walpole Island, and on the, the east side is the Kent County and Lambton County.
And, uh, the people in Wallaceburg get their drinking water from the Chenal Écart.
As well, the people on Walpole Island get their drinking water from, uh, the, from the St. Clair River.
What you've been doing with, uh, the St. Clair River angling community, and getting them involved in citizen science, and bringing these two sides of the equation together, right? Because, you know, we can have all sorts of meetings about water quality and repairing past, um, you know, damages that have occurred to the ecosystem, and, and there's tons of committees and commissions and scientists looking at all this stuff, but who's doing the work? Who's doing the s- data collection? Who's doing the monitoring? You know, you need people on the water and, and who's best to do that but all those people who go fishing, the million people that go fishing.
But nobody ever talks about the connecting channels, because you can't have a lake without a connecting channel to another lake.
Uh, if you had a boat and you wanted to just float down, it would take you maybe about 12 hours, depending on the wind, whether it's a north wind or a south wind, and you would end up on the south end of the St. Clair River, which is where you would find the Walpole Island delta, the Aazholdeenong First Nation.
And by the way, I should mention that Aamjiwnaang First Nation is at the north end.
So we are sort of blessed in having two very active in the environment First Nations at the north end and one at the south end.
So the sediment quality and the, the, um, health of the fish and the wa- uh, the aquatic life is very important to the First Nations on Walpole.
So as well as that, a little bit of more geography here, there are, uh, connecting channels from the St. Clair River into Lake St. Clair, and one of them is called Chenal Écart, or the Snye.
And the Snye, or the Chenal Écart, is, um, borders on one side, on the, the, the, uh, I guess the west side is Walpole Island, and on the, the east side is the Kent County and Lambton County.
And, uh, the people in Wallaceburg get their drinking water from the Chenal Écart.
As well, the people on Walpole Island get their drinking water from, uh, the, from the St. Clair River.
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