Ballenas High School Students and Teachers Rock!
Teacher Allison Lavoie who heads the Ballenas Eco Club and Leah Walberg, grade nine teacher, are leading students in environmental stewardship and education.
On October 4th, Allison Lavoie and nine Eco Club students joined Friends of Shelly Creek Park and Parks Department staff in the planting of 200 native plants (20 species) in Shelly Creek Park (on Hamilton Rd off Corfield St South). The plants are replacing the invasive species that were removed because they were choking out the native species. A resident population of Coastal Cutthroat Trout lives in the section of Shelly Creek that flows through the park, so this work benefits the trout in addition to the park forest.
This isn’t the first time the Eco Club has worked in Shelly Creek Park. They've visited the park on a number of occassions to remove invasive English ivy and lamium (Yellow Archangel), seen in the photos below.
Shelly Creek Park is vital to the Coastal Cutthroat Trout which is a blue-listed species. In 2018, we collaborated with Vancouver Island University who provided a student to conduct a study on the diet of the trout in the park. You can read that article here. And another student to track the movements of the trout using PIT tags and a scanner. You can read about that here. The City of Parksville Parks Department (Warren Payne) has been very supportive in the conservation of the trout by installing a split rail fence and a pedestrian bridge to decrease disturbance of the fish, as well as educational signage. Click here to read all about it.
Meanwhile, back at Ballenas on October 4th, Leah Wahlberg and two student teachers were running three back-to-back grade nine science classes (about 70 students) on identifying benthic invertebrates (insects that live at the bottom of creeks). They also learned about their importance to fish and aquatic ecosystems, and which species are indicators of a healthy stream.
The insects were collected by Leah and Barb Riordan (president of MVIHES) the day before from Shelly Creek and kept alive in buckets with an air pump. Students sorted the bugs into petri dishes and ice cube trays (seen below) and worked on identification and counting. Leah said there was lots of science learning going on along with lots of "this was so much fun" comments.
The Ballenas students determined that Shelly Creek is healthy to somewhat healthy. MVIHES did a similar exercise on the Englishman River and four of its tributaries in 2019 to assess their health. Learn the results here.
Our gratitude goes out to these teachers and students. They are carrying the torch for nature.
