Friends of the Napanee River

Water quality data are collected using tools in the Water Rangers Freshwater Explorer testkit, including portable probes and test strips. Long term trends are tracked and logged on the Water Rangers data platform.

The Napanee River Watershed is approximately 820 sq kms and 60 kms long running NE to the SW from the Fifth Depot Lake and Westport Road in the north to the town of Napanee and into the Bay of Quinte in the south.

The earliest signs of settlements in this region date back to the Laurentian culture at 2-3,000 BC followed by the Point Peninsula people. There are little or no signs of permanent aboriginal settlements other than roamers, hunters, and traders until Samuel de Champlain travelled the Napanee area in 1615.

The Napanee River is clear, slow moving water throughout the year and approximately 6-7 feet in depth throughout the Summer. The river is approximately 80 feet across at this location. Perfect recreation area for swimming, canoeing, and kayaking.

Small (but portage-able) rapids 1/2 km upstream and 1 km downstream.

There are major, unnavigable falls at Yarker and Newburgh, otherwise the river is navigable from the beginning of the Napanee Watershed at the Depot Lakes in the north to the end of the watershed flowing into the Bay of Quinte at the town of Napanee.