Welcome  Kettle
Creek Conservation Authority is one of 36 conservation authorities in
Ontario. A conservation authority’s jurisdiction is based on a watershed
or the area of land that drains into a certain body of the water.
The
watershed is hourglass in shape and drains 520 square kilometres of
land in the heart of the Carolinian Zone on the north shore of Lake
Erie. Kettle Creek outlets to Lake Erie at Port Stanley at an elevation
of 166 metres above sea level. This represents an elevation drop of
about 141 metres from its watershed height to the average Lake Erie
water level, approximately 1.75 metres per kilometre. This steep drop in
elevation results in flash flooding and a high degree of erosion. In
many instances the bed of the stream is more than 30 metres below the
level of the surrounding land. The
population of the Kettle Creek watershed in 2001 was approximately
44,406, distributed between an urban core in the City of St. Thomas and a
rural periphery in the Township of Malahide, Municipality of Central
Elgin, Township of Southwold, Township of Middlesex Centre and Township
of Thames Centre, and the southern, mostly rural portion of the City of
London. The
main branch of Kettle Creek originates at Lake Whittaker, an 11 hectare
groundwater-fed kettle lake. The watershed has three subwatersheds:
Dodd Creek, Upper Kettle Creek and Lower Kettle Creek. For
the earliest inhabitants, both Native and European settlers, the creek
was the lifeblood of their communities, providing them with
transportation, a source of drinking water and food. However, today, the
nature of the creek – deeply incised into the surrounding landscape –
means that in many places it is hidden in deep valleys therefore losing
some of its connections to surrounding communities. Small lakes and
reservoirs throughout the watershed offer recreational opportunities to
residents. Lake Whittaker is the focal point of a conservation area and
attracts sport anglers. To learn more about the Kettle Creek watershed download the Characterization Report Summary.
What is a watershed?
A
watershed or drainage basin is an area of land that drains into a river
or a lake. The boundary of a watershed is based on the elevation
(natural contours) of a landscape. A drop of water that lands anywhere
inside this boundary will eventually end up draining into Kettle Creek,
before emptying into Lake Erie. This determination of boundaries is
based on the natural shape of the land and therefore the watershed can
fall across many municipal boundaries.
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