"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

Morison Creek Fish Habitat Assessment

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MorisonCr1On March 21 and 22, eight volunteers joined Dave Clough, our consulting Biologist, to assess the salmon and trout habitat in Morison Creek and identify areas of the creek that  need restoration work. In addition to the volunteers, Dave's assistant Brad, and 2 VIU students, Chelsea and Spencer, were there to lend a hand. 

Morison Creek flows through Errington and enters the Englishman River on the north bank, approximately 1.1 km upstream of the confluence of the Englishman and South Englishman Rivers. It is an important creek for Coho Salmon, Steelhead Trout and Cutthroat Trout. Its 35.6 km2 watershed was historically logged resulting in heavy water flows that washed out much of the gravel and cobble (valuable fish habitat)  in the lower reaches, leaving bedrock and boulders on the creek bottom. Morison Creek has 2 sets of falls. Triple Falls is the most well known and a barrier to Coho and Steelhead spawners, although there have been undocumented observations of fish successfully leaping the falls in years with high flows. The upper reaches and headwaters contain Cutthroat Trout and pass through farm land. A few of these farms were the sites of sediment control work conducted through a collaboration of land owners and MVIHES between 2005 and 2007.  

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Measurements such as channel width, water depth, and percent slope of the creek  banks are taken at each riffle (a stretch of choppy water) and pool.

 MorisonCr2Observations are recorded on:

  • the amount and type of vegetation at each location - provides shade for the creek and bank stability.
  • the amount of bedrock, boulders, cobble, gravel and fines on the creek bottom. 
  • the amount of large woody debris in the creek - important for providing cover for fry and smolts.

 

 

 

MorisonCr5Other important information includes the number and size of obstructions in the creek, which are usually formed when a large tree falls over trapping more woody debris, like branches and smaller trees, behind it. These can make travel up and down the creek difficult for fish, not to mention human volunteers. 

 

 

 

 

 

It was wonderful to get to see this beautiful creek and take part in the data collection. Once the  information is processed, a habitat restoration strategy and plan will be developed for the creek. See the results here in the Morison Creek USHP Survey - 2018 Report.

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Our Volunteers Get "CABIN" Trained

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On September 9 and 10, volunteers from the Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society gathered at the Englishman River in Parksville for a training course in the collection of aquatic bugs using the Canadian Biological Monitoring Network (CABIN) method.

 The bugs living at the bottom of our rivers and streams can tell us a lot about the health of those waterbodies. Some are found only in unpolluted waters while others dominate polluted environments. The CABIN monitoring program, led by Environment and Climate Change Canada, assesses the health of freshwater ecosystems like the Englishman River using bugs.  

  

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The course was taught by two intrepid instructors from Living Lakes Canada based out of Nelson, BC. Heather Leschied is in the foreground wearing the purple jacket, and Raegan Mallinson is holding the specially designed CABIN net used for collecting bugs. They did an awesome job training such a diverse group as ours!

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

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Samples are collected by holding the CABIN net against the bottom of the creek or river in a riffle area while the person holding the net vigorously kicks up the bottom for exactly three long minutes. The insects living at the bottom are stirred up and swept into the net by the current where they are funnelled into a plastic bottle screwed into the end of the net.

 

 

 

 

   

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The plastic bottle is unscrewed from the net and the contents poured into a plastic sampling jar. The jar is sent to a scientitist called a Taxonomist who now has the job of counting and identifying the bugs down to the species level. How they do this without going bug-eyed (heh, heh), I don't know.

 

 

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Additional data about the river is collected, such as water quality, flow velocity, slope, the type of bottom, and surrounding vegetation.

CABIN7CABIN5Our volunteers have been trained and certified to a nationally acceptable standard. The beauty of this system is that monitoring data entered into the CABIN database from creeks and rivers across Canada have been collected using the same method, so the results from one waterbody can be compared with the results of others. The database contains reference creeks and rivers for each region of Canada that are used as examples of unaffected to severely affected ecosystems.  For instance, data collected from the Englishman River would be compared with the data from reference rivers for the Vancouver Island Region to determine where it lies on the scale of being environmentally affected.

MVIHES plans on using this method to monitor the health of the Englishman River and tributaries such as Shelly Creek. When done periodically on a waterbody it could determine whether health is improving, declining or remaining the same over time. It would be wonderful to have scientific proof that the health of a creek is improving  following stream remediation work or a change in water management.

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Congratulations CABIN Volunteers!

Restoring the Estuary

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In an effort to return the Englishman River Estuary to a more natural state, the Nature Trust, who has ownership of the estuary lands, removed a man-made dyke that separated part of the estuary from ocean tidal flows.

 

 

  

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Approximately 3000 m3 of gravel dyke material were excavated in early August, resulting in the removal of a 100 m long barrier (in red) to tidal flows.

 

 

 

 

 

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Channels were dug through the remaining native soil to further enhance flow in and out of the estuary.

 

 

 

 

  

 

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Two truckloads of large woody debris, and crab apple trees removed during the excavation, have been strategically placed to provide shade and cover to fish and other marine species. 

 

 

 

 

Some sections of the trails that intersect the estuary will be reconfigured to reduce impact by human traffic. The old look out is being replaced with lookouts in two new locations that will provide expansive views of the estuary, perfect for bird watching. This is just the first phase of the work planned for the estuary over the next few years. The Englishman River Estuary is on its way to beoming a more naturally functioning ecosystem.

To learn more about this project and MVIHES involvement, click here.

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