The stream keepers have been very busy this past month fry salvaging from the local streams as they dry up in our summer heat. Water levels have been relatively good up to the last few weeks due to all the rain and cold with most streams maintaining a subsurface flow. This small amount of water flowing is able to keep what pools remain viable, as the fish will move to the flow. This makes the catching of fry a lot easier. Using a small seine net to block any escape back downstream most fish then are dip netted into 5-gallon pails equipped with small air pumps to keep the water oxygenated. On an average day we can catch up to 2,000 fry from several pools before we have to make the run up into the hills. We purchased a new air pump for the truck tank this year replacing our modified 12volt tire pump. This new pump makes riding in the truck 75% quieter than the old one, which rattled and banged the whole ride up into the hills. When releasing the fish into the Beaver pond they all tend swim around slowly moving into the cover of the vegetation growing along the shore then as you watch them they tend to separate off into smaller groups as they search for their social group. When the fry are in their pool in the stream they have a definite social order and by combining them all into one tank they get mixed up with other groups which places stress on them as they try to adapt to the new social order [chaos]. So far this year we have moved over 10,000 fry to year round wetted habitat ensuring their survival for another year. As these are wild salmon any amount we can help survive will ensure their overall survival into the foreseeable future.

A story posted on the stream keepers message board hosted by the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation [ Remembering Wild Coho by Terry Slack] tells of the once abundant 12 pound Wild Coho which used to spawn in the Salmon River then along came urban and rural development which reduced the spawning habitat for these once big fish. In an attempt to stop the decline the solution of the day was to take the remaining stock and build a hatchery to try to help rebuild the stocks. The result was that the large 12 pound fish disappeared and were replaced by smaller fish. This is another case of humans thinking they know what is best for nature, good intentions aside we have made some drastic mistakes on the coast with respect to our once mighty runs of Wild Salmon. A biologist told me one year that the reason they were taking brood stock for the hatchery was they had to have something for the volunteers to do during the winter months. Luckily this was not one of our streams as years ago we knew to avoid any advice, which would have put us in the same predicament. As this goes to press Alexandra Morton champion of wild salmon will be giving testimony at the Cohen Inquiry into the Fraser River Sockeye collapse, along with the testimony of Dr Kristi Miller [multi million dollar study then had a gag order placed on her by our federal government to prevent her talking about her findings] we hope to have some progress into the relationship between the decline of the Sockeye and the Atlantic Salmon farms and disease vectors spreading out into the wild fish from these farms. As the ocean is a open environment if those farm fish get sick then it is only common sense that the virus will be out in the environment for all fish species to become exposed with who knows what consequences.

Our beach sampling for forage fish continues throughout the year trying to identify which beaches and at what time of year spawning occurs. These fish are the link between the phytoplankton and our salmon, as they become the feed for the young salmon as they enter the ocean environment. All along the shore as you swim during the summer month or months if we are lucky are thousands of young fish both salmon and forage fish feeding and being fed on all the way up to whales.

A quick plug here for the new edition of Whelks to Whales by local author Rick M Harbo.

This week there have been two seals cavorting along Sebastion beach slapping the water with their tales as they corral the feed fish between them.

Last night I went to the social event of the year at the legion, Bruce and Brenda Chicks combined birthdays, a big happy birthday to you both and thanks for such a wonderful evening of friends and awesome music. Donna & Bill Konsarado provided the music with Bruce’s son Miles playing some tunes then Mike Vira showed up to lend his guitar playing to this awesome evening.

September brings another Mine town days where we will have our tent set up to answer questions about our activities on the local streams.

Best Fishes. John Dunn

Summer 2011 at least I hope it is summer as at this writing in June we are not sure whether it is summer or more spring like weather but I hope we are well into summer as you read this. In fact yesterday on the solstice it was the warmest day yet with a nice warm South Easterly wind blowing. All the Wild Coho smolts have gone to sea over the past two months from all our streams. The pond in the estuary, which holds smolts leaving Bonnel Creek, has been drained with all the fish leaving under their own steam. We can only hope that enough Wild Chum fry were able to incubate and leave over the spring, as Chum leave almost immediately after emerging we have no way to tell how many there are in the streams. Last fall it seemed that the adults returning were very low for the Chum and with all the big washouts over the winter we hope that not all the eggs were buried too deep for them to emerge or worse still washed out of the gravel and lost before they could hatch, only time will tell. Many years ago the Chum were so plentiful residents made trips to the streams to watch the Chum return in large numbers. Something went wrong, of which we can only speculate, over fishing, possible due to the gillnet fishery which used to be right up to the mouth of the bay and was based on the escapement into the Nanaimo River. When they decided the Nanaimo River had enough Chums returning they allowed an opening to so call clean up the remainder, which also cleaned up all the other smaller, streams returning Chum.

July and August is a busy time for stream keepers as we continue with our rescue of trapped fry in drying pools as the streams dry up for the summer. Walking the streams now in June we see lots of fry so things look good for at least the Wild Coho.

On June the 9^th we took a grade one class from Aspengrove School for a nature walk into the estuary. During the walk the kids picked up garbage along the foreshore and the estuary. This day was organized with the help of the Royal Banks Blue Water project, which promotes the stewardship, and protection of our most valuable resource Water. The children learned about how important the whole watershed is to the continued quality of water and how it affects all life within. We had a kindergarten of around 80 to 100 goslings wandering around while their adult chaperones kept a close eye on our whereabouts at all times. The children observed the few smolts remaining in the pond and help pull an extra board out of the outlet to encourage the remainder to leave as the flows increased. Redwing blackbirds singing away all under the watchful eye of a big Bald Eagle who was probably scorning us out over disturbing his gosling hunt. On the way back they helped me pick some Sea Asparagus and by the time we left the estuary some of them were snacking on the Asparagus, which was a good introduction to wild food along with a quick talk on mushrooms when observing some Puffballs growing along the way. After a lunch on the beach they all had some time to play along the foreshore and all left exhausted. This was a great day with all the children enjoying their day out. We would like to thank the manager and staff of the Woodgrove branch of the Royal Bank for their involvement in this event and a special thanks to the children from Aspengrove School and their teacher Miss Moss. [See attached picture]

Oh and of course the parents who also came along making this great event for all concerned. A thank you to the RDN for waiving the dumping fees for the garbage that was collected.

With the coming of spring to our watersheds, [hopefully not premature with that statement even though you will be reading this in June] the fish have started to move downstream on their migration to the sea. Over the past month we have seen an increasing number of smolts as the days go by even though water temperatures have been in the single digit range [5c to 8c]. Last week we saw the largest Wild Coho smolts yet to exit the Beaver pond, over 8 inches, closer 10 if we had time to measure it. As with all fish the most important thing we can do is not have them out of the water more than necessary, a quick dip with the net then count and release. Ever heard of a salmon that could hold its breath? It should have left last year or the year before and now will go out to sea for the rest of this year then return in the fall as an adult. Many years ago we had Coho fry in our box before we had done any fry salvage for that year. At the time we speculated that their was the possibility that some fish had remained in the lake and spawned in the upper reaches of the stream above the lake, now finding this one we think that was the case. Once the Beaver begins to repair the dam around the end of May [or earlier if the weather is dry] the smolts no longer have free passage through the dam and have to wiggle through where they can or jump over the top. If they remain then they become two year olds the next year when they leave and if not as in this ones case they can stay or leave as a three year old. We do have a pipe buried in the dam for fish passage but since our boat was stolen we now have no way to check the pipe without a very cold swim and believe me the water is cold at 5 centigrade, even the short time your hands are in the water they begin to go numb if you have to fish out the net from the bottom of the box. This is a very beautiful time of the year to be out and about in the watersheds, all the trees are sending out new growth, plants are beginning to bloom, birds of all kinds are nesting and rearing their young. The Bears are starting to wander around feeding on new shoots and grasses and their are even some spring mushrooms, we had a feed of Shaggymane two weeks ago from the same spot right in the middle of the old logging road where they grow in the fall. Yesterday I picked Puffballs in the estuary, which made a fine addition to lunch. Next time I go to the estuary I will be picking some Sea asparagus, which will be placed, in a shallow baking dish with olive oil and a nice fillet of Sockeye placed on top then baked in the oven, I told you spring is a fine time of the year. Speaking of Sockeye make sure you get over to Port Alberni over the next few months to see the run of Sockeye one of the largest in years to return. Now the first nations have the rights, which they never really lost in the first place to trade their catch you will be able acquire some to bring home if you are not a fisherperson. June is the month that should bring warmer weather but do not quote me on that as May has felt like April or even March. Remember that when out and about try to leave only footprints and take time to really appreciate the magnificent natural world all around us. Take time to sit beside a stream and watch nature unfold before your very eyes, you may be lucky to have a close encounter with the creatures that live there. There is nothing finer than to watch a Water Ouzel swimming around in a riffle or pool in search of food and if you are really still it may come right up to you.

May 14th Saturday. While the rest of the volunteers were spending the morning at the hog Weed site, Katlyn and myself went up the mountain to the smolts box. We counted 23 Wild Coho smolts all in the 90 mm to 120 mm range, nice healthy wild coho. Last week I took our local bands fisheries manager Howie Edwards with me to the box where we fished out 19 wild coho all around the same size as todays but for one which was around 8 to 10 inches. Too big to put in the measuring bag and being that it was large we did not want to keep it out of the water any longer than a quick picture before releasing it back into the stream so that it can join the rest on their long journey downstream. This Wild Coho was a 3+ year old which must have decided to remain in the Beaver pond and with luck will be returning as an adult this next fall after spending only part of the year at sea. A few years ago before we had put any salvaged fry into the pond we were checking our box just prior to removing it along with the fence from the stream we found several small wild coho fry in the box. At the time I speculated that some of the fish had residualised and probably spawned in the upper reaches above the Beaver pond. Finding that big one last week now makes me think that was the case. Around the end of May the beaver tends to begin work on repairing the dam which coincides with the amount of Wild Coho leaving the pond. Years ago we put a pipe through the dam to aid the passage of the late fish which increased the numbers as the weather tuned hot and the fish quit migrating downstream. Since someone stole our donated boat we have been unable to go out on the pond to check our pipe so we hope it is still working.

A big thank you goes out to Alexandra Morton for all the work she has undertaken on behalf of society at large in her campaigen to bring awareness about the danger to Wild Salmon from the fish farm industry.

The April 16^th Knarston Creek clean up was a success.

We have to give a big thanks to John and Dave Gregson holders of the woodlot licence who donated a machine with operator Greg and a dumpster. The stream keepers along with 6 volunteers from Lantzville were able to remove almost 40 yards of assorted garbage. A special mention to young Hamish who came with his dad and even though he only 4 he pitched right in with his dad picking up garbage. Everything you could imagine was dumped over the old bridge heading alongside the stream. The oldest was a car frame; no one could identify it from the emblem on the fancy bumpers, one guess was from the 40’s. An old licence plate on another car body from 1969 along with countless bags of garbage from the past 10 to 15 years. Washing machines, mattresses, stoves, storefront glass, and car batteries even an old Barbie doll?

Some metal still remains either embedded in the streambed or entangled in the old bridge timbers now collapsed into the stream. Over the summer months when we have a fish window (the time allowed to work in a stream) we will get a permit from the appropriate government agency and remove these last pieces of garbage then do a restoration of the site with tree planting.

Other activities we have been up to the past month have been planting more Willow stakes alongside the streams. On Craig creek a small erosion site alongside the farm bridge had a Willow fence woven to prevent further erosion and under cutting of the bank. Over the next month or so we will be monitoring the Wild Coho that will be leaving the Beaver pond where they were put last summer during our fry salvage project. Over the past 12 years we have saved close to 200,000 Wild Coho fry which otherwise would have died when the streams dried out. This effort has been very rewarding knowing that we are doing our bit to save some of the last Wild Salmon on the east coast of Vancouver Island. More and more leading edge science is being done to determine the effects of the past 130 odd years of the hatchery program and the resultant effect this has had on Wild Salmon. Pacific Stream keepers Federation web site under the heading -Message Board go down to the posting - New Salmon conservation studies dated Sunday March 27^th, you will have to scroll down a few pages, very interesting reading. Over the summer we will be placing a few beach awareness signs at some of the beach accesses. Also their will be signs going up at the access points to Nanoose bay proper asking the sport fishers to voluntarily refrain from fishing for Coho within the bay as a conservation effort to protect the Wild Coho.

For the catch and release fishermen we ask that they not exhaust the fish and not remove from the water as research shows that even if removed for a short time as in taking a picture can adversely affect the survivability of fish. Always wet hands when handling fish and never use a gaff or beach the fish. Other guidelines are all available on the Internet on how to practice safe release, a good one is, http://www.salmon-trout.org/pdf/catch_and_release.pdf

We expect that the fishermen who are truly concerned about conservation of these important salmon will comply but their will always be a small number who will not care and continue to fish regardless of the cost to the species.

Thanks again to those concerned Lantzvillagers who joined the stream keepers in the cleanup of upper Knarston Creek.

Stream Keepers

With April fast approaching plans are in the process for the cleanup of Knarston Creek at the end of Normarel Rd adjacent to the recently logged woodlot. The date set for the cleanup is the third Saturday of April the 16^th at 9am.

Over the past month we have seen high flows on all the streams again due to high rain events. As said in last months article this has caused some concern for the Chum salmon eggs buried in the substrate. With runs being unusually low last fall over the entire coast our concerns are for the main spawning creeks of Nanoose and Bonnel creeks. Nanoose Creek is relatively stable in regard to the gravel during periods of high flows so we are not too worried for this system. The same cannot be said for Bonnel. With a severely impacted watershed flash floods are common all through the winter bringing large amounts of sediment downstream filling in pools while scouring out new ones. Some eggs will be washed out while others will be buried deeper in the gravel making it difficult for the fry to wiggle out. Only time will tell. Over the past month we have been out doing some Willow staking to try and stabilize some of the newly formed gravel bars and erosion sites, this takes the form of using large diameter cuttings and driving them as deep as possible into the substrate down into the water table, this will allow them to root well while supporting vegetative growth above ground. One site we went to was alongside the new flood control structure on Knarston Creek, as this is a highly visible site we were concerned with the barren nature of the site left after construction was complete. Due to the large amount of rock used the planting of trees is restricted to small polygons away from the rock. Over time nature will revegate this site returning it to a more visually pleasing site. The control structure has been working well to prevent flooding below Lantzville road over the winter bringing relief for the residents. Some concern has been expressed as to the beach with the creation of a new seasonal flow regime from the outlet. While the water itself does not pose any problems for the beach but the new scouring of the foreshore habitat has disrupted the foreshore habitat for all the animals living their and will take time to readjust to these new environmental conditions. This area of foreshore is now a Clam lease for Snaw Naw As First Nations. With the high levels of coli form counts along the foreshore from the Hammond Bay Road sewer pumping station all Clams and other shellfish are not fit for human consumption all along the foreshore of Lantzville unless placed in areas of clean water and allowed to flush clean. In the old days we had septic systems, yes some along the foreshore leaked directly into the foreshore habitat especially those installed along the rocky sections of beach, now we have the big pipe solution which has moved the problem further down to the big outlet pumping into the ocean. This takes longer to flow back along the beach with the currents and tide but the results for the foreshore are the same.

The ocean is very forgiving and if it is only waste can to a certain extent handle sewage disposal but as with all sewer systems it is what else is flushed down the toilet and drains, 2,000 flushes always blue, harsh chemical cleaners, bleach etc, and any thing else, out of site out of mind. So please think before you flush or drain for the sake of the beach and all its inhabitants.

March Log

This past month we have been busy with tree planting and doing more stream surveys to line up our coming activities for the next few months. Bloods Creek has seen some flooding since the last snowfall though no major disruption to the habitat has occurred. Knarston Creek’s flood control structure seems to be alleviating the flooding for those that live downstream of Lantzville road while in the upper watershed some small erosion sites have been identified and will get some attention over the next month or so. Small erosion sites are a natural process of stream morphology [fluvial geomorphology to be technical] what this means is that when you look at a stream you tend to see it in a relatively stable state but unless in flood state you do not tend to see how the hydraulic effect of flowing water is changing constantly what we term as the stream bed and banks. Small particles are constantly being eroded from the banks and the streambed as the water flows downstream. Consequently small particles of suspended sediment are constantly flowing downstream, depositing when encountering barriers. These barriers can be as small as gravel and as big as log jams. Good old gravity tends to allow the banks to ever so slowly creep down allowing for the water to carry away material, this can also occur when wildlife [or humans] cross the stream eroding the banks. Even the action of small animals burrowing into the banks to create homes or in the search of food creates erosion. So as you can see erosion is a natural occurrence of a healthy stream environment. Nature’s way is to grow plants where by the roots can hold the bank material in place slowing the erosion process down. When we find eroded banks we have to assess whether it needs some plants or do we just leave it, if we decide to intervene we will do what has become called Bio-Engineering, the use of plant’s to remediate erosion sites as apposed to bringing in machinery and loads of rock to armour the banks. Over time we have realised that plant’s will do a more natural job of alleviating the erosion than riprap. Rocks tend to be the hard engineering solution so often used because it is easy and satisfies our need for control of our environment. Using plant’s on the other hand is working with the ecosystem using its own methods to help to heal the site while providing habitat and as we often find out when using Willow providing food for the Beaver. One of our first Willow plantings was at a site used to transport logs across a stream from a small clear-cut, as you can imagine this made a big mess. We went in and drove stakes into the banks and wove branches much like basket weaving to provide a vegetative barrier to the forces of the flow while softly dissipating the energy against the banks. Rip-rap was all we heard, that is the only way to go, well within a year the stakes had taken and the weaving had collected sediment [Barrier] and along with the planting of trees we achieved bank stability without the ugly look of rip-rap which in most cases tends to bounce the energy of the water around the channel usually creating more erosion downstream. Back to the Beaver, he or she taught us our first lesson in planting Willow stakes, shade being important to the stream we had left most of the stakes full length with about 3 feet in the substrate and a equal amount or more above grade, along came the Beaver and chewed off all the stakes down to around a foot tall then left them alone. What he had done was limit the vegetative growth above ground while allowing the roots to fully form without the desiccation [drying out] of the stakes by having too much growth on top. I personally think he was thinking of the lovely lunches he would have when all that new growth would come over the following years.

March will see the return of the Herring to our shores, which will hatch out just in time for our young Salmon who will be leaving their natal streams. The young Herring will provide a huge biomass of food to help them grow into healthy Wild Salmon before heading out further into the Pacific to complete their life cycle.

April will be the month we will cleanup upper Knarston, date and time will be in the April Log, hope to see you their.

Best Fishes John Dunn

Hi everyone , the previous posts are to roughly bring you up to date on the past year. These articles are printed in our local paper which comes out every month The Lantzville Log. If I can post these as I write them I will be able to stay up to date and I will try to make some more entries in-between the articles for the paper. Best Fishes John Dunn

Stream keepers The Log Artical for Febuary 2011

Well we missed the deadline for the December issue, I wrote the article but forgot to send it in. Duh/ Yes I did get in trouble from readers who look forward to reading the column so this year I have to be more diligent.

Over the holidays we were out every day except Xmas day and New Years day being that they were on Saturdays one of our regular days.

Well over the past month we have been mainly walking the watersheds observing wildlife and the changing forest.

All the Wild Salmon eggs are tucked nicely into the gravel beds, incubating away as the fresh mountain waters wash over them.

I found some good Oyster Mushrooms growing on old Alder logs along the stream banks, excellent eating. [Hmm-Wild Smoked Salmon and Wild Oyster mushroom’s, stop before they beat down the door at suppertime.]

Had a discussion over the past month about the sexual maturity of Salmon and how important it is for the Salmon to reach sexual maturity unhindered. Salmon in order to achieve their goal of passing on their evolutionary adaptive genes to the next generation need to be able to complete their life cycle. What this means is selecting their mates as they reach maturity and going through their own courting rituals before spawning and fertilizing. By selecting their own mate this ensures that the survival of the species continues. Science is catching up to nature in the understanding of fish behaviour; no longer are fish just fish. Salmon are able to evolve from generation to generation faster than us humans ensuring their adaptation to their ever-changing habitat from cycle to cycle. Interruption of this process can do untold damage to thousands of years of adaptation, which could result in the loss of priceless genetics if all fish become hybrids. Any gardeners out their knows that the same holds true for plants, try saving the seeds of a hybrid hoping that next year your plants will turn out the same. That is why you must buy new seeds every year to ensure getting the results you want, which is why most serious gardeners try to save their own seeds from what are called heirloom varieties. Last week [at the time of this writing] I heard the most eloquent and informed talk on Salmon I have ever heard even from those who purport to know all there is to know of Salmon. Check out the CBC Ideas web site for one of the most enlightening talks by the champion of Salmon Alexandra Morton entitled Saving Salmon; it should be available as a pod cast soon hopefully or for purchase as a CD.

Over the coming months we will be having another stream riparian garbage cleanup, this time in the upper watershed of Knarston Creek adjacent to the recently logged woodlot at the end of the road beyond Normarel rd. [I am reluctant to use its name in print as I have been told by my Salish friends that the current name is considered not PC and is actually a derogatory term]

Most of the garbage lining the old logging road has been removed by Gregsons during the logging of the woodlot.

What remains is lying off in the bush and down the bank of the creek; again we have every kind, old truck bodies, stoves etc. Luckily none is in the creek proper. Talking with John Gregson before the holidays he has offered any assistance he can in this cleanup. So look out for the date which I hope can be arranged for some time in March. As stream Keepers we are also making plans to do some restoration of the heavily eroded banks at the site of the old bridge, this has been made worse by the traffic from 4x4’s and ATV’s, Gregsons has placed rocks and gates to restrict this traffic which has helped to excluded them from using the road and crossing the stream. Most importantly this is a source of water quality for the entire fish habitat downstream all the way to the beach and beyond as the fresh water affects the foreshore habitat also.

Concerns are being raised about the continuing trend to place riprap along the foreshore, which has far reaching impacts on foreshore health and habitat. The trend is to see all beach erosion as a bad thing but erosion is a natural process for the foreshore and throwing rip rap around as a panacea results in major disruption of endangered foreshore habitat for all forage fish who use this crucial habitat to spawn in. We lose the foreshore habitat and eventually we lose the Salmon as these forage fish are important food for rearing Salmon fry as they venture out into the Ocean.

Anchoring drift wood logs along the foreshore will control erosion naturally by dissipating the wave energy while allowing for the natural drift of foreshore material along the beach. Some erosion will continue but without the downward scour created by riprap and concrete structures with the resultant loss of beach slope. Imagine going down to the beach one day to lay on the beach to sun bath and finding all the beach rip rapped and no beach slope to lay on, in fact no low tide beach due to its erosion leaving only a narrow strip of large cobble and boulders.

Hope to see some of you out for the cleanup in March, time and date will be in the next issue of the log in March.

Eat more seafood and live a healthier life, my Salish friends have a very good saying ; “When the tide is out the table is set”.

Best Fishes John Dunn

Stream Keepers The Log Artical November 2010

The past month has been a little on the wet side with rain on most days we were out and about. The last few weeks we have been walking the creeks looking for the returning Wild Salmon. This year so far we have seen poor returns of Wild Chum Salmon on all the streams visited from Bloods through to Craig. The returns of Wild Coho have been overall better than previous years and we still have the late runs to show up. These runs of late Wild Coho return well into December. Some speculation is that these late fish are the remnants of the true Wild Coho and seem to be overall a smaller fish. On the 6^th of November we had a class of home school high school students out for some field experience for their biology class. First thing we did was to give a talk on the importance of the riparian zone while they gave a hand to plant some trees. Next we walked downstream to the Bears fishing camp, which gave the opportunity to talk about the importance of nutrient transport from the ocean to the forest by the Bear and all the other animals that benefit from the returning fish. Though the amount of fish being carried into the forest may seem small when compared to the expanse of the forest vital nutrient exchange takes place mainly along the stream banks. When leaves and needles fall into the stream and along the banks these nutrients are slowly released back into the streams over the winter providing nutrients for all kinds of bugs [invertebrates] both in the stream and along the streamside. By the time the young of the spring hatch out of the gravel the streams are teeming with life providing rich feeding grounds. We were hoping that the heaver rains of November would bring more Chums but it seems that the few we have had return may be it for this year. Down at the famous Gold stream the tourists have not seen the amount of Chum that usually returns. From observations locally even the two hatcheries at little and Big Qualicum Rivers have been low this year.

This year the commercial fishery in Johnstone Straits was closed early due to a lack of returning Chum. This does not bode well for 4 years down the line but we never know from year to year how many will return, if ocean conditions are good we may see more show up.

After the unexpected run of sockeye this year there is a lot of speculation as to why such a big run returned this year after so many lean years. Some research attributes the great abundance of food production in the North Pacific due to an increase of terrestrial nutrients from the Kasatochi volcano way off in the Aleutian Islands in 2008. The ensuing iron rich ash cloud deposited in the Ocean resulted in huge algae and plankton blooms providing rich feeding for the Sockeye.

Up on the central coast north of the Island some concern is being expressed for the health of the Grizzly Bear populations not being able to find enough Chums to fatten up on as they go into winter hibernation. This also will hold for our Black Bear locally if they cannot get enough fish to gain that extra fat required for healthy hibernation especially for the pregnant females.

We wish everyone a great holiday season coming up and we will be out walking the streams right through the holidays though I expect we may cancel our Saturday meeting on the 25^th, this will be the only Saturday during the year we will miss.

Happy New Year and do not forget that the winter solstice takes place on the 21^st of December. If anyone has a live tree and want to donate it for streamside planting we would be happy to plant it for you along one of the streams.

Stream Keepers The Log Artical March 2010

Since last month the rains have continued on and off with a big downpour last night

(15th Feb) Down in the estuary yesterday there was no water flowing over the banks but this morning it was just starting to slow down and flow back to the stream from the field as the tide dropped. We were down planting trees again; taking advantage of the nice weather we were all down to our T-shirts wishing we had brought deck chairs. The Red Wing Blackbirds were all chirping away and Ducks coming and going with a big Red Tailed Hawk cruising the estuary looking for lunch. Even though we just wanted to take in all this sun and nature we did manage to plant 38 Spruce Trees bringing the total for this year so far to 106. These trees all varied from 18inches to 4 ft tall. While planting I wandered into a small area we had planted several years ago and found 5 nice Spruce trees, nice and bushy with lots of healthy growth, if all the ones we planted do as good their will be a nice stand of Spruce in a couple of hundred years. In years past we took all kinds of advice ( Foresters, Biologists etc) as to what trees would do well in the estuary and over the past years we have planted hundreds of Fir and Cedar tree plugs with the vast majority falling to the Beaver, Deer, Mice and Voles chewing off the bark. The only ones that were left alone were the Spruce except for one Spruce planted way down in the Nootka Rose which a Buck has used to rub his antlers on, the tree survived and is still doing well. This area gets flooded with tidal waters during high tides and big rain events so salt tolerance may have something to do with how only the Spruce do well. We have a few Cedar trees growing but they have a tough time with the Deer and Beaver who seem to love chewing Cedar trees. We have a family of bank Beavers trying to survive but have to outwit the trapper who seems to make his appearance once the Beaver get too close to the bridge, usually just a small 1 to 2 foot dam to try and impound enough water to last over the summer months and is flushed out by the first big rain event of the fall.

We were up on Bonnel last week checking out the small school of Wild Coho fry that has been hanging out in this one small piece of off channel habitat. After one of the floods the pool now has a sand bottom from the back eddy depositing its load as the flood roared downstream. Hope fully any more over wintering fry will have found good refuge like this and survived the floods. It will be interesting to see how many Wild Chum return next cycle (4 years), we had a good return this fall with Wild Chum spawning all the way up to the power line. Next year they will be able to move as far as the falls due to the big logjam opening up during one of the floods. Usually just Wild Coho went above the Jam to spawn, next fall we will be able to see how many Wild Chum make it up their. Over the coming months we will be losing the only intact watersheds on a tributary of Snaw Naw As (Nanoose) Creek due to logging. This will affect the water quality for all downstream habitat and have a long-term effect on the overall health of Snaw new As Creek.

On the positive side over the past week all governments have decided to change the name of Georgia Strait to the Salish Sea. Many years ago we put the name Snaw Naw As Creek on the signs denoting Wild Salmon habitat on Nanoose Creek. We would like to put all the correct names of the creeks on the signs but are having a hard time finding out what the streams were called before colonization. So if anyone has any names on old maps or if any one can remember what they were called before they were named after the early settlers let us know and we will add them to the present names.