Category Archives: Meeting Notes

FRIENDS OF TOD CREEK WATERSHED

AGENDA

20 MARCH, 2013

Mission: To protect and enhance the integrity and biodiversity of the Tod Creek Watershed.

Regrets: Rick and Donna Todd, Lin Callow, Sherron MacPherson, Janet Williams

Present: Bernie Bowker, Woody Thomson, Pat Carfra, Frances Hunter, Winona Pugh, Audrey Barnes, Joanne Delage, Mary Haig-Brown

1. Adoption of Agenda
2. Adoption of Meeting notes of 2 January, 2013 as posted
3. Treasurer’s Report: Joanne Delage – As of 1^st March, 2013 our bank balance was $3,312.89.  Outstanding invoice is $52.64 for two small mattocks.  The TD FEF funds will be used for the Killarney Lake Fan Project.
4. Announcements:

1. Dist of Saanich Public Participation Survey – Sherron sent in our response.
2. DFO Salmon Enhancement Program – Lin sent in our application.  This ensures that we are eligible to apply for funding over the next 3 years when a project arises.
3. PolisProject Water Survey – Mary completed questionnaire to do with decisions around regulation of water.
4. Peninsula Streams Society memberships are due now.  See their web site if you have not renewed or joined.  They help us a great deal and membership numbers help them in reporting to grantors.  PSS is holding a dinner and silent auction at Seahorses Café in Brentwood on 11^th April.  Tickets are going fast for this fun event.
5. Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary Native Plant Sale April 20^th and 21^st from 9:00 – 3:00. 841 Ralph Street.  This is a great place to get native plants for your garden and wild places. Plant lists are available. Pre-orders over $300 are available, prepaid, by calling 250.727.0653.
6. Saanich Environmental Awards nominations are being accepted until April 19^th. See Saanich web site for details.  There are 7 categories and all nominations are most welcome.
7. Restoration Walks in Victoria is a publication by Val Schaffer of UVic Restoration of Natural Systems.  It may be viewed at http://www.urbanecology.ca/documents/Books/RestorationWalks.pdf
8. Bio-engineering Workshop with Dave Polster – Mary attended this and learned lots about how to stabilize a disturbed site, e.g. an eroding stream bank using live staking.  The text book will be available in our library.  Check our web site for other titles.
9. Web site: Check this as Lori and Winona are posting new stuff including Meeting Notes and a timeline with pictures of our work in Whitehead Park.
10. Development on Meadowbrook Road may involve in stream work.  This is a concern as it involves cutthroat spawning area.  We are monitoring it.

1. Projects:

1. B.C Lake Stewardship course – Winona reports we are on their list for a course at Prospect Lake.  They offer two courses per year, one in the interior and one on the coast.  We will announce when we are chosen.
2. Whitehead Park – started on last third of east side with black berry removal in progress.  Students from St Michaels will come in May to help us.  We are eagerly watching our plantings of last spring and fall starting to bud up.  Stop by and check it out.  Lori is keeping track of the volunteer hours we put in.  We use this data as leverage in grant applications.
3. Killarney Creek Fan – we will use TD money to remove Yellow Flag Iris and other invasives from this site as they can reinvade Whitehead Park if not removed.   Note: fan refers to the area where a stream enters a fresh water body.  An estuary is where a stream enters a saltwater body.  Work will be done in the Fisheries Window.
4. Water quality monitoring (DO) – continues at several sites along Tod Creek in order to determine suitability for Coho.  Next date will be Saturday, 23^rd March at 11:00 starting at Prospect Lake and Lohr Road.  Come out and join us if you like.
5. PL weir – If we can bring more water into the system then the weir controllers will let enough water downstream to permit coho smolts to migrate.  Meadowbrook Reservoir could be the source of this flow and is being tracked for flow volume.  Restoration of riparian vegetation below the weir is needed.
6. Maltby Lake – Woody reports that he and TLC Pres Alistair Craighead and Board member Fran Pugh met with Bruce Hacking of Saanich Planning to try to resolve the issue of limited access to this pristine lake.  There may be a need for letters of support for the idea of preserving the purity of the water by limiting the number of access points when the property is subdivided.  35% of the land will go to TLC.  In the meantime TLC holds a 35% share of the entire property meaning they are responsible for that amount of property tax and maintenance of buildings and property.

1. Heritage Society Report – Winona reports they are working on a Heritage tour of the Observatory on Saturday 25^th May at 2:00.  More details to follow.  Congratulations are due to the Heritage Society as they have received Honourable Mention from the Hallmark Heritage Society for their book, Prospect Lake Reflections.  See the attached letter.  Saanich Pioneers Heritage Society has asked for help with their school tours.
2. Next Meeting: Wednesday, May 1^st at 7:30

Location: Haig-Brown/Bowker house, 237 Meadowbrook Road.

FRIENDS OF TOD CREEK WATERSHED

MEETING NOTES

2 JANUARY, 2013

Mission: To protect and enhance the integrity and biodiversity of the Tod Creek Watershed.

Present: Woody Thomson, Frances Hunter, Lori James-Derry, Lin Callow, Bernie Bowker, Pat Carfra, Sherron MacPherson, Winona Pugh, Audrey Barnes, Mary Haig-Brown

Regrets: Joanne Delage, Rick and Donna Todd

1. Adoption to Agenda with addition of 5d. BC Lake Stewardship Soc. and 5e. HAT monitoring of Hunter covenenanted land.
2.  Adoption of 7th November Meeting Notes
3. Treasurer’s Report: Current balance $3,342.59.  Invoice from Saanich for plants still outstanding.
4. Announcements:
   1. a.     Dist of Saanich Public Participation questionnaire.  Sherron will draft FTCW response to this.  Overall we are pleased with Saanich’s accessibility.
   2. DFO Salmon Enhancement Program granting process.  We may be interested in applying for funding to continue water quality monitoring.  Lin will study the application and advise us.
   3. Montessori Children’s Spring Fair May 25th.  Fund raiser for the school and to increase awareness of their focus on special needs children.  They have a strong environmental theme.  There is interest in having a display at this event and also learning more about the school.
   4. Peninsula Streams Society AGM.  Saturday, February 16th 1-3 pm at a venue to be announced.  Peninsula Streams supports us in much of our work.  Memberships are due at the AGM and cost $5.00.  Mary will collect memberships at our next meeting.

1. Projects:
   1. Whitehead Park – Planting and mulch spreading continue.  Deer fence enclosures on east side are well planted.  Stream is flowing mostly within its new course.  We are waiting for spring.   West side planted and flooded.  Coco mat with plastic webbing will be lifted in the spring.  Need to pull sprouting blackberry, Golden Willow and Yellow Flag Iris as they show.  Work parties will start again on Monday, January 7th at 9:30.

1. Tod Creek Dissolved Oxygen monitoring is continuing throughout the winter.  DO levels at some sites are slow to rise.  Margaret Wright of DFO will be down on Wednesday, 23rd January to gather samples to be tested for biological oxygen demand.  We are meeting her at the Red Barn at 10:00.  Lin suggests low DO may also be due to chemical oxygen demand.   The purpose of the work is to demonstrate that Tod Creek above Butchart’s dam is fish friendly and that a fish ladder needs to be built to allow passage around the dam.

1. Weir visit and water sources.  Mary, Ian Bruce of PSS and Fred Haynes met at the weir before Christmas to discuss the repairs and to talk about restoration of Tod Creek between the weir and Prospect Lake Road.  Ian and Fred will meet on 11th January to discuss this further.

BC Lake Stewardship Society runs a very informative 2 day workshop to train lake stewards.  We would be interested in helping with a workshop based at Prospect Lake if we had a partner.  Winona will see if Saanich is interested.

1. HAT assessment of Hunter Covenanted Land.  There is a die off of Grand Fir on the low lying area of Hunter’s property.  Two Royal Roads students under the direction of Richard Hebda did a study of this die off including a discussion of the lake shore soil conditions.  There seems to be more water in this low lying area that there was formerly.  There is also an underground growth which may be contributing to the problem for the trees.  The study has interesting findings.  Frances will see if we can put a copy of this report on our web site.

1. Maltby Lake:  Woody reports that 40 years ago a road was built through a low lying area near the lake’s outlet.  This road is no longer used and beaver have blocked the old culverts.  Consequently the lake level is rising slightly.  Woody is watching the changes with interest.
2. TLC owns 35% of the Maltby property and is consequently responsible for 35% of the property tax.  Until the subdivision goes through TLC is unable to realize any income from the property which is a hardship for them.  Woody may need letters of support for the subdivision to precede without the multi lake accesses which Saanich is asking for.

1. Heritage Society:

• There are only 10 copies of Prospect Lake Reflections left.
• Saanich is producing a brochure of the walking tour the Society worked out.  This brochure will be similar to the Gordon Head and Craigflower ones Saanich already has.
• Heritage Society participated in the School Community Day for grades 2 & 3 organized by school librarian Pat Miller and Sherron MacPherson.  Several members hosted stations demonstrating early days in this community.  A further event for older students based on the walking tour is being planned.
• Heritage Week is in February and an event will be planned.

1. Next meeting: 6 March, 2013 at 7:30pm. Location: Pat Carfra, 181 Goward Road

FRIENDS OF TOD CREEK WATERSHED
MEETING NOTES
7TH NOVEMBER, 2012

Mission: To protect and enhance the integrity and biodiversity of the Tod Creek
Watershed

Present: Winona Pugh, Audrey Barnes, Rick and Donna Todd, Bernie Bowker,
Mary Haig-Brown
Regrets: Pat Carfra, Joanne Delage, Frances Hunter

1. Adoption of Agenda
2. Adoption of 12th September meeting notes
3. Announcements:
a. TD Grant has come. $2125 was applied for to help with removal of the
Yellow Flag Iris. Since this particular stage has been done the money will
go to the replanting of the site and the ongoing restoration.
b. Presentation to Pulling Together Training Session Saturday, 17th Nov. We
have been asked to make a presentation to other stewardship groups
about Yellow Flag Iris. We will use photo boards and talk for a low tech
presentation.
c. BC Lake Stewardship letter and developments – Winona wrote on our
behalf to protest the MoE removal of $75,000 grant to the BC Lake
Stewardship Society last spring. With help from our MLA the protest
was highlighted and the grant has been restored. This may now make
possible a Lake Stewardship Course at Prospect Lake. Winona will keep
working on this.
d. Ads on our web site? Would we like to be paid a yearly renewable fee
for text based ads? We decided against this.
e. Conservation Connection – Lori, Audrey and Winona attended and
found the event very informative. Planned giving presentation said that
giving investments is more useful to groups that cashing the investment
in and handing over the money. That way the Capital Gains Tax is not
deducted from the gift. As always the nature walk with Andy McKinnon
was full of interesting information.
f. Turtle paddle with Christian Engelstoft 3rd October 2012. This is his
follow up email:
It was most enjoyable, and I am willing to repeat it sometime next spring when we might
actually see a turtle.
It is very difficult to find turtle nests, the best way is to see them lay eggs, So it might be
better to ask G Maclean if he has seen any turtles and encourage him to look out for turtles
next June and July. Looking for emerging nest means to look for small square hole in the
dirt about 4-5 cm wide, a rather specialized hobby.
I also thought that it might be an idea to contact the golf club, they might have reports of
turtles on land or in their pond
I can assist by 1) identifying pictures, 2) go to the site.
If there is a Prospect Lake neighbourhood society I would be happy to attend a meeting and
give a talk about turtles.
I am also open to discuss any idea you think would help the turtles.
We will definitely plan another paddle with Christian in the spring.
Watch for notification and invite any interested friends. The more
people watching out for Western Painted Turtles the more we will learn
about their habits.
4. Finances – Joanne Delage has prepared a spread sheet to keep track of our
expenses against the various grants received. A printout of this was
circulated to much appreciation. Many thanks for that and her continued
work keeping track. Our current bank balance is $3,342.59.
5. Projects:
a. Tod Creek as Salmon Habitat: Monitoring of conditions along creek
continues weekly. Dissolved Oxygen is still low in spite of rising water
levels. Mary, Winona and Audrey are continuing with the work begun
by Lin Callow to take water level readings and measure water
temperature and dissolved oxygen at four stations in Tod Creek
Watershed, namely Lohr Road, Farmington Road, Durrance Lake and
Durrance Road.
b. Meadowbrook Reservoir: Visit to dam with Ian Bruce and new owners.
Repairs to dam will proceed slowly. The new owners are very interested
and work at clearing the dam and readying it for repair work as their
time allows.
c. Whitehead Park: Prospect Lake Students planted alders given to them in
the spring by Peninsula Streams. This year we had about 15 trees
returned.
Tree Appreciation Day planting event took place on Sunday, Nov. 5th.
This event is sponsored annually by Saanich Parks and this year
Whitehead Park was one of the sites chosen. Saanich Parks brought 200
trees and shrubs and some goodies. A small group of us aided by
volunteers and Saanich Parks staff, Don Illingworth and Mike, planted as
much as we could. The reminder is in the enclosure on the east side of
the creek and we will plant them as time allows. We have asked Saanich
to bill us for some of the plant material to be paid by grant money.
Lori is making an album of the plants we have put in the park as well as
design drawings of work done. This will be a wonderful record of what
works well in this stream side restoration.
Final reports and letters of thanks are now due to Fido Evergreen and
Saanich Matching Grant. Winona to do Fido, Mary to do Saanich.
6. Heritage Society: The book Prospect Lake Reflections has proven a huge
success. 150 copies have been presold. More copies will be available for
purchase via the web site. Prospect Lake School is using the book in their
classroom as part of knowledge of the community. Members of the
Heritage Society will work with the class on this project. A presentation
was made to the Arts, Culture and Heritage Advisory Committee of Saanich
and the Public Library has bought four copies.
7. Next Meeting: 2 January, 2013 at 7:30 pm.

Location: Audrey Barnes: 140 Kiowa Place