You are combining…

You are combining conservation authorities together that over see watersheds that can have similarities, are also very different. Take the proposed st Lawrence combined authority, 2 of the 5 watersheds that would make it up are highly controlled compared to the other 3. This is due to the Rideau canal. Even the two watersheds that make up the Rideau canal are different. The Rideau is a more natural watershed, with water quality that you would typically see. The Cataraqui watershed is almost entirely man made, with its feeder lakes being originally part of a different watershed and the parts near Lake Ontario being large drowned lands, this causes it to have a worse water quality then typically found naturally. The two watersheds act differently thanks to these properties. Another problem is the land area size of the proposed combined authorities, several of them are spread over large areas which will make travel between sites difficult for staff. Especially the one with a part in southern Ontario and another part in Thunder Bay. Several of them are also spread across multiple geographic landforms, which means it would be harder to create normals of the whole authority. As a physical geographer who focuses on watersheds, I would highly recommend against this plan.