What is a Watershed?

A watershed is an area of land that catches rain and snow and drains or seeps into a marsh, stream, river, lake or groundwater. Homes, farms, cottages, forests, small towns, big cities and more can make up watersheds. Some cross municipal, provincial and even international borders. They come in all shapes and sizes and can vary from millions of acres, like the land that drains into the Great Lakes, to a few acres that drain into a pond.

Lower Trent Conservation Watershed Region

The Lower Trent Conservation watershed region includes the furthest downstream section of the Trent River watershed, encompassing 2,070 square kilometres. It includes the Trent River, which flows out of Rice Lake to the Bay of Quinte at Trenton, and the watersheds of eight main tributaries. The watershed region also includes a number of smaller watercourses that flow directly into Lake Ontario and the Bay of Quinte from Grafton to Quinte West.

To learn about the watershed region, see our 2018 Conservation Report.

Watch our video about the Lower Trent Conservation watershed region.

Trent River Watershed

The Trent River watershed contains all of the land drained by the Trent River and is the largest watershed located entirely in southern Ontario with its headwaters beginning in Algonquin Provincial Park.
Water from over 200 lakes in the Haliburton Highlands flows through the Kawartha Lakes, down the Otonabee River and into Rice Lake. From there, the Trent River makes its way to the Bay of Quinte at Trenton. The Trent River system drains more than 12,000 square kilometres of central Ontario – that’s twice the area of Prince Edward Island or 8 million hockey rinks!