Junction Creek project receives $75,000 from Federal Government
The Junction Creek Stewardship Committee will
receive $75,000 from Environment Canada’s EcoAction 2000 community funding
program.
The grant is for the Upper West Branch
Restoration Project, to help rehabilitate what is known as the Frood branch of
Junction Creek, and for initiatives to increase public awareness and
appreciation of the creek.
The EcoAction 2000 program provides matching
funds to community groups for action-oriented environmental projects.
Contributions of cash, goods and services from local businesses, other levels
of government, institutions and individual volunteers are matched dollar for
dollar by the program. (The time you spend tree planting and pulling
garbage from the creek counts in more ways than one!)
Commitments from a number of other sources were
instrumental in helping the stewardship committee receive this funding.
The City of Greater Sudbury will contribute more than $30,000 in tree planting
through its Land Reclamation Program. INCO Ltd. is giving $40,000, much
of it to support university students in carrying out research on Junction
Creek.
The Nickel District Conservation Authority is
adding $2,500 plus a contribution of more than $10,000 worth of office space,
the use of equipment and supplies, and technical assistance.
Laurentian University and Collège Boréal will also
contribute professional expertise, and Science North, Topper’s Pizza,
Crawford’s Food Basics, Northern Life and Isys Technologies will provide free
goods and services.
One exciting element of the project is the “Bug
Search” program for school children (for more on this, see the story on the
back page). The EcoAction 2000 grant will allow the stewardship committee
to provide equipment for several hundred Grade 8 students to participate in the
program beginning next fall.
Bug Search pilot project takes off
This fall, thanks in part to a grant from Environment
Canada’s EcoAction 2000 program, hundreds of school children will participate
in The Great Junction Creek Bug Search.
Sampling benthic macroinvertebrates
(bottom-dwelling creatures that can be seen with the naked eye) is a simple,
yet effective, method of assess water quality. It is used by people all over
the world to monitor streams, rivers and lakes.
Students from approximately ten classrooms
across the city will go to a section of Junction Creek near their school and
sample the bottom. By identifying the organisms they find, the students
will be able to rate their section of creek in terms of how healthy it
is. Later, there will be opportunities to compare their results with
those of students who sampled other parts of the creek.
Environment Canada’s EcoAction 2000 funding
will allow the Junction Creek Stewardship Committee to purchase enough
equipment for at least 200 students. It also allows the continuing
employment of a coordinator, who will go to each classroom before the field
trips and make a presentation explaining the restoration project and the
importance of water quality monitoring.
Although the data collected by the students is
likely to be interesting and useful, the purpose of the program is not
primarily for the data. More importantly, it will actively involve young
people in the stewardship of Junction
Creek.
Jen Davidson, a Laurentian University graduate
student, has been extremely helpful in getting this program off the
ground. In May, she held a training session for those interested in
learning how to do a benthic survey. We would like to be able to provide
a “mentor” to go along each school class, because although the method is very
simple, it may be intimidating for teachers who have never tried it.
Another training session will be held later
this summer. If you are interested in being a volunteer mentor, or are
simply interested in learning how the sampling is done, contact Carrie at
695-2902, for more information on the next workshop.
Generous donor supports research
Thanks in part to a generous benefactor, two
university students are carrying out research that will provide valuable
information about brook trout habitat in Junction Creek. Dr. Paul Morgan,
a Toronto dentist, has established the Canadian Shield Trout Scholarship, which
will provide $15,000 for trout-related research.
The first two recipients of the scholarship are
Ray Gorzynski and Hassan Waberi, who are each receiving $2,500 to help them
carry out summer research. Their work is also made possible by financial
and other assistance from INCO Ltd., The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources,
the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Ontario Ministry
of Environment. The Cooperative Freshwater Ecology Unit, run jointly by
Laurentian University and the Ministry of Natural Resources, provides
additional support.
The Canadian Shield Trout Scholarship will also
provide $10,000 towards research by a graduate student who has not yet been
selected.
Ray Gorzynski’s research builds on work he
carried out last summer into how various factors affect creek
temperature. Temperature is extremely important to brook trout habitat
because the fish require cool temperatures to survive.
Gorzynski’s research last summer showed brook
trout favoured areas with more shoreline vegetation. However, other
factors besides shade affect creek temperatures. This year, Gorzynski is
hoping to to get a more complete picture of how large paved areas such as
parking lots affect water temperatures.
Hassan Waberi is conducting a study of water
quality in the Frood branch, where INCO recently completed a project to divert
contaminated water away from the creek. At eight sites, Waberi is
gathering data on metal concentrations, pH, conductivity, dissolved oxygen,
water depth, temperature and the presence of bottom-dwelling organisms. He will
compare this summer’s data to a study carried out last year, to find out how
water quality is changing over time.
Both
Gorzynski’s and Waberi’s research will help determine the best areas for brook
trout habitat and may point to ways we can work to improve habitat in the
future.
Home Depot funds Creek Clean-up 2001
Home Depot has provided a $5,600 grant to the Junction
Creek Stewardship Committee, to continue, and hopefully ‘complete,’ the major
clean-up project that was started last year.
An Ontario Works crew will work through
sections of the creek that were missed last year and will return to problem
areas (such as near the Supermall and the New Sudbury Centre). The
project will run for four weeks starting in late June.
In 2000, more than 26,000 pounds of garbage was
removed from Junction Creek and its banks through a similar project.
Another 11,000 pounds of garbage was hauled out by volunteers, on three
clean-up days.
About 10 kilometres of creek have been covered
so far. There is more than 50 kilometres of Junction Creek (and
tributaries) running through Sudbury, but many sections are too deep or
otherwise inaccessible to clean up.
As well, many sections are not expected to
contain much garbage because they are outside and upstream of populated
areas.
Clean-up crews will continue to avoid the
section downstream of Copper Park until creosote found there two years ago is
removed. Creosote is a “probable human carcinogen.” (for more
information, follow this link to Health Canada’s website)
The municipal government and Canadian Pacific Railway are in disagreement as to
who is responsible for removing it. The Canadian Creosote Company, now
out of business, operated a creosote plant from the 1930s until the 1960s, on
land leased from CP. Creosote has now seeped onto land owned by the
municipality.
Committee members hope that once this summer’s
work is finished, most of the garbage will be out, leaving the creek in a state
that can be maintained by volunteers in the future.
It is also hoped that less garbage will end up in the
creek in coming years, as more and more people become aware of, and involved
in, the restoration of Junction Creek.
Trout Release 2001 a success!
Nearly 500 people took part in the 2001 Brook Trout
Release on May 12.
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources
provided 2001 hatchery-raised brook trout, which arrived at Twin Forks in a
refrigerated truck. Many people were asked to take fish to ten other
sites, as far upstream as O’Neill Drive in Garson and as far downstream as
McLean Park near the Taxation Centre. There were reports of some good-bye
kisses being exchanged, and many trout received names before they were
released.
Not surprisingly, young members of the crowd were most
excited about the event. Two particularly enthusiastic boys came back to the
truck for second, third and fourth “helpings,” when most others had gone home.
Meanwhile, a good number of people enjoyed the
barbeque, which helped raise approximately $350. The money will be used
to support stewardship committee initiatives such as the publication of this newsletter.
The stewardship committee spent a lot of time planning the event, and committee
members were pleased to have many offers of help from other people.
Once again this summer, the trout will be
monitored by students from Laurentian University. INCO Ltd. has committed
$15,000 per year for five years towards monitoring of the Brook Trout
Restoration Program. For more on that, see the story at left.
Keep
an Eye Out for Trout...
If you see some trout, go here
to report it