Trends in employment of best management practices in agricultural micro-basins in southern Ontario, Canada

A.G. Yates and R.C. Bailey. Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

Rates and trends of employment of best management practices (BMPs) in primarily agricultural areas were determined for 50 micro-basins of 100 to 250 ha in the Upper Thames River basin of southwestern Ontario, Canada. Micro-basins were determined using IDRISI 3.0 and ARCview 7.0 GIS. Basins containing urban land cover were excluded from the analysis. Data on BMPs used within each watershed was collected from existing databases of the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Other properties (e.g. size, stream density) of each watershed were also determined. A subset of the micro-basins were ground-truthed to confirm the accuracy of the datasets. Multivariate analysis was used to describe variation among micro-watersheds in extent and nature of agricultural activities, BMPs, and other basin properties. It was predicted that most farms would be employing BMPs at a low to moderate level, however, the employment level would be variable both within and between micro-basins. It was also predicted that livestock farms and larger farms would be employing BMPs at the highest levels.