News
Breaking News - PSF Funds Water Quality Program
We are happy to announce that the Pacific Salmon Foundation has approved $4890 for the 2010 Millard/Piercy Water Monitoring Program. This program will help fund water sampling, aquatic insect surveys, and water quality analysis and dissemination.
This program helps us to understand the status of water quality in our watershed and to identify sources of pollution. It also helps us to evaluate the effectiveness of past protection and public education programs. The results will be used in our public education programs so that real changes can be made that will make our waterways healthy for fish and the ecosystems on which they depend.
Thanks PSF!
Posted by: Lora Tryon on Tuesday January 5, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Breaking News - Microhatchery
The Millard/Piercy microhatchery program is underway again! Every year our volunteers collect adult coho salmon that are ready to spawn (called broodstock), artificially spawn them and raise their eggs at the Ross microhatchery to give them a head start.
This season we have collected eggs from 4 female and 5 male coho salmon. They were fertilized in November and December of 2009, and "eyed up" in January. These fish will hatch to alevins around the end of January, 2010. In total we estimate there are 12,485 eggs incubating.
Photo caption: Volunteers Marvin and
Posted by: Lora Tryon on Tuesday January 5, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Breaking News - Volunteers install new broodstock tank!
Early November, volunteers installed the new coho salmon broodstock tank at the microhatchery. This tank will hold the adult salmon that we catch in Millard Creek for our microhatchery program. This project was made possible with the help of volunteers, DFO, and funding from the Pacific Salmon Foundation.Posted by: Lora Tryon on Saturday November 7, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Breaking News - Millard Side-channel Intake Re-vamp
The Millard side-channel intake was revamped this summer with a new attachment - a coanda screen. This screen functions to capture water and filter out debris such as leaves and twigs. It will help prevent plugging of the intake and ensure reliable flows to important side-channel fish habitat.
In addition, a small wetland was constructed along the floodplain where it had previously been impacted. This area will be planted with native vegetation this fall, and monitored for effectiveness over the next couple of years.
There are many acknowledgments to make for this project. Thank you Leslie for providing permission to access and carry out the works on your property, thanks to Ministry of Environment, and to the generosity of our funders, Pacific Salmon Foundation, British Columbia Transmission Corporation, and the BC Gaming Direct Access Grants.
Of course we could not do it without the help of our volunteers, who carried out the fish salvage, and helped with planting and site restoration.
Posted by: Lora Tryon on Friday September 18, 2009 at 11:16 am
Breaking News - New Semi-permanent Fish Fence
In September, 2009, the Stewards built a new foundation for the smolt fence. This will make it easier to set up and dismantle for the spring smolt counts. It is also designed to allow for high flows to over top the fence without causing undercutting or destruction of the fence components.
Thanks to the hard work of our volunteers to set up the fence, and to
Posted by: Lora Tryon on Friday September 18, 2009 at 11:03 am
Breaking News - BC Hydro Funding
A BC Hydro Community Investment Donation of $2500 was contributed towards events in the Millard-Piercy Watershed. In addition, they have provided us with T-shirts for volunteers to wear while they carry out projects in the system. These funds will go towards expenses associated with:
- The construction of a semi-permanent fish fence for annual coho smolt counts on Millard Creek
- The collection of coho broodstock for our microhatchery
- An invasive Knotweed Awarenesss meeting
Thank-you BC Hydro!
Photo of MPWS Board with BC Hydro cheque (left to right): Pippa Atwood, Marcia Allerdice, Chip Ross, Brian Bloomfield, Stephen Watson (BC Hydro), Sue Minchin, Patti Matthews, Gerry Allerdice, Ronna-Rae Leonard.
Posted by: Lora Tryon on Friday August 14, 2009 at 11:05 am
Breaking News - BCTC Funding for Side-channel Project Approved!
The British Columbia Transmission Corporation has supported side-channel project works for 2009 with a grant of $5000. These funds will go towards expenses associated with the installation of a coanda screen, fishway and wetlands at the top end of the Millard Creek side-channel. For more information on this project, please follow this link.
Thanks BCTC!
Posted by: Lora Tryon on Monday August 10, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Breaking News - Water Pollution Problem in Watershed Solved
On May 27, 2009, when one of our water quality groups set out to do their monthly water quality sampling, they found a water pollution problem in the watershed downstream of a farm. The water was very stinky, there was a surface scum, and the dissolved oxygen was extremely low (2.4ppm). They called the watershed biologist, Lora Tryon, right away with their concerns and gathered water samples for lab analysis. She checked out the site and called DFO, who promptly responded by sending an officer on site to check it out. A dead trout was found, and water analysis confirmed lethal water conditions for fish.
Fortunately this story doesn’t have a bad ending. Apparently, unbeknownst to the farmer or the Stewards, there was a chronic problem with some grass rotting in the silos on the farm. The problem was realized when the farmer happened to do some power washing during a time when our volunteers were checking water quality. Apparently, the power washing accelerated the transport of the leachate from the silos into the creek. The DFO officer visited the farmer, who was cooperative and immediately disconnected drains that led from the silos to the creek. According to the DFO officer, the farmer has promised to take care of the rotting grass in the near future. Had our volunteers not been at the creek when they were, the problem would likely have remained undetected and uncorrected.
The Millard/Piercy Watershed Stewards thank our water quality monitoring volunteers for being the eyes and ears of the watershed, and staying on top of pollution problems such as this one. We also praise DFO for their quick reaction to stop the problem, and the farmer, for being cooperative and reacting immediately to disconnect the silos from the drainage system. Of course we couldn’t detect these problems without our funders, in particular the Pacific Salmon Foundation and BC Gaming.
Posted by: Lora Tryon on Friday May 29, 2009 at 11:23 am
Ongoing Projects - Fish Fences
The Millard and Piercy Fish Fences were raised in the last week of April, and removed in the first week in June. The fences provide us with annual coho smolt migration data for the Millard and Piercy systems. This program is funded in part by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and BC Gaming Direct Access Grants, and is possible from many hours of monitoring by our volunteers. Plans to build a semi-permanent fence on Millard Creek, funded by the Pacific Salmon Foundation, are underway.
This year's smolt count results are as follows (note: "clipped" refers to hatchery smolts identified with a fin clip):
| Millard fence: | |||
| Coho smolts: | |||
| Unclipped | 840 | ||
| Clipped | 49 | ||
| Total: | 889 | ||
| Sculpins: | |||
| coast range | 27 | ||
| prickly | 13 | ||
| not specified | 46 | ||
| Total: | 86 | ||
| Other Fish: | |||
| Cutthroat | 39 | ||
| Rainbow | 3 | ||
| Stickleback | 10 | ||
| Lamprey | 20 | ||
| Average unclipped coho size (mm): | 109 | ||
| Average clipped coho size (mm): | 111 | ||
| Piercy Fence: | |||
| Coho smolts: | |||
| Unclipped | 237 | ||
| Clipped | 6 | ||
| Total: | 243 | ||
| Other Fish: | |||
| Cutthroat | 11 | ||
| Rainbow | 15 | ||
| Stickleback | 7 | ||
| Sculpin | 0 | ||
| Lamprey | 0 | ||
| Average unclipped coho size (mm): | 108 | ||
| Average clipped coho size (mm): | n/a | ||
Posted by: Lora Tryon on Thursday May 21, 2009 at 1:59 pm