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Our contributions to clean water include:
We work for Clean Water because water is a necessity for life, but the health of our oceans, lakes, rivers and streams is threatened by human impacts. We help communities, organizations and individuals take action to improve the health of our ecosystems and to reduce the waste entering our waterways.
CLEAN WATER
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(or tap on mobile) over images to see facts about our impact!
Atlantic Reef Balls
In 2012, Clean Foundation launched the Atlantic Reef Ball program to create, install, and monitor artificial reefs in the Halifax Harbour in an effort to create or restore coastal marine habitat. The reef balls create rocky marine habitat that provides a home for many seaweeds, crustaceans and fish species. We’ve observed tomcod, sculpins, lobsters, crabs, starfish and snails, to name a few.
To date 422 reef balls have been deployed in the Halifax Narrows to restore 5,760 m² of marine habitat.
Together they represent 76,000 sq. m or 7.6 ha. That's the equivalent to just over 14 football fields!
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Fix-it-Fair
Next:
Coastal Restoration
The Northumberland Strait Coastal Restoration Project completed its second year. The team built relationships with our project partners, hosted a Bioblitz at the Amherst Shore Provincial Park, engaged with Mi’kmaq and non-Mi’kmaq community members, and incorporated a two-eyed seeing approach by using both traditional and technical knowledge to inform restoration site selection.
In early 2019 the project team conducted five training workshops across the North Shore that introduced the concept of coastal restoration to Mi’kmaw and local community members, municipal planners, students, and NGOs by presenting a variety of coastal restoration solutions, techniques and resources appropriate for the diversity of conditions faced by communities and landowners. The workshops took place in Stellarton, Tatamagouche, Antigonish, Pictou Landing First Nation and Amherst.
Project Partners include: CB Wetland Environmental Specialists; Confederation of Mainland Mi'kmaq/Mi'kmaw Conservation Group; Pictou Landing First Nation, Restore America’s Estuaries; Save the Bay; Tampa Bay Watch; Chesapeake Bay Foundation; COINAtlantic; QuirkVR; Nova Scotia Nature Trust; St Mary’s University; Ducks Unlimited; University of New Brunswick; Friends of the Pugwash Estuary; Bird Studies Canada; Dalhousie University
Supported by: Government of Canada
Supported by: Government of Canada/ Dominion Diving Ltd.
Supported by: Divert NS / Province of Nova Scotia/ Halifax Dump and Run / McInnes Cooper / City of Halifax / Radio 96.5
Our impacts
this year:
365 attendees and 7 interactive repair related workshops.
Supported Fix-It Fair events in Sherbrooke Village and Sydney.
Our impacts this year:
The Clean Ocean Summit took place in November 2018, in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Delegates from diverse sectors came together to share information and develop collaborative solutions to reduce marine waste entering Maritime waters.
The Summit’s delegates focused on strategies to prevent plastic waste from entering the ocean as well as successful waste plastic and fishing gear removal and remediation projects.
Clean Ocean Summit
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The Fix-it Fair – and broader Fix-it Atlantic initiative – is a celebration of a culture of self-sufficiency, of supporting a local circular economy, and of helping our planet by reducing waste.
25 local repair businesses, plus on-site repair cafe.
Hosted a repair cafe at Halifax Central Library with 70 attendees.
Launched our Fix-It Atlantic map to find fixers and makers near where you live.
Photo by Melanie Lowe, Confederacy of Mainland Mi'kmaq
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Great Nova Scotia Pick-Me-Up
Clean delivered the last Great Nova Scotia Pick-Me-Up season in 2018. We’ve “passed the bag” to the Nova Scotia Adopt-A-Highway Program who will continue to build on its success.
Thank you to our volunteers and sponsors who have participated over the past 30 years!
Supported by: Province of Nova Scotia/ GLAD Canada / City of Halifax / Divert NS
Our impacts this year:
283 groups with 2,454 volunteers participated in the Great Nova Scotia Pick-Me-Up.
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2,579 garbage bags collected.
301 recycling bags collected.
38,590 lbs of garbage collected.
We influenced the creation of 3 Action Groups focusing on waste fishing gear, single-use plastics and ocean literacy and education.
We hosted interdisciplinary groups of delegates that successfully collaborated and devised 9 strategies to prevent, reduce and remediate marine waste in the Maritimes.
We collected information from delegates and captured action plans for the purpose of completing the Summit Report which is available online.
Supported by: Government of Canada, Atlantic Superstore, Canadian Plastics Industry Association,
Divert NS, Province of Nova Scotia, Environmental Services Association Maritimes,
Cooke Aquaculture, The Confederacy of the Mainland Mi'kmaq
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14 project partners from across North America.
25 participants in the fall 2018 BioBlitz who photographed 88 different sites.
75 potential restoration sites identified → 25 selected for follow-up tidal barrier assessments →9 sites short-listed, with the final site selection from 2019-20 pending.
“The main highlight was learning about the data collection methods, I felt this was a great way to see how this type of work gets done in a professional way. I enjoyed the general information on saltmarsh’s as well, the ecological and historical information they provided about Nova Scotian marshes. Seeing real examples of restoration was informative about the true scale of human-made disruptions to these systems.” - NSCC student
6 community engagement sessions across the project region, with 27 participants.
6 coastal restoration training workshops with 54 participants.
Our impacts this year:
