Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Steelhead Society of BC]

Shovelnose Creek Water Monitoring gauge installation - Call for volunteers

This years "cleanup day" will be a bit different than previous years in that we will be looking for people to help install some water monitoring gauges on Shovelnose creek. This is the first step in a habitat project which will see the eventual completion of a spawning channel off Shovelnose creek, one of the most important Squamish Steelhead tributaries.

When: Saturday May 9, 8:30 am

What: We will be installing several water gauges that need to be dug into the ground to the depth of ground water. Basically a 3" diameter pipe vertically installed to a depth of 4-5 feet.

It will be a day of walking and digging. Rain or shine. Wear comfortable work clothes and be prepared to dig. Have proper footwear on as we will be walking up the mountainside up to one km in the bush off road and beaten path. Bring rain gear, gloves and water to drink, and whatever you think you will need to get you through a day of digging a few holes. Note: the work site is off the beaten path. There are no washroom facilities.

We will be supplying all the tools needed such as shovels, picks, pry bars pulaskis, first aid kit, release forms, drinking water, etc. What we are hoping is to organise people into small teams and each group will install 1-3 of these gauges.

Where: Muster will be at 8:30 at the Ashlu Bridge campground. This may change, however the date (Sat, May 9) is firm. We will organize into work teams, and each team will be assigned 1-3 wells to install. We will show what, why and how and also provide proper instruction and direction. After a site safety discussion we'll head up to the site at the Upper Shovelnose creek area, where the well sites will be flagged out. At the end of the day we will debrief and hopefully enjoy a burger and beer at fergie's (to be confirmed)

It's important for us to know how many people will be coming out as we do have to get close to two dozen of these water monitoring wells installed. They will be used to collect water data over the next year or so, and based on that data will allow us to make the next series of decisions regarding the direction of this project. This is the first step in data collection and so is a great opportunity for people to see what is involved and goes on when SSBC undertakes these habitat projects.

Please contact Matt or Gillian if you can help out, using the email address: squamishcleanup@gmail.com.

Thanks for your support and hope to see some of you there.

More information on the project can be found here:

http://www.steelheadsociety.org/sites/default/files/Shovelnose%20Creek%20Side%20Channel%20Project.pdf

[Steelhead Society of BC]

This is unfortunate news. Postponed until further notice. Three of us went up to the site, today, on Wednesday April 29 to dig some test wells and to map them out to get a better understanding of where the ground water lies and of local soil and water conditions etc in preparation of the May 9 volunteer day. You could say we came away disappointed, but really I think now is the time to find poor conditions for the proposed project, rather than down the road after much energy and money have been spent. We didn't find what we were looking for; and we did look and dig several holes. Its clear that what originally was thought to be a dry stream bed that did have wetted areas (indicating near surface groundwater) was in all likelihood something very much different with no near surface groundwater present. This would mean any water diverted through the subject area would soak up the water right away and would require a far greater than anticipated amount of water diversion. That is not what we were looking for. We did find surface water, near the extreme upper end of the proposed site, but at a volume that would be far to little to provide any sort of functioning steelhead or other fish habitat. In fact, in all likelihood any additional water addition to this small flow would probably result in scouring action that would result in the lowering of the existing stream bed and cause this tiny "streamlet" to dry up. In response to these findings, we have made the decision to postpone the volunteer "shovel day at shovel nose event" until we decide on the next course of action. We will keep everyone apprised of developments and would like to thank everyone who has shown an interest and support of this project. Thanks