Current Activities

Next meeting is scheduled for the Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 7:00 pm SHARP at the Brackendale Art Gallery. These meetings are open to the public.
 

Tiampo Spawning Channel, located past the Coast Aggregate quarry on 
the east end of Mamquam Dike road, has a history of drying up by late 
summer so this 2m deep pond was dug beside the channel in order that 
fry will have a viable home, regardless of summer heat.  The muddy 
pond water will be allowed to settle over the weekend before a 
connection is made. 

  Hemlock Planting: On February 18 Jonn Matsen planted up 9 hemlock boughs in the Mamquam Blind Channel by the Yacht Club to provide a medium on which the migratory herring can spawn. Once a year the herring return to upper Howe Sound in a huge ball mass of several thousand but have limited substrate to spawn upon. Jonn and the Streamkeepers will be keeping a close watch to see if any fish are utilizing this traditional First Nations artificial structure.

March 5, 2006 Herring egg hatch update:

First-The east side of the training dyke had light spawning from near the south end of the dyke and extending 300 meters north.  Eggs extended in a band about 2 meters wide on a variety of substrate from the top of bladderwrack kelp down to stone and even sand at the lower levels
Second-east from the training dyke is the Squamish Terminals dock and from the west dock extending north about 50 meters into the Central Basin was another light band of eggs about 1 and 1/2 meters wide and mainly on bladderwrack kelp. This spawning likely took place at a lower tide as the eggs stopped 2 feet short of the top of the kelp.
Third-the east dock of Squamish Terminals, where the chinook net pens are, had thicker bladderwrack kelp and a heavier spawn. The eggs were thickest closest to the dock and was even on some of the pilings. The eggs ran north towards Cattermole Slough in a 3 meter band for over 100 meters and stopped even though there was more kelp.
Fourth-The south end of the Nexus lands had a small but heavy patch of eggs about 2 meters wide and 10 meters long.
    That this egg bunch was in the lee of the railway car loading dock shows that the key to all four spawning areas was shelter from southerly winds. Substrate was secondary. The herring spawned heaviest in thick, sheltered kelp, but continued to spawn on other materials if the kelp ran out. When the lee ran out the spawning stopped
    The last time I checked these areas for herring spawn was about 4 years ago and the only place I found eggs was the North West Terminal area. This would indicate that the number of eggs has increased at least three fold if not more over the last four years.
    The next goal should be to see about moving a few of the hemlocks into the North East Squamish Terminals area in case there is a subsequent spawning. This spawn likely took place last Thursday, Feb 23 as that had the best tide. The next similar tide would be Wednesday or Thursday, March 8 and 9th though it might be difficult to move the hemlocks before then.                                    Jonn Matsen, Squamish Streamkeepers
 

above: close up of herring roe on bladderwrack

below: bladderwrack exposed at low tide at base of Spit.

Streamkeepers Training

As a volunteer you can share the responsibility for protecting aquatic habitats in your community. Large or small, your stream is important. However, there may be little recorded information about your stream. Help develop a stream profile and put your stream on the map. The information you collect will help assess stream and watershed health and detect changes over time.

For more information about the Streamkeepers Training Program, click below to reach the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation website:

click here to link to the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation 

With a 'kick start' at the annual Rivers Day event, the Squamish Streamkeepers began setting their roots in the fall of 2000. The Squamish Streamkeepers are made up of a wide variety of local volunteers from the community who are interested in taking an active role in the preservation and protection of the Squamish River Watershed. Starting out with only a handful of volunteers from the September Rivers Day event, the group has now grown to include a membership list of over 25 volunteers.

The initial Squamish StreamKeepers meeting, held October 10th, 2000, allowed the local community members to find out about the Streamkeepers program and to address local concerns. Both the District of Squamish Environmental Coordinator and the Federal Fisheries and Oceans Community Advisor were on hand to help address technical questions. From that first meeting, a clean up of Wilson Slough and a spawner survey of Little Stawamus Creek was scheduled. As well, a date for the second Streamkeepers meeting was set (December 5th). The group was also invited to Tenderfoot Hatchery to participate in their Coho and Chum salmon egg takes.

The Squamish Streamkeepers have held numerous meetings since October 2000. Since then, the group has decided to undertake a Streamkeepers field activity every third Sunday of each month. The Squamish Streamkeepers have also been called upon to address immediate habitat problems, such as clearing a potential debris jam on Dryden Creek.

The focus of the group at this time is to hold 4-6 meetings a year, addressing local issues and prioritizing activities. Key activities planned over the next year include walking all of the streams within the Squamish region, scheduling spawner surveys on each of these streams during appropriate seasons and working with the District to install signage (including stream name) on each of these streams.