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The Grand River watershed is the largest in southern Ontario and includes all the land drained by the Grand River and its tributaries. View a map of the Grand River watershed.
At 6,800 square kilometres, it's about the same size as the province of Prince Edward Island.
The Grand River starts in the highlands in Dufferin County and travels about 310 km before emptying into Lake Erie.
About a million people live within the watershed, with most residing in the larger urban areas of Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph, Cambridge and Brantford. Cities, towns and villages make up about five per cent of the land.
The watershed includes 39 municipalities and two First Nations territories. In some cases, only a portion of the municipality is within the Grand River watershed.
The Grand River watershed is home to the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Six Nations is the most populous First Nation in Canada, with about 13,000 residents living on an 18,800 hectare territory near Brantford. A similar number of members live "off reserve". The Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation have a population of about 2,500 people, many living "off reserve".
The watershed is also an intensive agricultural area, with farms making up about 70 per cent of the watershed.
The Grand River starts in the Dufferin Highlands at an elevation of 525 metres (1,722 feet) above sea level. It flows south about 310 kilometres (193 miles) to Lake Erie at Port Maitland, which is about 174 metres (571 feet) above sea level.