Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation
  • The Water
  • Our Work
    • A Sustainability Plan
      • Canada Phosphorus Target Consultation
    • Watershed Forum
      • Sponsors
      • Forum Organizing Committee
      • Kallemeyn Award
      • Wilson Stewardship Award
      • Proceedings Archive
    • Ask an Expert
    • International Coordination
      • International Joint Commission
      • International Multi-Agency Agreement
      • International Watershed Coordination
    • Research Partnerships
      • ECCC Nutrient Science
    • Documents
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Donate
  1. Home
  2. Our Work

Put a plan in Place.  Ensure there's enough science and management expertise.  Unite and coordinate actions binationally—communities, researchers, policy makers.

A Sustainability Plan

Put a plan in place — A sustainability plan for the Rainy-Lake of the Woods Basin.  A plan with internationally-agreed objectives, targets and actions needed.  An international framework to oversee the plan. 

Sounds reasonable, right?  We been working towards this goal and many of the pieces are now in place.

Read more …

Supporting Research Partnerships

We're working to ensure that there is enough science and management expertise and resources focused on the Rainy-Lake of the Woods Basin, now and for the future.

We need to continue to stimulate research and management program building and capacity internationally.  We build and support strategic research and management partnerships among governments and indigenous peoples, non-govermental organizations, private sector entities and individuals.

Examples of these partnership include:

  • Framework for a Domestic Phosphorus Management Plan for Rainy River and Lake of the Woods ( pdf Full version(10.09 MB) )
  • Lake of the Woods Project (Trent University) - Quantifying Nutrient Export in the Canadian Tributaries (Project website)
  • The establishment of the International Multi-Agency Arrangement (ongoing)
  • The Rainy-Lake of the Woods State of the Basin Report series:
    • 2022 ( pdf Full Version(12.17 MB) ) ( pdf Overview version(1.12 MB) )
    • 2014 ( pdf Full version(11.32 MB) )  ( pdf Overview version(1.92 MB) )
    • 2009 ( pdf Standard resolution(8.94 MB) )
  • The 2010 Preliminary Phosphorus Budgets and Water Quality Models
    for the Lake of the Woods and Rainy River ( pdf Overview version(3.38 MB) )
  • The Historical Nutrient Budget and Lake Thermal Modeling Study
  • The Lake trout Strategic Project (Queen's University) — Predicting dissolved oxygen concentrations in Lake Trout lakes:
    Developing new tools for a multiple-stressor world (Project website)

Watershed Forum

Since 2004, the annual International Rainy-Lake of the Woods Watershed Forum has been a strategic incubator for cross-border research, management collaboration, networking and communication.

The Foundation leads a partnership of agencies to organize the Forum each year.  Attended each year by upwards of 160 research and resource managers, the Forum is the "hub" for all groups working to ensure the future ecological integrity of the waters of the Rainy-Lake of the Woods Basin.

Forum home page

  folder Forum Proceedings Archives

International Coordination

Unite and coordinate actions binationally — Imagine there are no borders. Erase the borders and have one lake, one watershed, shared management.

This is what the Foundation and its international partners have achieved on Lake of the Woods. We have built a platform for the future, to work together on joint research, management and protection of Lake of the Woods throught the International Joint Commission, the International Multi-Agency Arrangement and our International Watershed Coordinator.

Read more …

April 8, 2025

2025 Forum Presentation Recordings Available Now!

Over the two days of the 2025 International Rainy-Lake of the Woods Watershed Forum, we heard from nearly two dozen presenters. Missed the event or want to refresh your memory on these presentations? Now you can take in most of the talks as video recordings, available on our website at the link below! 

video 2025 Watershed Forum

April 22, 2024

2025 Watershed Forum Proceedings Report - Get Your Copy Now!

The Proceedings Report of the 2025 International Rainy-Lake of the Woods Watershed Forum is available for download at the Foundation’s website:  lowwsf.com/forum-proceedings. Held March 12-13 in International Falls Minnesota, 100 researchers, resource managers, policy makers, and members of the public put Lake of the Woods and its watershed under the microscope. 

Read more …
January 9, 2025

Big Announcements to Start 2025: New Faces, Same Priorities

For 20 years the Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation has brought together citizens, dozens of municipalities and Indigenous nations and state, provincial and federal governments in Canada and the USA to amass the scientific, technical and community knowledge needed to inform an international water quality plan while building the trust and capacity to implement it.

With the arrival of the new year, the Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation has some important announcements to share in our endeavour.

Read more …

Subscribe

Our Work

  • A Sustainability Plan
  • Watershed Forum
  • Ask an Expert
  • International Coordination
  • Research Partnerships
  • Documents

Contact Info

Box 112
Kenora, Ontario P9N 3X1
Canada
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Copyright © Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation 2017
Website Developed and Hosted by JustinWiebe.ca