Martindale Pond Project
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started on this marshy pond with sediment three feet thick. The boat was a floaty bathtub thingy. All that was missing was a rubber duck. One passenger set sail that day to measure up the muck............. Okay, that's enough.
Martindale Pond is a marshy area of Shelly Creek located on Martindale Road in Parksville. Every year, the pond provides overwintering habitat for thousands of Coho Salmon smolts and hundreds of Rainbow and Cutthroat Trout. The fish move into the pond from the Englishman River to escape the turbulent winter flows, and migrate back into the river in the spring when the pond warms up and the water level drops. We know this because, every spring, we set up a smolt trap to count and identify the fish as they migrate out of the pond. The fish are released after they've been counted to continue their migration.
Martindale Pond has been filling up with sediment for years from bank erosion upstream on Shelly Creek and from flooding of the Martindale neighbourhood by the Englishman River. We are concerned the pond has filled to the point where there is not enough habitat for all the fish that need it. Last summer, our Biologist, Dave Clough, developed a plan for removing the sediment and disposing of it in an environmentally safe manner. This includes the use of a dredge by a local contactor in late summer when there is usually no water flow through the marsh. Of course, all the critters that inhabit the pond in summer (turtles, frogs, salamanders) would have to be moved into a corner of the pond that will be fenced off from all the action, as required by regulations.
Last October we applied for a grant from the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) to cover the cost of the contractor and traffic control personnel (since machinery will be working just off the road). In December, we learned that PSF accepted our proposal and is providing the $50,000 in funds we requested. Woohoo!!!
But this isn't a slam dunk. We still need to submit an application to the government for working in a stream. In addition to an Environmental Management Plan, the application requires a surveyed drawing of the pond perimeter and a cross-section of the sediment so we know how much sediment has to come out and from where.
Koers Engineering in Parksville agreed to survey the pond and produce the drawing WITHOUT CHARGE. Kudos to Koers for their support of community stewardship! This is where the boat comes in. After the pond perimeter was surveyed, a MVIHES volunteer who drew the shortest straw took a surveying pole with a prism on the end ($5000 to replace if the prism gets wet) out in the boat. The pole was set into the sediment in different locations in the pond so the surveyor could take his readings needed for the cross-section. No equipment was lost or damaged and we are just awaiting the drawing so we can complete our application.
We will provide updates as the project progresses.
Guy the surveyor from Koers Engineering - February 21, 2020
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