Society Projects Pay Large Dividends
By
Ted Burns
Cowichan Lake Salmonid Enhancement Society
Cowichan Lake Salmonid Enhancement Society habitat improvement projects at Robertson Sidechannel and Jim’s Creek have yielded grand results as evidenced by the ultimate test – returning fish.1048 coho spawners returned to Robertson Sidechannel this fall and early winter and Jim’s Creek received over 250.
Robertson Sidechannel was an excellent coho spawning stream prior to the mid-eighties but gravel bedload had clogged the channel to a depth that prevented the winter – spring water table from reaching the surface. The bed material was so deep that the stream only flash flowed occasionally during very heavy rains when surface runoff from a mountain tributary carried a short spate of water down the channel. By the mid – nineties, very few coho used the channel and most of their eggs and fry were lost to drying. With funding support from Fisheries Renewal BC, TimberWest and the Pacific Salmon Foundation and donations of time and equipment from Wayne and Bill Robertson, Gord Neva and Mike and Braden Tuck, CLSES removed some 40,000 cubic metres of bedload from the channel allowing it to flow strongly all winter and well into the summer. The renewed flow has allowed the coho to come back with gusto and the channel now receives a bonus return of chum salmon, which seldom used it in the past.
Jim’s Creek didn’t even exist prior to 2000; that was the year Jim Humphrey of Beaver Lake resort relocated a perimeter drainage channel that included some high flows from Halfway Creek, through the centre of his property. He noticed some coho and trout spawners in 2001 and 2002 even though the streambed was very marginal spawning habitat at best. This summer, CLSES added several high quality spawning beds to the creek and contoured the channel somewhat. Coho responded to the improvements in a large way. Over the winter, riparian vegetation was planted on the mostly bare stream banks to provide shade and cover, the Pacific Salmon Foundation, Butler Brothers, South Shore Industries and Beaver Lake Resort supported this project. A huge thanks to everyone that contributed to these very successful projects!
Ted Burns
March 3, 2004