"Committed to the recovery of wild Pacific salmon in mid Vancouver
Island watersheds through habitat restoration and community engagement"
"Committed to the restoration of wild Pacific salmon in mid Vancouver
Island watersheds through habitat restoration and community engagement"

General - News

Summary of the Englishman River Watershed conditions for 2014

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Below is a series of YouTube videos prepared by bDigital Professional Production of the presentations that were given on December 17th that summarize the Englishman River watershed conditions for 2014.

 

Gilles Wendling, P.Eng., Hydrogeolist presents on the ER Watershed and it's bedrock aquifers


 

Brad Rushton presents on photo point monitoring in the ER Watershed

 Shawn Stenhouse, B.Sc Biology, presents on stream flow monitoring

Julie Pisani, Regional District of Nanaimo presents on the community watershed monitoring network

Watershed Health and YOU : one year later

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Current and Prospective Stewards of the

ENGLISHMAN RIVER

are invited to join us for coffee and a short informal meeting

January 31 at 9:30 - 11:00 am

Parksville Community and Conference Centre

RSVP This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Faye at 250-752-9797

MVIHES Yellow boots

We acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.

Shelly Creek Watershed Assessment

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Volunteer assessing the culverts at Butler Road on Shelly CreekAs part of the Watershed Health and You program, Shelly Creek was subject to an instream fish habitat assessment  summer 2014. Volunteers were trained by Fisheries Biologist, Dave Clough, in the Urban Salmon Habitat Program (USHP) methodology. (USHP was developed in the late 90s by the Ministry of Environment – Fisheries for new stewards as a way for them to assess their urban streams before launching into restoration activities.) Shelly Creek was assessed in 1999 by MVIHES members using the USHP so this provided a great opportunity to replicate the study in 2014 and get new volunteers to assess  this important tributary and determine the condition of the habitat after 15 years. 

Here are some of our findings:

  • There was a 50% decrease in pools –probably a result ofstream erosion causing  sediment to move downstream and filling up pools where fish reside in low flow periods
  • We found less Large Woody Debris available for fish to act as complex cover – the debris probably gets cleaned out to prevent flooding of private properties
  • Significant increase in the amount of fine sediment covering the bottom of pools – fish do not survive in streams with muddy substrates
  • Decrease in gravels – Salmonids need gravels for spawning
  • Significant increase in erosion of stream banks during high winter flows – causes infilling of pools downstream
  • A High number of obstructions to fish passage during low flow periods – mostly wood and root jams with gravel plugs
  • Alterations to the stream were largely due to placing of riprap and removal of woody debris
  • Stream temperature was high in upper reaches in spite of excellent riparian cover

A Report will be compiled for MVIHES by Peter LawVolunteers training with biologist Dave Clough

2014 Surveyors included: Barb Riordan, Elaine Lefebvre, Faye Smith, Diane Jones , Pam Nosworthy, Neil Worboys, Peter Law

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