Remembering Key Contributors

A Time for Somber Reflection

Every once in a while all of us come to the realization that life is something we must treasure and we should make the best of the time we have left on this world of ours.

Recently, we and our Chapter’s partner and friends have suffered the loss of some key contributors to the health of our planet. They will be sorely missed, but we must release them from their burdens of this worldly life and thank them for their wisdom and guidance.

Within a few days of each other, we lost not only the creator of Conservation Halton, Allan Day, but also a key manager in their Watershed Engineering Services group, Ray Gunther. Both have played key roles in making this organization so highly recognized for its dedication and competence. They will be missed.

We also saw another giant from our wonderful working partner, Habitat Haldimand’s Roy Schofield after a long battle with Leukemia. My nine – plus years with Roy on the Taquanyah Committee and a close association with both he and his entire group have made our work in Haldimand County an absolute joy.

Roy was a self-made success in business and when retired he brought those organizational and leadership skills to bear with outstanding results. We will be forever grateful for his support and guidance and we move forward with greater determination than ever to honour that memory. Rest in piece, dear friend. You have set an example for all of us to follow.

The wonderful thing about working to protect and restore our environment is that you associate with the very finest people in this world. We are all blessed.

Let us take joy in what we do, knowing that we will eventually be leaving this world a little better than it would have been without our dedication.

Bill Christmas
President, Ted Knott Chapter
Trout Unlimited Canada

March 27, 2014

Fascines Workday Postponed

Safety First

As is often necessary, I did a safety survey of the site of our planned "fascines" workday. It was an easy decision to postpone the project. Snow has drifted onto the rail trail access, making the mile long walk impractical. Even if we get heavy rain tomorrow, the slush will be 3" deep. The biggest reservation however is the icy condition of the downhill access to the stream & spring. It is too dangerous, even with the safety ropes we use. (see pics)

There is no sense having someone get hurt. Our top priority is to work safely at all times. It won't hurt to defer for at least a week, perhaps two.

I will keep you posted. Thanks for offering to help.

Habitat Haldimand & Trout Unlimited

Teamwork...at work!

Trout Unlimited Ted Knott Chapter would like to acknowledge the Habitat Haldimand organization for their continuing help.

 

Read the featured article in this publication of "GRANDActions - The Grand River watershed newsletter" a good example of this Teamwork...at work!

GRANDActions July/August 2013 Publication

Live Staking and Fascines

Mother Nature Calls the Shots

It looks like the end of the deep freeze and we must now swing into action for the 2014 season, especially on the Mill Creek spawning channel project.

As you may recall, we had a start last year on aerating the big blue spring and creating a brook trout spawning channel in its outflow.

We had excellent advice from Geomorphologist Paul Villard about narrowing the flows with both strung Christmas trees, live staking and brush bundle fascines.

Our stream rehab manual illustrates just how fascines, with live staking can make a big difference in quickly creating ideal conditions.

Click to view from the Stream Rehabilitation Manual...
Pages 98 to 100 - Live Staking
Pages 101 to 105 - Fascines

The trick, as you may read in the pages, is that both fascines and live stakes are best done with dormant plant growth.  This means we need to gather our willow and dogwood shoots before they start to foliate. We need about 30 to 40 fascines and an equal number of live willow stakes for securing them to the stream bank.

Guess what? This means we need to gather a team of “brush cutters” with loppers to prepare and stack up these items (they are best used after 10 days of cutting).

Fortunately, Mother Nature has made it easy. She has given us a huge supply of he materials right beside the creek, so everything is on hand…except the manpower.

That’s where YOU come in.

Looking for Volunteers

We don’t need a big team: perhaps six people for about three hours should complete this phase of our opening project.  The placement of the fascines has been provided via a video of Paul last fall, so it should be a simple job. We have the 2” x 2” stakes to create the cradles you see on page 102. This eliminates the need to disturb the existing stream banks.

Let us know if you can be available, either on the weekend of Mar 15, or 22nd OR if you prefer to work on a weekday during this same time frame. We are ready to organize for either scenario.  You can contact me via email at billxmas@shaw.ca.

**UPDATE:  Weekend of March 15 is a NO GO due to the weather.

This important project will enable us to apply for brook trout stocking at this site.

Bill Xmas…. just thawing out.
billxmas@shaw.ca