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
Present: Bernie Bowker, Lori James-Derry, Wil Shulba, Winona Pugh, Joanne Delage, Pat Carfra, Geoff Goodyear, Audrey Barnes, Mary Haig-Brown
Regrets: Frances Hunter, Sherron MacPherson
1. Adoption of Agenda
2. Adoption of meeting notes for September 7, 2011
3. Announcements:
a) All candidates meeting at the Hall Wednesday 9 November. Municipal government is very important to the work we do. Please attend and vote.
b) Special tree planting at Whitehead Park on 22 October. Each year in June Peninsula Streams spends a day with Grade 3 students in Saanich School District. They use a watershed model to talk about how a watershed functions, and they also talk about the salmon cycle and the importance of trees in that cycle. They finish by giving each student an alder tree to look after over the summer. The students bring the tree back in the fall of their grade 4 year and plant it in a suitable spot. Daniel Sawchyn was the only student from Prospect Lake School to bring his tree back. Daniel, his parents and several members of FTCW went to Whitehead Park to plant the tree as the first tree in our planting scheme for Whitehead Park. The tree is near the bridge and has Daniel’s name attached to it.
c) Conservation Connection held 30 Sept. Winona, Audrey and Mary attended. A very interesting day. Highlights were a walk with Andy McKinnon and a talk by Bob MacDonald of CBC fame. We learned lots, chatted with other volunteers and generally had a good time.
d) Pulling Together Training Event held 15 October at Cedar Hill Golf Course. Winona, Audrey and Mary learned about Saanich’s invasive species policy being developed and much more. It was another informative day with much participation from knowledgeable speakers and plenty of time for Saanich Parks volunteers to ask questions and compare notes.
e) Bank Account has been set up at Coast Capital Credit Union. Sherron to be treasurer. We needed this to look after our funds from the Fido Evergreen grant.
f) UVic Students Restoration Club is having info meetings 17 Nov, 7-9pm (Social Sciences and Math A104) and 12 Jan, 7-9pm (SSM A110) to showcase restoration projects around town giving opportunities for students to volunteer. We agreed to make a presentation in January. Wil will put together a brief power point showing our progress in Whitehead Park. Winona and Lori will get pictures to him. A couple of volunteers will make the presentation.
4. Updates:
a)Tod Creek Flats – Wil will work on a Hydrological Survey between his paying jobs. We need a base line study so we can monitor the effects of changes. He will study the hydrology (surface and ground water entering and leaving the site and its effects on the ditch that is the current site of Tod Creek). Wil and Mary will meet on Thursday to discuss the details.
b) Meadowbrook Reservoir – Ducks Unlimited will be visiting this month. They may hold the conservation portion of the water license. If so we will reapply to PSF for funding for work in August/September.
c) Eastlake – A Planting Party will be held Sunday, November 20 from 1:00-3:00 pm. Joanne has been keeping the area weeded and has removed lots of ivy roots. She said there has been more activity there since we removed the ivy last winter. Unfortunately some young people pruned some cedars and removed small trees near the lake in order to make a bigger sitting area. We hope the plantings will make the area a little less obvious and perhaps discourage this kind of vandalism. Cory Manton is ordering 75 salal and 75 sword ferns in 10 cm pots to be planted in the upper area. We will work on more invasive removal as well as plant on the 20th. Lori will email or phone the people who worked on the last session. Please spread the word and come if you can. Mary will let Cory know the date and make sure the plants are on hand.
d) Whitehead Park – Grant from Fido-Evergreen of $2,000 received. A draft tool wish list has been drawn up. It was suggested we try to get some of these tools from Barkely exchange or other second hand sources. Lori is going to the states soon and will look into getting a root puller only available there. We have removed some blackberries and spread mulch. We have much more to do so feel free to join us on Monday mornings at 9:30. On 25 Oct. we met with Cory Manton and Rob Hughes on site to discuss our work. We will work on the blackberries through the winter and plan to plant in the early spring.
e) Tricia Demacedo of Saanich Environmental Services has prepared an excellent list of Best Management Practices (BMP) for working near streams and in Riparian areas. (see attachment).
f) Prospect Lake School – needs more attention than we can give it. Mary talked to Kelly about this and today two members saw work being done in the garden by staff and students.
5. Heritage Society Report – They have a small grant and will work with “Blurb Self Publishing,” an internet site, to produce a small coffee table book as a fund raiser for a larger book. This will require more interviews and to that end members are learning techniques to encourage story telling.
6. Lake Stewardship Report – Winona and Woody attended a Lake Stewardship training which they found most useful. Winona is building on the data collected over the years by Art Dimock.
7. Walks or paddles – Since we are busy with blackberries and presentations and the work party we decided to wait until the new year before planning any outings.
8. Butchart’s dam and the fish ladder. No progress seems to have been made on this issue. Mary will talk to Erica Blake of DFO who is the person Butcharts talk to on this issue.
9. Next Meeting – 4 January 2012 at Carfras, 181 Goward Road.
