The good flow coming out of the ground springs on Millennium Creek's headwaters helps keep the water cold in the summer and warm in the winter. The water temperature rarely goes sub-critical, meaning that the temperature of the water drops below freezing - 0 Celsius. This makes the habitats in the creek in the preferred temperature range for incubating eggs and for juvenile trout, especially in their early lives.
It is no secret that trout do return to the small spring creeks to winter over as well. This is good reason to protect the stream and its important function in bio-diversity and the watersheds eco-system. Trout streams are life-lines and this term has been used in the past. It is a really good discriptive way of explaining just a part of the importance of our ground water, and the streams that move water into our communities downstream. All this clean ground water is the most important part of our water suppy going into the future as well!
Recently, I pointed out the large number of young trout present in the Millennium Creek, to several people key in the future of the creek, and they were impressed by the large number of new generations of trout that will enter the Bighill Creek and even the Bow River near the mounth of the Bighill Creek. Some trout may stay in the river, and return to spawning in Millennium Creek, so this makes the creek important to our reach of the Bow River as well! It is proven science that small creeks and tributaries in healthy conditon, do provide an important role in the health of the Bow River.
Fisheries management is a complex science, but if you don't protect small to large tributaries, you might as well spend more time on the golf course, because you aren't doing any good for the wild trout populations! Let us face the facts, there just too many fisheries biologists that are either disinterested in their job and more interested in a regular fat paycheck. A large percentage of the rest just don't know! It is unfortunate for us as fly fishers, the wild life that feeds on fish and the trout themselves.
My solution, and it has been so for many years, just do something about it on a grass roots level. I once had to work with fish and wildlife on some projects, but fortunately, I don't have to any more, because all of the riparian planting is permitted and legal, so they don't need to be involved. I have been a long time critic of the way the fisheries in our area has been managed and so my own decision to do something about it has been a tough road, but well worth the effort! Results like the MIllennium Creek Project and the Bow Valley Riparian Recovery and Enhancement Program have been especially rewarding to be involved in!
Measures have been taken to protect the small streams in our neighbourhood, to a certain level, but the quest continues. People are getting a lot more receptive to the notion of look after some of our natural assets, in towns and cities in our area, so change is in the works. I think it was the second year of planting on West Nose Creek, in the city of Calgary, when the parks department told me that the creek was being upgraded in importance, from a Class D to a Class C stream. Which basically affords the creek a cedrtain level of protection. We are learning, but will it be fast enough?
The flows in cubic metres per second, were recorded on Millennium Creek before our restoration work commenced, so we have good baseline on flows in the creek. Since that first recording, the volume of flow has been pretty consistent, which is perfect for both trout and aquatic invertebrates in the Millennium Creek. It is now October 31st, 2021, and this writing is for referrence for future assessment.
