Brook Trout Stream Restoration by Habitat Haldimand & Trout Unlimited Canada By Cathy Blott
Ted Knott Chapter President Bill Christmas ‘wands’ the creek to detect tagged fish.
Ruthven Park is proud to support the work led by Habitat Haldimand and the Ted Knott Chapter of Trout Unlimited Canada to restore cold-water habitat and a brook trout population in the Rogers Creek watershed on the west side of the Grand River. The watershed historically included cool water and cold-water reaches that had been degraded to warm water features for many decades. Today, because of the work and dedication of this group, these portions of Rogers Creek watershed are returning to their more unique and valued condition as cold-water reaches. Aquatic habitat that supports cold water species is uncommon in the Lower Grand River, largely due to the predominance of heavy clay soils that bar movement of groundwater to streams (groundwater discharge).
The activities of the work group spanned roughly 10 years to set the stage for brook trout use. Activities started with numerous projects to control sediment deposition into the creek from the surrounding agricultural landscape. Next steps involved narrowing the active flow channel and adding spawning substrate and structuring that substrate to drive streamflow through it to create the specialized spawning areas required by the trout.
Once the habitat was prepared, the scene was set for re- introducing the species beginning in 2015. With assistance from Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, two transplant events brought adult brook trout (2015 & 2016) and ‘fry’ (2015 only) from cold-water stream habitats of tributaries in the middle Grand River to the restored Rogers Creek habitat in the Lower Grand. The adult fish were tagged before release and the group uses radio telemetry to track those individuals.
TUC’s Colin Oaks peeks into a reach of constructed spawning habitat in the hopes of catching a glimpse of a Roger’s Creek brook trout.
As of late 2016, monitoring shows numerous active spawning ‘redds’ (trout nests) in the restored habitat, and thus far, tracking data is finding at least some of the transplanted book trout are remaining in the new area, and are exhibiting ‘site fidelity’ to Rogers Creek watershed.
Next steps for the group are to continue with in-stream habitat development and sediment control measures on the landscape, as well as track the tagged adults, monitor ‘redds’, and over the years sample the creek population for indications of successful brook trout colonization (young- of-year and juveniles).
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