Muskellunge restoration project receives provincial grant
Fleming College has been awarded a $22,258 grant through Ontario’s Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund to help restore the Great Lakes, announced the Ministry of the Environment on Monday, Jan. 7.
Led by Muskellunge Hatchery Technologist Mark Newell, the college, its students and volunteers are working on a project to reintroduce a healthy and naturally reproducing population of muskellunge into Lake Simcoe.
Fish that have been raised at the college’s Muskellunge Fish Hatchery at the Frost Campus in City of Kawartha Lakes will be released into specific stocking sites, reintroducing an indigenous species and adding to the biodiversity of the area. Lake Simcoe waters eventually flow into Georgian Bay.
“Congratulations to the Sir Sandford Fleming College of Applied Arts and Technology for this project to restore muskie to Lake Simcoe,” said Environment Minister Jim Bradley. “This is a great example of a community 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.
Located in the heart of Central Ontario, Fleming College has campus locations in Peterborough, Lindsay, Cobourg and Haliburton. Named for famous Canadian inventor and engineer Sir Sandford Fleming, the college features more than 90 full-time programs in Community Development and Health, Continuing Education, Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Justice and Business, Skilled Trades and Technology, and Visual Arts. Fleming College has 5,900 full-time and 10,000 part-time students, and more than 63,000 alumni.
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For more information:
Laura Copeland, Communications Officer, 705-749-5530 x 1370 or copeland@flemingc.on.ca