Adopt a Waterway

Adopt an Ontario Waterway!

Do your part to protect the amazing waterways that we have in Ontario! The ORCKA Adopt a Waterway program is designed to let you register the waterway(s) that you most care about with the hope to motivate you to help us maintain our beautiful but delicate waterways. As an avid paddler or an environmentally concious individual this can be your way to assure great paddling and outdoor experiences in the future. This can be anything from picking up floating garbage when you are out on a relaxing afternoons' paddle to doing a full river bank and river bed cleanup. ORCKA compiles the details of the waterway adoption information and shares it with government and environmental protection agencies such as the Ministry of Natural Resources, Transport Canada, Parks Ontario and other Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments. We respect your privacy and share only the details of the waterways managed. 

In order to Adopt a Waterway, we ask that you complete and return the ORCKA Adopt a Waterway Registration form to the ORCKA Adopt a Waterway Coordinator, Eric Morin at emorin@orcka.ca . The registration form is available in  both MS Word and PDF. The second part of the registration table is optional and can be completed after you Adopt your Waterway! This section allows you to share your ORCKA Adopt a Waterway experience and report additional information. Here is the link to the Ontario Geographical Regions used in the ORCKA Adopt a Waterway Registration form.  

UTM Coordinates

The UTM North American Datum 1983 (NAD 83) coordinates are necessary in order to pin point the exact location(s) you wish to adopt. If you know the UTM coordinates of the waterway you wish to adopt, please enter them in the Adopt a Waterway registration form. 

If you do not know the UTM coordinates of your waterway, please contact the ORCKA Adopt a Waterway program coordinator. We will determine the UTM location of your waterway using other information such as waterway name, region and nearby cities. For river sections, other landmark knowledge might be necessary (such as bridges, waterfall names, island names etc). Please keep in mind for lakes, one single UTM coordinate of the lakes' geographical centre will suffice. For rivers, both the beginning and end UTM of the section of river you are adopting are needed. 
 
Registration Fee

Please contact the ORCKA Office Administrator, Bonnie Fisher at info@orcka.ca or (416) 426-7016 to pay the $10 administration fee and complete the registration of your waterway.

Thank you for Adopting a Waterway and helping ORCKA to maintain and improve Ontario's paddling experience.


Happy Paddling

Eric Morin
ORCKA Adopt a Waterway
Program Coordinator
emorin@orcka.ca