Meeting Notes
Friends of Tod Creek Watershed meet the first Wednesday of every second month.
You are welcome to join us.
Mission: To protect and enhance the integrity and biodiversity of the Tod Creek Watershed.
To view notes from previous meetings, use the “Meeting Notes” Archive links on the right panel.
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FRIENDS OF TOD CREEK WATERSHED
MEETING NOTES
4 NOVEMBER, 2015
Mission: To protect and enhance the integrity and biodiversity of the Tod Creek Watershed
Present: Pat Carfra, Audrey Barnes, Joanne Delage, Carmel Thomson, Bernie Bowker, Mary Haig-Brown
Regrets: Frances Hunter, Winona Pugh
- Adoption of Agenda
- Adoption of meeting notes of 2 September as amended.
- Treasurer’s report:
Closing balance $ 1437.69
Donation 25.00
Interest .06
Closing balance $ 1462.75
- Announcements:
7th Nov. Saturday: Planting on Tod Creek Flats 10:00-Noon. Meet at West Saan and Wallace Drive. Last planting for FTCW and Pen Streams on the Flats project for this season.
8th Nov. Sunday: PSS planting at Swan Creek Allotment Gardens 10:00 – Noon. Parking on Kent Rd. RSVP Francesca PeninsulaStreams@gmail.com
9th Nov. Monday: Musical Hats fundraiser 7 pm. Glen Lyon Norfolk School hall 1701 Beach Drive
10th Nov. Tuesday Saanich Inlet Round Table 2:00 – 4:30 Mary Winspear Centre Bodine Room. Discussion will include Federal regulations re dumping of raw sewage into Saanich Inlet and the proposed LNG port for shipping US LNG.
12th Nov. Thursday: EDPA Town Hall 7 p.m. Garth Homer Centre, 813 Darwin Ave. Let Council know your thoughts on this issue. www.saanich.ca/edpa for more info. This is an important chance to let Council know your thoughts on this issue.
21st Nov. Saturday: Planting at Whitehead with Evergreen and Saanich. This work party will plant the last area of our project in Whitehead. The area has been cleared of black berry and other invasives and is being spread with cardboard to shade out the Reed Canary Grass topped by mulch. An exciting milestone in our ongoing project. Watch for details which will follow closer to time.
26th Nov. Thursday: Hello watershed steward,
The Capital Regional District Integrated Watersheds Management Program is hosting a workshop for all community groups working on watershed stewardship within the capital region. The workshop will be held on Thursday November 26th, from 7:00pm – 9pm at the Songhees Wellness Centre, 1100 Admirals Rd.
The objective of the workshop is to share information about the progress towards improved watershed health in our region, to discuss initiatives undertaken in recent years and to hear from you about ways that we can collaborate on watershed stewardship. The evening will also feature a presentation by Jody Watson, chair of the Bowker Creek Initiative, about the restoration of Bowker Creek during construction of the new Oak Bay High School.
Please let me know by Tuesday Nov. 10th if a representative from your group would like to participate. If there’s a watershed group that might not be on our contact list, let me know and I’ll make sure they are invited.
Thank you and I look forward to hearing back from you soon.
Regards,
Kitty
Kitty Lloyd
Assistant Harbours and Watersheds Coordinator
Parks & Environmental Services Department
Capital Regional District
625 Fisgard St, Victoria, BC V8W 1R7
T: 250-360-3299 F: 250-360-3047
klloyd@crd.bc.ca
I hope someone from FTCW will be able to attend this gathering.
- Projects:
- Signage: Tod Flats (with PSS) and Whitehead (with Evergreen): Winona, Lori, Carmel. Carmel will produce these signs when Lori and Winona have gathered the information we would like to see on them.
- Tod Flats and Butchart’s report – Mary reported a very successful summer for both these projects. The fish way over Butcharts dam in Gowlland Tod Provincial Park is and exciting stream with a series of rock riffles the fish will easily be able to pass. A big thank you to all involved.
The Tod Flats project included restoring Tod Creek on 3 properties between the Flats and Willis Point Road including removal of silt build up, a reshaping of the banks of the creek and lots of riparian planting. On the flats the project consisted the creation of a low berm parallel to the creek. Two culverts through the berm will allow concentrated flow in the hopes the fish will feel the flow and return to the creek from the flats before they are stranded. A deepening of the channel between the creek proper and the berm has resulted in piles of beautiful soil which will be spread on the flats when it is drier. Saturday’s planting will complete this phase of the project for this season. We will apply for more funding to move farther upstream next season. None of this could happen without our partners, Peninsula Streams Society.
- Eastlake – Joanne reports all is going well there. She noted very little garbage is left lying about. She continues to pick at the ivy on the right of way across the road, but says she does not need help with that.
- Whitehead – We need more cardboard which Joanne will get. We are preparing site for planting on Saturday 21st Nov. with Evergreen. This should be the final big planting session for Whitehead. See note above for details. There will be years of weeding and plant maintenance for this little gem in our midst which will be a pleasure.
- Lake Stewardship – Winona was unable to attend but sent a report on the recent survey of lake growth. I have attached the results of the Plant Survey. The samples are currently at the RBCM drying and waiting for Adolph to look at our identification efforts. It appears we have about 5 main native aquatic plants and no Eurasian milfoil. Rick did give me a memory stick with some excellent AquaticPlant ID information that I can share. We also took some water samples to Laura at CRD and she has sent her analysis of the algae. Lots of the components of blue- green algae but nothing in high density levels right now.
The plant survey is attached to these meeting notes.
We did wonder where the data collected will reside. How will it be accessed?
- Web site and Facebook – Lori. Page for Lake Stewardship? Lori was absent.
- Heritage – Winona also reported. From Heritage we have submitted an article on the Prospect Lake Golf Course and one on the Whitehead restoration to Catherine for the Prospector.
- Maltby Lake – Carmel reported that there is a nice article in the current issue of Focus Magazine about Maltby Lake. She and Woody continue to work on protection for the property.
- Killarney Creek Project – Bernie told about his summer project replacing the dam, spillway, sluice way and fish way on his property. The new structure will function much better than the old and increases the size of the pond and consequent fish habitat. The fish way was designed by the same person who did Butcharts and is lovely tumbling stream of boulders and riffles.
- Frances Hunter sent a beautiful note book she has made using paper made from the Yellow Flag Iris leaves removed from Whitehead Park. The notebook is a pleasure to hold and contemplate. Frances suggests making more to use as a fund raiser. She suggested a note about the damage Yellow Flag Iris can do if left to spread be included. A discussion followed about how best to make and distribute this amazing little piece of art.
- Next meeting: 6th January, 2016
Location: Audrey Barnes, 140 Kiowa Place.
