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 – 1 MARCH, 2017
Mission: To protect and enhance the integrity and biodiversity of the Tod Creek Watershed
Present: Lori James Derry, Michael Derry, Bernie Bowker, Winona Pugh, Walter Wright, Carmel Thomson, Brian Koval, Mary Haig-Brown
Regrets: Pat C., Ian Duncan and Anne Allen, Sherron MacPherson, Joanne Delage, Woody Thomson
Guest: Brian Koval, PSS.
Special welcome to new member Walter Wright
Adoption of Agenda
Adoption of Meeting Notes of 4 January, 2017
Treasurer’s report: Closing Balance 4 Jan $805.68
No significant change in balance. Update at next meeting.
Announcements:
– Saanich Council Grants in Aid on Tue. 14 March. We need a volunteer to accompany Francesca. Brian may go.
– South Prospect Lake Broom Bash still on April 22 from 9:45 – 1:00. The date change discussed at the meeting will not happen. We cut the broom on Earth Day along with The Green Team.
– Green Shores Workshop is on March 3. There may be a space or 2 left. Call (250) 721-8463 for more info. This is an excellent course.
– Streamkeepers course March 25-26th. Brian is one of the instructors. An outline of the course is at the end of these notes.
– Calls for another bus tour possibly in the spring. We may do this in spring or fall.
– Great beach restoration in Tod Inlet. Cement pad and soil was removed and a huge barge load of gravel and sand was put in its place. This is beside the floats and nature float. It is expected that this non polluted material will be colonized by clams and other sea life. A visit on Family Day two days later revealed families sitting in the sunshine on the sloping gravel beach watching their children play. Thanks go to SeaChange (Nikki Wright) and Pen Streams.
– Creek monitoring – DO metre is unrepairable. We can borrow one from PSS. We will start our year of monitoring asap. Mary and Winona will lead. Interested volunteers always welcome.
– Working on getting bathymetry of Killarney Lake. CRD not likely to repair the dam any time soon. We may install a controlled siphon to let water out in the low flow season.
Projects:
– Whitehead Park – Saanich brought the plants on Monday in the snow. Too snowy for planting. We will work on planting on Monday at 9:30 as usual. This should be the last major planting for this restoration project.
– Tod Creek Flats – Brian reported that on Friday, March 3 they will be installing smolt traps on the culverts to enable monitoring of the smolts heading off the flats. Non-clipped smolts were released on the Flats on 10 January and clipped smolts were release at various spots in Tod Creek on 15 February. The traps will enable us to monitor weight gain on the flats and the clipping will let us know if fish are going over the berm onto the flats or not. Friday, March 3 at 10:00 behind the Red Barn for installation of traps. Come and see. Traps will be checked daily after that.
– A fish counting camera will be installed on Butchart’s fishway on Thursday, 9 March. This will let us know who is going out to sea and who is coming back. A live stream from this camera is on the wish list. Currently there is no wi-fi access at the site.
Web site: Lori
Signs for park: Lori is working with Andrew Burger to get some small signs showing before and after photos of restoration sites at various spots in the park.
– Interview with Ron de Pol. Ron was one of the original people who worked on the restoration of Tod Creek. We are building on his work and are deeply grateful to him. Lori will interview him and put the result on our web site.
Lake Stewardship: Winona met with Sean Steele, Eva Riccius of Saanich Parks, Adriane Pollard of Sannich Environmental Services. They would like to collate the data that has been collected already and add additional data as it is collected. Saanich will participate. Data on blue/green algae as was seen at Christmas is very important. A further distribution of the book Living By Water was proposed. Adriane is looking into this.
– Maltby: Carmel reports they are working toward strategies for ensuring that the land and lake are protected.
Heritage – Winona reports they are working learning about the new regulations in the Societies Act. One project they have is working on Heritage designation for Dumbleton Lodge.
Next meeting – May 3rd
Location: Haig-Brown/Bowker house.
