Oct. 18, 2023
The original design that I submitted for the Millennium Creek Restoration Project, was one that included the full package for the trout reproducing stream. Which at that time, only provided evidence of the tributaries use as a nursery habitat, already, on the lower 50 metres, which is the only section of the creek that contained brook trout, when electro-fish surveyed, in 2004.
A total of 7 or 5 brook trout were captured in that 2004 survey, but I would have to check the records to confirm, and this writer doesn’t feel the need to do any more work than required, as long as you know it is an estimate, we are all ok here! The main thing to know is that there was only 50 metres of stream open for passage, below an old culvert that was first removed as part of the restoration program.
Andy Degraw, of Cochrane Parks, built a perfect bridge for replacing the culvert, and then a few years later, the town spent money to a contractor, to replace the old bridge with the new one, which looks pretty much the same, except for it isn’t built as well as Andy’s was! No steel cross members to make it strong enough to drive a one ton loaded over, was the reward for Andy, but this over engineered wonder, did the job!
However, when someone has a great plan in the main office of the town, other trivial matters like bridges that already exist, doesn’t matter much, I guess? This is what we get for all the high-priced help that we keep adding on. Inventive ways of recreating work programs and initiatives are always on the table, but protecting a bunch of fish, is like wasting my time - stuff, hey!
In the early stages of the project, concerns from local duck lovers and those that wanted to protect wetlands, did pressure the project for some type of compensation, so I decided to increase the wetland area on the duck pond, north on Griffin Road and Highway 22 interchange. A rock v-weir was constructed on the outflow of an old beaver-dam site, which already provided the existing juvenile trout pool habitat or pond for ducks.
The abundant cover, much of it added as part of the stream restoration, is utilized by juvenile trout, and it exists, immediately below the main spring inflow and spawning channel that I constructed with Inter Pipeline Fund money, in 2010. Prior to the construction proposal that I submitted, I created a mini spawning habitat at the inflow mouth of the spring, by first installing some gravel right out into the pond, where the mount of gravel once existed, but with no swimmable depth for trout to spawn over.
This simple experiment, paid off in the first fall of 2008, when brook trout actual navigated the newly created stream channel on the restored Millennium Creek, and started the first spawning activity on the stream since before we showed up and destroyed most little spring streams like Millennium Creek.
It was such a loss to see small streams die a slow death in this country, and trout streams like Grand Valley Creek were once trout fishing destinations for Calgary residents and those that lived closer, in the town of Cochrane. Now, the brown trout do migrate up Grand Valley Creek, but are stopped at the dam constructed by the Simpson family ranch, to irrigate a field and recover a second harvest of any crop they choose, on their adjacent land. It was our local Fish and Wildlife biologist that helped the family out with the necessary permits to create the dam.
After all, what are the local government boys for anyway, right? Rubber stamping is a full-time job for the right candidate! And if your rich, they line up like children looking for direction!
This is why it is important for local individuals or groups that have the expertise, look after small streams like Millennium Creek, but you must know what you are doing to succeed. A good plan is key, because then you can convince even the most vigilant skeptics, when all the science points in that direction, which you have carefully laid out for review, in a well-done proposal and plan.
The discovery of spawning in the months following the completion day on the Millennium Creek Restoration Project, in the fall of 2008, signaled immediate action on further development of the stream and the most important thing, to keep the stream open for passage. Wild trout, especially in a nursery habitat, need to have free passage upstream and downstream throughout the year.
