Fish Home Renovations in Waiparous Creek

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.22″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”3.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]Fish Home Renovations in Waiparous Creek By Elliot Lindsay-Project Biologist Trout Unlimited Canada

Barriers to upstream passage for fish species are ubiquitous, from small hanging culverts to large impassable dams. Across Canada, there are hundreds of thousands of structures preventing fish from migrating into formerly accessible habitats and millions more around the world. TUC recently became a partner of the World Fish Migration Day effort, which seeks to reconnect habitats around the globe and celebrate these efforts.

Hanging Culvert on West Tributary to-be Replaced

Here in Canada, TUC has been implementing its very own Reconnecting Canada Campaign, with several successful projects in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario. Along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, habitat fragmentation is one of several threats facing native trout, grayling, whitefish, and char populations, which have declined due to historical and current land use impacts, overharvest, and angling, climate change, and invasive species introductions. Restoring connectivity to upstream habitat can open many hundreds of meters, or multiple kilometers of habitat for fish to access for feeding, spawning, overwintering, or to escape extremes in flow and temperature. Without access to a large network of streams, populations of fish are at greater risk of genetic isolation and local extinctions from “stochastic” (extreme) events like wildfire, landslide, floods, spills, etc. TUC identified two candidate sites for habitat reconnection in the Waiparous Creek watershed, where Westslope Cutthroat Trout and Bull Trout populations are hanging on and need recovery action. The two sites are on small unnamed tributaries, the “west tributary” and “east tributary”. Before fish are ready to move back into their new homes, some renovation work was needed to make sure that there is enough suitable habitat for fish to thrive.

GRS arch structure on Quigley Creek, installed in 2017

The Ghost Watershed Alliance Society (GWAS) and the Calgary ATV Riders Association (CARA) kicked things off in fall 2019 with planting and bioengineering work at a former recreational off-highway vehicle (OHV) ford, with help from TUC staff. In 2020, TUC launched a broader rehab program in partnership with GWAS and CARA, realigning trail segments located too close to the creek, reclaiming the redundant trail segments, and installing a new timber OHV bridge. TUC also conducted electrofishing inventories in both tributaries to document the present fish community and collected fin clips from over 90 Westslope Cutthroat Trout. Fin clips were sent to a lab for genetic analysis to determine if populations in each stream were genetically pure and free of invasive Rainbow Trout genetics, a necessary consideration to ensure pure strain populations would not be put at risk by the reconnection. Results of the genetic analysis showed that populations of Westslope Cutthroat Trout above and below both culverts were genetically similar and showed only trace amounts of Rainbow Trout genetics, likely the result of a historical stocking event somewhere nearby when Alberta was still stocking flowing waters with non-native salmonid species (Rainbow Trout, Brook Trout), a practice no longer conducted in the province’s rivers and streams. Rainbow Trout hybridize readily with Westslope Cutthroat Trout making them a serious threat to the genetic integrity and survival of the species, while Brook Trout can compete with Cutthroat Trout, displacing them from their habitat.

Before Image of Undesignated OHV Crossing on the East Tributary

In 2021, work expanded further to include rehabilitation work along both the west and east tributaries. On the west tributary, a former undesignated OHV ford was decommissioned and reclaimed using the rough and loose soil bioengineering treatment during the field component of a soil bioengineering workshop instructed by Dave Polster and hosted by GWAS and Cows and Fish. Downstream, an engineered design was produced for the reconstruction of a heavily incised and degraded channel section near the new OHV bridge. The work will involve the installation of three beaver-dam analogs and is scheduled for September 2022. On the east tributary, a new timber OHV bridge was installed on a designated OHV watercourse crossing, where the existing bridge was too narrow, while another undesignated ford downstream was decommissioned and reclaimed, again using rough and loose and extensive bioengineering (wattle fencing, live staking, brush layering, etc.).

After Image of Undesignated OHV Crossing of East Tributary

All this work could be seen as renovations, bringing fish homes up to code before they move back in. This leads us to the exciting prospect of opening both small watersheds to unrestricted fish passage for the first time in decades! Engineered designs have been produced to replace both hanging culverts, and TUC plans to replace the west culverts this fall with an open-bottom “geotextile-reinforced soil” (GRS) arch. TUC is also actively fundraising for the east tributary, with the hope that both structures can be replaced this year. Alternatively, the east crossing will be completed in 2023, pending funding.

New OHV Bridge Installed on East Tributary

Work within this watershed would not be possible without support from Fisheries and Oceans Canada (Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk), Alberta Conservation Association, Land Stewardship Centre (Watershed Stewardship Grant), and Alberta Environment and Parks (Native Trout Collaborative, supported by the Canada Nature Fund for Aquatic Species at Risk).[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]