The Government of Canada has announced funding for 14 projects under the Wolastoq/Saint John River Freshwater Ecosystem Initiative across the 2024–2025 and 2025–2026 intake periods. The initiative supports outcome-focused projects that address three core priorities: reducing nutrient pollution, advancing science and knowledge, and enhancing Indigenous knowledge, capacity building, and engagement. The overall goal is to improve water quality and ecosystem health throughout the Wolastoq/Saint John River watershed.
For 2025–2026, funded projects focus on integrated watershed management, urban stormwater control, contaminant assessment, agricultural best practices, and nutrient modelling. Initiatives include improving knowledge of nutrient and emerging contaminant impacts in tributaries such as the St. Francis River, implementing green infrastructure like bioswales and retention ponds in the Greater Saint John region, and assessing the presence of PFAS “forever chemicals” in surface waters. Other projects will combine Western science and Indigenous knowledge to monitor water quality, address harmful algal blooms, and train community members in scientific data collection. Agricultural engagement efforts will promote riparian buffer restoration and sustainable land management to reduce runoff, while new modelling tools will better track nutrient flows and identify pollution hotspots across the watershed.
Projects funded in 2024–2025 emphasize pollution source identification, innovative monitoring methods, cyanobacteria detection, and community-based science. Work in the Greater Saint John area includes urban water quality monitoring and public reporting on nutrient and bacterial pollution sources. Indigenous-led initiatives are developing novel bioindicators, such as freshwater mussels, to detect contaminants, while also training local community members in monitoring techniques. Multi-partner networks are deploying real-time algae tracking systems to predict harmful cyanobacteria blooms and inform early response efforts.
Additional projects are promoting beneficial agricultural management practices to reduce nutrient and pesticide runoff, including riparian setbacks, rotational grazing, and stormwater reduction measures. Community-based monitoring programs are being expanded to address data gaps, with workshops and toolkits supporting local groups. Academic research is also examining long-term environmental changes in lakes through sediment core analysis to better understand historical oxygen levels and algal trends. Several initiatives integrate Indigenous knowledge systems with scientific research, applying approaches such as Two-Eyed Seeing to strengthen monitoring practices and raise awareness about sustainable resource management.
Together, these projects reflect a coordinated effort to protect and restore the Wolastoq/Saint John River by combining scientific innovation, Indigenous leadership, community engagement, and practical land and water management solutions.
