"Committed to the recovery of wild Pacific salmon in mid Vancouver
Island watersheds through habitat restoration and community engagement"
"Committed to the restoration of wild Pacific salmon in mid Vancouver
Island watersheds through habitat restoration and community engagement"

General - News

Blue Ecology and Volunteer News

BlueEcology

 

Have you heard of the Blue Ecology Institute Foundation (BEIF)

Founded by Michael Blackstock, retired forester and Independent Indigenous Scholar, BEIF is dedicated to tackling today’s pressing environmental issues by sharing the Blue Ecology philosophy, a holistic water centric approach that interweaves Indigenous wisdom with scientific knowledge.

Intrigued? Below are two upcoming events during Culture Days (Sept 20 – Oct 13) where you can learn more and participate in discussions surrounding a more holistic approach to solving today’s environmental challenges. Please register as spaces are limited.

 

Sept 29, 2024   7:00 pm – 8:30 pm  World and BC Rivers Day
 
Blue Ecology Hope For the Future:  Michael Blackstock will take you on a storytelling journey, beginning with why he has dedicated the last 25 years to encouraging a shift in human attitude towards water and nature.  He will share a new ecological philosophy called Blue Ecology, which is rooted in peer reviewed academic research, but structured to be implemented in practical ways.  He will close off with a message of hope, in the face of overwhelming threats to the environment.

Location:
Berwick Qualicum Beach (Retirement Home * Theater lower level)
120 First Avenue West
Qualicum Beach, BC
 Sept 30, 2024  1:00 – 2:30 pm    Truth and Reconciliation Day 
 
Talking Circle: Sitting in a circle with Michael and others in a serene garden will provide an opportunity to engage in conversation.  Rain or shine, the event will take place outdoors. Please dress accordingly. The talking circle is a time-tested way Indigenous peoples have a respectful conversation, this one on climate change, that includes all voices.  This is especially important in these polarized times.

Location:
Berwick Qualicum Beach (Event is in the Gardens on the main level)
120 First Avenue West
Qualicum Beach, BC
 
Many thanks to organizer Diane Moran, Visual Artist and Community Connector residing in Qualicum Beach. This year’s theme for Culture Days in QB is Tree to Sea. A Pop-Up Art display featuring wooden painted salmon, and other works including photographs taken by residents with a Tree to Sea theme, will be installed at Berwick. Drop by and admire.

 

Volunteers on the Go

MVIHES volunteers have been busy this summer

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Volunteer Dick Dobler and his crew have been rescuing Coho Salmon fry stranded in tiny pools (like the one in the left-hand photo) in Shelly Creek and French Creek. Stewardship groups, including MVIHES, have been rescuing stranded fry for years but now Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has asked us to report on these activities.

 

 

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DFO also requires that we measure the water temperature and dissolved oxygen levels in the pools to make sure the fry actually need to be rescued. We also measure those parameters at the release site (like the one in the right hand photo) to make sure the release site will support the fry. Good idea! And yes, we release the fry in the same creek they were rescued in.

 

 

So far, we have rescued approximately 3500 fry. Dick's crew includes Terry Baum, Rick and Randy Walz, Maggie Estok, Carl Rathburn, Chris Smith and Barb Riordan.


Did you know two of our volunteers are artists with exhibits at the McMillan Art Centre?
Xpey' is a gorgeous art exhibit at the MAC in Parksville celebrating our Wetlands. Several artists have created beautiful works showcasing wetlands using steel, wood, glass, pastels, photography and videography. MVIHES volunteer and professional glass crafter, Chris Smith, created lily pads with coho salmon fry taking cover beneath in a glass medium (bottom left-hand photo). Volunteer and professional photographer, Deb Freeman, created window screens from one of her photos of Hamilton Marsh (bottom right-hand photo). Aren't they beautiful!? The exhibit runs until September 1.

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Running concurrently with the exhibit in another room is ETHOS, a collection of interactive displays and activities by community groups and NGO's which highlight our Oceanside wetlands and the programs to conserve them. MVIHES is hosting a "Pond Critters Tank" that showcase some typical insects and other invertebrates found in local marshes, ponds and wetlands. There was lots of drama in that tank including predation, mating, and cannibalism.

Sue Wilson of Friends of Shelly Creek Park (and volunteer with MVIHES and Arrowsmith Naturalists) is in the photo below overseeing curious visitors to the tank. In the foreground are activities for kids provided by Arrowsmith Naturalists and MVIHES. While the pond critter tank ended on August 9, the ETHOS displays run until August 25.

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Many thanks to Sue and our other volunteers at the Pond Critters Tank: Terry Bajenko, Sally Soanes and Jeannie Diewold of Arrowsmith Naturalists; Janet McManus, Catherine Watson, Larysa Bilous, Chris Smith, Jane Murray-Smith, Shelley Goertzen, Pete Law, Barb Riordan and Ross Peterson of MVIHES.

And many thanks to our Team Leader, Maggie Estok, who set up the display with her son, Ralegh, and kept it filled with lively insects with the help of Meghan MacIsaac of North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre; Jeannie Diewold of Arrowsmith Naturalists; Carl Rathburn, Pete Law, Craig Wightman and Denis Cote of MVIHES.

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Beach Day in Qualicum Beach
We also had a Pond Critters Tank at Beach Day on July 21 where folks learned about the importance of aquatic insects. Thanks to volunteers Kathy Miller, seen in right-hand photo, Liz Campbell and Barb Riordan.

 

 

 

No microplastics here!
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On July 16 we conducted our quarterly marine debris survey at Rathtrevor Beach where we surveyed a 100 m span of beach for macroplastics (plastic debris over 20 mm in size) and microplastics (<20 mm in size). Once again, we found only a handful of macroplastics and no microplastics. Yipee!

 

 

 Many thanks to Jacob Frankel of Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute who trains us and enters our data into the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) database. Thanks also to our volunteers Yana Maltais, Martin Yeo, Liz Campbell, Bob Williams, and Barb Riordan. To learn more about this global initiative, click here.

Learning the Art of Streamkeeping

Streamkeeper3One gorgeous weekend in June, seventeen volunteers gathered at French Creek to learn how to assess fish habitat and stream health through a Streamkeeper Course. The course is available from the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation who provide support and education to groups like MVIHES.

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Led by our awesome instructor Michele Jones of Mimulus Biological Consultants, we spent a few hours each day in a classroom at the Parksville Community Centre on Mills St. Then we put what we learned into practice in French Creek.

 

 

 

 

This included taking measurements of water depths, creek widths, oxygen levels, numbers and lengths of pools and riffles. We even measured the amount of gravel and rocks on the creek bottom (left-hand photo below). We collected insects from the creek bottom using a net (right-hand photo below) and took them back to the classroom to identify.

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Did you know you can assess the health of a stream by the species of insects living on the bottom? We did this in 2019 on the Englishman River and its tributaries. You can read about it here.

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It seems we arrived at French Creek just in time for a hatch of May Flies. Scores of teeny tiny newborn May Fly nymphs (left-hand photo magnified a billion times) were in our samples among other critters like Stone Fly and Caddis Fly nymphs, water mites, and midge and Water Snipe larvae. Some of us older visually challenged folks relied on the experienced eyes of Michele Jones to identify those annoying tiny May Fly nymphs (they did that on purpose!).

 

 

 

Other important features of a creek are the amount of vegetation on the creek banks for stabilizing the banks and the amount of shade provided by trees. Tree roots and logs that hang over or into the water are important for providing cover for young fish from predators as well as shade. We recorded creek measurements and information on field data sheets.

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Before we returned to the classroom on the final day we made sure to rinse off our boots/chestwaders and equipment in a 10 percent bleach solution. This is important for preventing the spread of diseases like didymo, commonly known as rock snot, and whirling disease. Volunteer Gene Gapsis (right-hand photo) took this task most seriously.

 

 

 

 

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We brought our field data sheets back to the classroom and copied the information onto assessment sheets that give a score for the various creek features Overall, the small section of French Creek we assessed has Acceptable fish habitat.

 

 

 

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And then we graduated from Streamkeeper School. Starting at the back, from to left to right, are Glen Stedham, Bob Williams, Chris Alexander, Matthew Stoltz, Ed Wasiak, Paul Sim, Logan Pike, Liz Campbell, Chris Smith, Craig McFadyen, Kathy Miller. In the front from left to right are Mark Hogg, Darlene Norring, Michele Jones, Kelly, Barb Riordan, Gene Gapsis. Missing in action: David Belitsky

Thanks for being such great students and instructor. Thanks also to the Qualicum Beach Streamkeepers who contributed funds to the course and the Parksville Qualicum Fish and Game Association for giving us access to bathroom facilities at the Marion Baker Fish Hatchery.

This course was made possible by a grant from the Pacific Salmon Foundation

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Monitoring for a Coho Killer

You may have already read the news about a toxin found in tires that killed salmon in Brothers Creek in West Vancouver and in Piercy Creek in the Comox Valley. 6PPD is a tire preservative which becomes 6PPD-quinone when it reacts with ozone in the air. This chemical collects in rainwater and is lethal to Coho Salmon at a concentration of 0.8 parts per billion.

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Bridges that cross creeks and rivers often have stormwater drains that empty directly over the waterways. When it rains, stormwater flushes whatever is on the bridge through the drains into the water below, including 6PPD-quinone. There is a term for a die-off of salmon caused by flushing this toxin into waterways: Urban Runoff Mortality Syndrome (URMS).

 

 

BCCF is partnering with stewardship groups on the east coast of Vancouver Island to learn what extent 6PPD-quinone exists within our waterways, focusing on those that are utilized by salmon. MVIHES volunteers have been collecting water samples downstream of bridges in the Parksville area since 2022. Sampling events are based on weather, particularly heavy rain following a 48-hour dry period when contaminants are most likely to be flushed into waterways.

Our first sampling location was the Englishman River downstream of the Orange Bridge. 6PPD-quinone was not detected in any of the samples collected, probably because the river is a large waterbody providing a lot of dilution (unlike Brothers and Piercy Creeks) and traffic across the bridge is much lighter than in West Vancouver.

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Sampling locations (above map) moved to smaller salmonid creeks in 2023 and include: Shelly Creek where the resident Cutthroat Trout hang out in Shelly Creek Park; Shelly Creek downstream of the crossing at Hamilton Rd; and Craig Creek in Craig Bay downstream of Northwest Bay Rd. So far, none of the samples collected from Shelly Creek contained detectable levels of the toxin.

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Volunteer Dick Dobler is shown in the left-hand photo preparing to collect a sample from Craig Creek. One sample from Craig Creek contained a trace amount of 6PPD-quinone (0.003 parts per billion, below lethal concentration of 0.8 parts per billion) while concentrations in the other samples were non-detectable.

The relatively low traffic at these crossings are probably the reason for the non-lethal concentrations of 6PPD-quinone in these small waterway.

We'll continue monitoring our local waterways for 6PPD-quinone and keep you up to date on the results.

Many thanks to our volunteers and Haley Tomlin at BCCF.