The 2014 loss of spawning was due to the use of the creek as a drainage ditch for the Cochrane Lakes Draw Down Project that occurred that year. The final spawning was documented as being 2018. No spawning since.

The clean water and cover made the stream a perfect habitat for spawning.

Consistant spring ground water that is warm in the winter and cold in the summer, perfect for young trout to start their lives in. Since erosion has started the loss of habitat has led to the death of the Ranch House, for trout.

Video

The Work

The first problems due to a new storm drain are sometimes small to start, but they get worse as time progresses

Just Another Trout Hatch

Evidence of life, and a new generation to carry on.

More Young Trout, Right Next Door

The evidence of life is only a short distance from the town of Cochrane, main office building.

Video

The Early Days

who knows how long wild trout have been spawning and hatching in the Ranch House Spring Creek!

A Year After The First

The first time that I videoed a juvenile trout on Ranch House, following the first spawning that was videoed.

What a 2019 Study Revealed

It was during the 2019 comprehensive fisheries study on the Bighill Creek, that it was documented that juvenile trout do reside in the stream, and this should have given the creek some importance in all town decision making!

Storm Drain Run-off

Discharge into Ranch House Spring Creek

This volume of water alone, is enough to permenantly damage the existing stream banks on Ranch House Creek.

The channel was deep and narrow

Discharge into Ranch House Spring Creek

The stream channel on Ranch House Spring Creek was narrow and just right in width, for a trout stream and spawning habitat.

Map of where the existing storm drain is located and where it should have been!

Video

Check out this video of what is happening over time on the trout stream.

The 2016 Spawning Survey - Ranch House

This was the best spawning results that I documented for the brief time that I knew Ranch House Spring Creek. I was just starting to fall in love with the stream, and then it was slowly taken away from us all.

"Sometimes you don't know what you have loss, until it is gone."

Video of some good before and after.

A look at a normal wild trout spawning tributary .

Too many people discount the importance of feeder springs and their purpose in the ecosystem.

See What a Beautiful Sight Looks like, to an old fly fisher who misses the annual spawning.

Once wild trout spawned in a vital spawning tributary to the Bighill Creek, here in Cochrane, Alberta, but now the spawning run is gone.

See how bad the creek looks today in 2025!

A once narrow channel with easy passage upstream for spawning every fall, the stream is now too shallow to migrrate up, because the normal channel has been eroded and washed downstream.

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