Media Releases

MVIHES Groundwater Project

Written on 17 June 2010.

Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society (MVIHES) has just learned that their application to the RBC Blue Water Project has been approved. MVIHES will be receiving $70,000 over 2 years for Groundwater Mapping and Education in the Englishman River Watershed.

Spreading the word on skimboarding - responsibly

Written on 16 June 2010.

A group of local Grade 4 students are taking it to the beach! Arrowview Elementary’s Garbage Busters Club has turned its focus towards keeping local beaches healthy. Expanding their focus from clean communities, students have designed and created posters to help educate skimboarders about eelgrass and beach conservation.

“One of the things we’ve learned as part of our nearshore beach study is the huge impact that we have on creatures which live in our beach areas,” says student teacher Janet Richards. With help from MVIHES’ Michele Deakin, students learned about the eelgrass beds along the beach tide line and how skimboarding over and through this fragile eco habitat can adversely affect animals and plants.

Students brainstormed ideas to educate skimboarders to use the beach responsibly including using non-toxic waxes, placing ramps and structures away from the eelgrass beds, and using barren pools instead of tide lines. A new colourful poster campaign will help spread the word to the thousands of beach users this summer. “The students understand that if we take care of this important resource, it will be there when they get older,” says teacher Jodi Waters.

Look for the student posters around Parksville and Qualicum Beach including businesses which support recreational activities along the beach.

This project is part of the nearshore education program offered by MVIHES with the support of the Town of Qualicum Beach, the City of Parksville and Georgia Basin Living Rivers.

Ditches can be fish habitat too

Written on 05 October 2009.

Fish can be found in some unlikely places as Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society (MVIHES) discovered when they took over the Fish in the Ditch Atlas project from Parksville Streamkeepers last year.

During fall, winter and spring when water is flowing consistently in roadside ditches, cutthroat trout, coho fry, rainbow trout and stickleback can be seen utilizing that habitat. MVIHES wants to protect these ditches and previously unmapped streams from inadvertent cleaning or other alteration whenever the fish are likely to be present.

MVIHES compiled an atlas showing watercourses from Deep Bay to Lantzville. It includes fish bearing watercourses mapped by the RDN as well as the fish bearing ditches and streams that were added by MVIHES. The Fish Bearing Ron Kirk, Manager, Emcon Services, Parksville, having a look at the new Fish Bearing Streams and Ditches Atlas Streams and Ditches Atlas will alert road maintenance managers, agency staff and planners of the possibility of fish habitat in areas that may require attention. A fish bearing ditch could also be subject to Riparian Area Regulations.

Project Coordinator, Faye Smith, noted that MVIHES cannot vouch for fish presence in every watercourse in the atlas, but when a road crosses one of the streams, special precautions should be taken if there is an open ditch nearby. She and the others involved in the project were often surprised by what they found. For example, there were 8-inch trout in the Church Road ditch, coho fry and rainbow trout on Grafton Road, stickleback on Despard and coho fry in the Mills Street storm drain. "They're all important", said Smith, "and MVIHES wants to protect them".

Support for the project came from the Ministry of Transportation, Pacific Salmon Foundation, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Regional District of Nanaimo.

Ron Kirk, Manager, Emcon Services, Parksville, having a look at the new Fish Bearing Streams and Ditches Atlas