Landon’s Creek Written By: Scott Puillandre Middle Grand Chapter Executive
Before
The Middle Grand Chapter of Trout Unlimited Canada (MGTUC) is a group of community volunteers dedicated to improving water quality and fish habitat in the middle portion of southern Ontario’s Grand River watershed.
In 2021, the MGTUC began a rehabilitation program on Landon’s Creek, a groundwater fed tributary of Whiteman’s Creek. Whiteman’s Creek is a regionally important cold-water fishery for both resident rainbow and brown trout, and migratory rainbow trout (steelhead) within the Grand River watershed.
Before
Of all the tributaries of lower Whiteman’s Creek, Landon’s Creek provides the most critical spawning, nursery, and thermal refuge habitat. Landon’s Creek supports self-sustaining brook trout and brown trout populations above a small dam structure, with the addition of migratory rainbow trout (steelhead) below the dam. During heat stress periods, Landon’s Creek provides important thermal refuge for trout in the main stem of Whiteman’s Creek.
The creek flows through an area of intensive agricultural activity in Brant County Ontario. Over 150 years of continuous cultivation, coupled with removal of fencerows in recent decades has resulted in significant soil erosion. This erosion has caused the degradation of natural fluvial and sediment transport processes, making the stream channel much wider and shallower than it should be.
After
MGTUC has been working with private landowners to undertake a rehabilitation program for a stretch of Landon’s Creek. With support from their outstanding membership and community volunteers, the Chapter has held a number of worknight initiatives to clear log jams, human made structures, install digger logs and sediment mats. Investing over 500 volunteer hours, the chapter has been dedicated to narrowing the stream cross section, increasing flow, and cooling the stream. Working on an 800-metre stretch of the creek, volunteers have installed 15 sediment mats, 6 cover structures, 3 digger logs, while removing 4 log jams and 1 temporary bridge structure.
After
The chapter continues to work with landowners upstream while also conducting follow-up maintenance on work already completed
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