Summer 2005 Supervisor's Weekly Report
Hello, My name is Michel Daoust, and I've been hired as the supervisor for the 2005 Hunter Clyde Watershed Project. I have worked as a crew member on the Wheatley river Improvement Group for the last two years and I really enjoy this type of work. I am looking forward to working with Mr Lush and the rest of the group, and I think we will get a lot accomplished.
As our crew member, Ben Horsefield doesn't not start work until next week, I spent this week getting familiarized with the Hunter Clyde watershed and its surroundings, as well as developping a plan for this summer's work.
I started work this week with the supervisor from the Wheatley River Improvement Group. The two groups have decided to work together and share their resources this year. This should make our work more efficient and I think it will be beneficial to both sides. As I worked on the Wheatley River previously, I was able to show him what we had done in the last two years, as well as recomend what miught be done this year. He also has experience in this type of work and I'm sure its going to be helpful having him around. We looked over our two watershed together and discussed our plans for each one.
I started my own work by going over some of the work previous crews had done, on the stream by Rennies Road. I could see where they had put brushmats and I am pleased to say the stream looks better because of them. I walked through a fair bit of the stream adjacent to Route 13 on the way to Brookvale. This is my target area for stream work this summer. There is some clearing to be done as well as places where brush mats are needed. There is also some garbage that we will clean up as we proceed. I belive that this stream will provide us with an unlimited source of work, and as long as we can get permission, we'll plug away at it all summer.
I had been given a couple of names of people who wanted work done on their property. I took some time this week to meet them and figure out what they had in mind. We are fairly flexible as to how we spend our time, so it shouldn't be a problem to help out those who ask.
After this week, I feel like I have a better idea of what I'm up against. I have a good idea of what needs to be done and where we will be working. There is lots of work to be done in the nursery, the streams and around different peoples property. I have identified a few areas where trees will be planted, which is good because believe me, we have a fair few! I'm we will have our hands full this summer with work in the Hunter Clyde Watershed. See you around!
July 4th, 2005
The last two weeks have mostly been spent planting trees. Our watershed group had ordered over a thousand trees through a government funded program called Greening Spaces, which provides trees to groups like ours. Ben and I met with our coordinator, Shawn Hill two weeks ago and went over a few sites that I had identified for planting. He gave us lots of advice as well as helped us tranport a load of trees from the nursery. So far, we have planted out hundreds of pine, spruce, birch, larch, cedar etc throughout the Hunter Clyde Watershed. You may have spotted us working on property adjacent to Route 2 or Bagnalls Rd which were some of our main sites to date.
This kind of work takes a lot of time. Thankfully, our volunteer Danny Misbet had been helping us out very regularly. We hope to get the Wheatley River crew out this week to speed things up even more and hopefully finish the planting by the end of the week. From there, we will move on to work in the streams. I am pleased to say that things are going well, and I feel that we are really getting things accomplished.
July 18th, 2005
Hello again
We have recently finished the tree planting part of our project and moved onto the streamwork. We have planted approximately a thousand trees througout the hunter clyde area at many different sites. This first part of our summer went well. Allthough it was hard work and we were ususally out in the heat, we managed to get a lot done with just the three of us. Unfortunately were werent able to get the young environmentalists or the Wheatley River crew out to help. I strongly suggest that anyone who thinks they might need trees near their watershed contact the supervisor or a member of the group next year. The group will have trees to plant and it makes things easy on the supervisor when there are places to plant all the time.
As I said before, we are in the streams at this point. I walked through a good chunk of the stream adjacent to route 13 with my coordinator, and I plan to show him the stream that crosses the MacLeod Road this week. Streamwork consists mainly of clearing out debris and bulding brush mats where neccessary. For those who dont know, brush mats are basically ples of brush that are staked and tied down with twine at strategic spots in the stream. Their function is to trap silt and eventually form a new bank along the stream.
We have allready started work on the stream near Rte 13. You can contact me or any member of the group if you want work done on your stream. We only work on land where we have premission, so if we havent talked to you, we wont be in your stream.
The summer is going very well and its hard to believe were allready halfway through. Hopefully the second half will go just as well.
August 3rd, 2005
Since my last entry, we have made major advancements in the stream. We have just finished our work near Route 13. We cleared and brushmatted the stream on the property of two landowners who had asked for some work. Our work was done very well and I am confindent that the sections of the stream will be much improved.
We have had the Young Environmentalists in for a few half days who have been a lot of help. It is very slow going with only a crew of two and a volunteer, so with the extra 4 people, we make much more progress.
Our next target area is a section near the MacLeod Road. There is a abandoned beaver damn which has backed up enormous amounts of silt. Our plan is to build big brush mats downsteam from the damn to trap the silt that will be flushed out once we remove the damn. We have the Young Environmentalists in for a bit longer, so hopefully we'll get the bulk of the work done with them.
Our time is becomming limited, but I am pleased with what we have accomplished so far and what we plan to do. Look for my last few posts where I will be recapping the summers work and accomplishments.
August 11, 2005
With this week being Bens last one and my second last, we are starting to wrap things up. We have about a days left of work that we must do in the stream as well as some work on the nursery. Our short time with the Young Environmentalists was very well worth it. We built many brushmats and really got some quality work done. Its unfortunate that they did could not be with us for longer but there are many other groups on the island that need help.
One of our major accomplishments this week was the cleaning up of the fish way at Campbells Pond. The fish ladder was a mess with branches, water plants and other debris. We managed to get most of it out and it looks much better.
Another aspect of our project that I failed to mention earlier, deals with water samples. Once a week, for about 4 weeks now, we take water samples from 3 different places in the Hunter River watershed and take them into the lab to get tested for nitrates. After the next heavy rainfall, we expect to check for faecal bacteria also. These samples will provide some information to where our watershed is standing over the years.
I will enter my last post next week as a summary of the summers work
2005 Field Season Report for the Hunter-Clyde Watershed Group
Michel Daoust, Supervisor
The following is a report on the work that the Hunter Clyde Watershed Group’s summer crew completed in the 2005 field season. The crew consisted of one supervisor, Michel Daoust, for a ten week period and one crew member, Ben Horsefield, for an eight week period. There was also a community volunteer, Danny Nisbet, who helped out on a regular basis. A “Environmental Futures” crew, under the supervision of Otis MacInnis, also worked for a period of one week.
Over the summer the crew accomplished many things in many different areas, including tree planting, stream work and water sampling. The summer was mainly divided into two periods: a 4 week tree-planting period and the remainder of the summer doing stream work. The water sampling was started in mid-July and was done once and occasionally twice a week. Part of the tree nursery, located on property belonging to the Bentleys, was decommissioned this summer. This required a bit of work spread out over the summer.
Tree Planting
The new Greening Spaces program gave us an opportunity to plant out healthy trees at a good age and at a reasonably good time of year. Our plantings were done around small streams in order to enhance the riparian zone. This is a very important aspect of our work, and really improves our watershed. We took full advantage of this opportunity and I’m confident that a very large majority of our trees will do well.
Andrew Lush applied for and received approximately 1,200 trees. Over a period of approximately 4 weeks at the beginning of the summer, we planted out just under 1,000 trees at 9 different sites throughout the Hunter Clyde Watershed and in New Glasgow. We planted many different species of trees including cedar, larch, pine, spruce, birch and elm.
Stream Work
Our summer stream work was carried out at two different sites located on Route 13. The silt deposits were quite bad and there was a lot of debris in the stream. We had to remove several large trees that had fallen into the brook and we put many good quality brush mats in place that will trap silt and form a good bank.
When we walked through one of the properties the first time, we saw that two abandoned beaver damns on the left side of the bridge had backed up tremendous amounts of silt and were blocking the fish from swimming upstream to spawn. We decided to build some solid brush mats below and then remove the two damns. Hopefully removing them will flush out some of the silt which will be caught by the mats below. We also had to remove several large blockages that had slowed down the stream and were blocking fish passage.
Nursery
With the incorporation of the Greening Spaces program, the need for tree nurseries is diminished. We decided to decommission about three quarters of the nursery and keep trees in the remaining quarter in order to have some trees available. We removed the logs from the tree beds and cut down the trees that had grown past the transplanting stage.
Water Sampling
One of the additions to the project this year was water sampling. We took water samples once or twice a week from 3 separate locations (Campbell’s Pond, Bagnall’s Pond, and the Route 13 culvert). They were tested for nitrates. We attempted to get some faecal bacteria samples but there was not enough opportunities to get one. Faecal bacteria samples are taken after a heavy rainfall.
Accomplishments for the 2005 field season
‚ planted approximately one thousand trees throughout the Hunter Clyde Watershed
‚ cleared and extensively brush matted approximately 2 km of stream
‚ removed two abandoned beaver dams that were blocking the flow of the stream and the passage of fish
‚ cleared the fish ladder at Campbells Pond
‚ established a water sampling program
Acknowledgements
Thank you to all the organizations and people that have supported this project. Thank you to Andrew Lush and the rest of the board for all the time and effort they offer the group. Thank you to Danny Nisbet for countless hours of volunteer labour that were an enormous help this summer. Thanks to Shawn Hill for his guidance and advice. This group is a great organization and is very important for our community and our environment and could not function without the help and support of all these people.