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  • Building a log v-weir
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  • Millennium Creek's Pools
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  • Mitford Trout Pond Deeper
  • Spawning Under Bridge
  • Head Start Planting Tech.
  • Update - BVRR&E Program
  • Canmore Creek Project- 98
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  • More
    • Home
    • Guy Woods Blog
    • Urban Trout Hatchery
    • Spawning
    • West Nose Creek Willows
    • Jumpingpound Creek
    • Bighill Creek
    • The Middle Bow River
    • Willow Habitat Unit
    • Millennium Creek's Trout
    • Planting The Water's Edge
    • Horse Creek Crossing
    • Tree Wrapping For Beavers
    • West Nose Ground Water
    • Big Spring Creek
    • The 2022 Trout Hatch
    • Bighill Creek Vandalism
    • Lateral Margin Habitat
    • Bio-Engineering Habitat
    • Ranch House Spring Creek
    • Examining a Pool Habitat
      • Millennium Creek Project
    • Examining a Pool Habitat
    • Millennium Creek Update
    • Stream Tender Magazine
    • Indigenous Opportunities
    • BVHD Website
    • Stream Tender Magazine 2
    • Creek Maintenance
    • Spawning Channel
    • Building a log v-weir
    • Bighill Creek Movie 2023!
    • Bighill Creek Anthology
    • Caddis Fly Larvae
    • Ghost Bay Re-contouring
    • Millennium Creek's Pools
    • Mill. Crk Spawning 2014
    • Mitford Trout Pond Deeper
    • Spawning Under Bridge
    • Head Start Planting Tech.
    • Update - BVRR&E Program
    • Canmore Creek Project- 98
    • Smith Dorrian Bull Trout
  • Home
  • Guy Woods Blog
  • Urban Trout Hatchery
  • Spawning
  • West Nose Creek Willows
  • Jumpingpound Creek
  • Bighill Creek
  • The Middle Bow River
  • Willow Habitat Unit
  • Millennium Creek's Trout
  • Planting The Water's Edge
  • Horse Creek Crossing
  • Tree Wrapping For Beavers
  • West Nose Ground Water
  • Big Spring Creek
  • The 2022 Trout Hatch
  • Bighill Creek Vandalism
  • Lateral Margin Habitat
  • Bio-Engineering Habitat
  • Ranch House Spring Creek
  • Examining a Pool Habitat
    • Millennium Creek Project
  • Examining a Pool Habitat
  • Millennium Creek Update
  • Stream Tender Magazine
  • Indigenous Opportunities
  • BVHD Website
  • Stream Tender Magazine 2
  • Creek Maintenance
  • Spawning Channel
  • Building a log v-weir
  • Bighill Creek Movie 2023!
  • Bighill Creek Anthology
  • Caddis Fly Larvae
  • Ghost Bay Re-contouring
  • Millennium Creek's Pools
  • Mill. Crk Spawning 2014
  • Mitford Trout Pond Deeper
  • Spawning Under Bridge
  • Head Start Planting Tech.
  • Update - BVRR&E Program
  • Canmore Creek Project- 98
  • Smith Dorrian Bull Trout

West Nose Creek

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Welcome To West Nose Creek

Hello and welcome to West Nose Creek's riparian planting program, titled the "Bow Valley Riparian Recovery and Enhancement Program". Other related information on the resident trout population will also be included. The idea is too educate those that are interested, in the potential of this heavily abused trout stream and efforts directed towards saving it for the future generations!


West Nose Creek flows into the city of Calgary, from the northwest, where ground spring water starts the stream's headwaters. Within the city, there is just over 20 kilometres of stream channel flowing downstream to the mouth on Nose Creek. From where the creek enters the Nose Creek, it is not far downstream to the mouth of Nose Creek on the Bow River. The Nose and West Nose Creeks have primarily brown trout populations, with active successful spawning that occurs on the West Nose Creek.


The years of agriculture along the stream banks of the West Nose Creek has left the stream in terrible condition and in need of some riparian recovery. This is where the native willow and tree planting BVRR&E program has really got this phase of the recovery off to a great head start. Check out the video below.




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Check out this great video

The Bow Valley Riparian Recovery and Enhancement Program

The BVRR&E Program was started in the year 2014 and it is still in operation until I decide to throw in the towel, but so far we have 8 good years and a total of 77,314 native willows and deciduous tree plants that have successfully been planted. Those plantings are now covering over 30 kilometres of stream bank, on the three primary streams in the program. Those streams are Bighill Creek, West Nose Creek and Nose Creek.


West Nose Creek, located in the city of Calgary, Alberta, has received the most attention, with over 43,000 plantings in the city alone. However, it is a perfect showcase site for our planting methodology for volunteers, students and corporate groups. These sites are also open for public inspection, but I haven't revealed exact locations just yet. Once the native willow and tree crop that we planted is far enough along its growth to maturity, the locations will be advertised in this site.


However, in the mean time, I will provide you with plenty of good photography and video of the West Nose Creek and other planting sites in our little piece of country. It is important to know what kind of support and the many partnerships that were formed to get this project rolling along nicely!


Today, on August 25th, 2021, I cut and pasted the contributors of the BVRR&E Program and they are as follows:


  

Partnership Contributions - Over the Years


2014: 


Partners:

Cochrane Foundation – 502 plants

Walmart/Evergreen – 1,273 plants

Inter Pipeline – 977 plants

DFO - RFCPP – 5,221 plants

Town of Cochrane -CCGP – 406 plants

ATCO – 234 plants

Canon/Evergreen – 1,911

Total willows planted – 10,524


2015:


Partner Contributions:

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada ------------------------6,429 plants

Inter Pipeline ----------------------------------------------------------2,230 plants

The City of Calgary ----------------------------------------------------1,249 plants

Shell Canada ---------------------------------------------------------1.200 plants

Walmart/Evergreen --------------------------------------------------- 823 plants

Canon/Evergreen ----------------------------------------------------- 700 plants

The City of Airdrie ----------------------------------------------------- 600 plants

The Cochrane Community Grant Program -------------------------------480 plants

The Cochrane Foundation --------------------------------------------- 470 plants

ATCO Pipelines ------------------------------------------------------- 377 plants

Bow Valley Habitat Development --------------------------------------- 337 plants

Total Native Plants Planted -14,895 plants


2016:


Partners Total Plant Contribution:

Department   of Fisheries and Oceans Canada  - 8,300

Inter   Pipeline  - 2,400 

Shell   Canada - 1,200

City   of Calgary - 1,200

City   of Airdrie - 1,100 

Cochrane   Community Grant Program - 600

Cochrane   Foundation - 900

Evergreen/HSBC - 300 

ATCO - 200

Airdrie   Ventures - 200

Bow   Valley Habitat Development -25   Large Diameter

Total Plants ----- 16,425 


2017:


Contributing Partners

Inter Pipeline ------------------------------------------------- 2,400- Native Plants

Shell Canada ------------------------------------------------- 1,200- Native Plants

City of Calgary ---------------------------------------------- 1,200- Native Plants

City of Airdrie ----------------------------------------------- 1,200 -Native Plants

Cochrane Foundation -------------------------------------- 430-Native Plants

Harmony Developments Inc. ------------------------------- 600- Native Plants

Bow Valley Habitat Development ------------------------- 200-Native Plants

Evergreen/HSBC--------------------------------------------- 740- Native Plants

Cochrane Community Grant Program ------------------- 600- Native Plants

 Total Plants – 9,070


2018:


Plant Contribution:

Inter Pipeline --------------------------------------------------------- 4,800 plants

Shell Canada -------------------------------------------------------- 1,200 plants

City of Airdrie --------------------------------------------------------1,400 plants

City of Calgary -----------------------------------------------------– 1,400 plants

Cochrane Foundation ------------------------------------------------- 600 plants

ATCO ---------------------------------------------------------------- 300 plants

                                                                 Total plants: 9,700


2019:


Partnership Contribution

Inter Pipeline --------------------- 4,800 Native Plants

City of Calgary ------------------- 2,400 Native Plants

Shell Canada ----------------------1,200 Native Plants

City of Airdrie -------------------- 1,200 Native Plants

Cochrane Foundation ------------ 500 Native Plants

Harmony Developments ---------- 500 Native Plants

Bow Valley Habitat Dev.---------- 600 Native Plants

Total Plants – 11,200

2020:

Partnership contribution:

City of Airdrie ------------------------- 1,200 plants

Cochrane Foundation ------------------ 600 plants

Harmony Developments--------------- 600 plants

Bow Valley Habitat Development --- 900 plants

Total plants – 3,300

2021:

Partnership:

Town of Cochrane -------------------- 500 plants

Cochrane Foundation ----------------- 600 plants

Inter Pipeline --------------------------- 600 plants

BVHD ----------------------------------- 400 plants

Total plants – 2,100




That is the Total so far folks!

Planting Along The Water's Edge

The most productive way of creating trout habitat on streams like the three in the BVRR&E Program, is to plant close to the water's edge along the stream banks, where the cover habitats created can provide both terrestrial and submerged aquatic lateral margin habitat. The plantings just over the surface can work as debris catchers for sedge grasses and woody debris. This further enhances the cover habitats and also promotes aquatic invertebrate growth and populations.


To plant along the water's edge is also beneficial to growth, if the plant survives the natural occurring events like floods and rodent damage. This is why saturation planting is the only approach to riparian recovery and our program has proven this beyond a reasonable doubt! This is why it is important to share this information with those that can understand the potential of this type of riparian enhancement and development along a stream that has suffered many years of topsoil loss and is now almost void of native willow and tree cover along the stream banks.



More Nutrient In The Water

The planting along the water's edge means that you are actually planting in the capillary fringe, where the soil or clay is always wet or moist enough to promote plant growth. The water is usually rich in nutrient if it flows thru farm lands like it does on our trout streams in this local area. The result of either livestock or land fertilization is why the water quality is under threat most of the open water season, when the ice cover can't protect the flow from accepting more polluted run-off. Phosphates are usually the culprit in this enrichment, but it does provide our plants with a hydroponic dose of fertilizers and minerals that help keep the plants alive until their own organics can further this soil enrichment!

Find out more

This 80mm brown trout was caught on a tiny trout fly - Just to Prove that the spawning of brown trout on west Nose creek is successful!

My Angling Survey

West Nose Creek Fish On A Fly

In 2016, Bow Valley Habitat Development obtained a fisheries research license to conduct a juvenile trout trapping program on West Nose Creek to determine whether the incubation of brown trout eggs from the 2015 fall spawning period was successful. The best way of doing this was to use a trout trapping technic that I developed in 1997 and it has also been published in technical manuals for fisheries research. The juvenile trout trapping involves the use of plastic bottle traps and it does not harm the trout. No baiting is used, so it is also easily done. However, the license specified a two week period of time in July, when a major flood and high water conditions for days after, made the trapping program a failure to start venture.


In the end, by the time that the water levels had receded enough to trap, I had become busy doing something else and could not complete the program. So I decided to try a little fly fishing in the late summer, to see if I could capture a juvenile trout from the spring hatch of fall of 2015 spawning. After numerous experiences of fishing for juvenile trout in the past, which a fly rod, just to see if the previous year's hatch was successful on a given stream, this technic is very useful.


The best place to find juvenile trout in the early spring, just after they hatch is right in and directly downstream of the spawning beds. My attempt at capturing video of newly hatched trout on Millennium Creek is well known, so I did the same on the West Nose Creek, just downstream of the most abundant grouping of brown trout redds, which happened to be on the Country Hills Golf Course. Sure enough, I did capture video of a newly hatched brown trout fry, in April of 2016. However,  the quality of the video was less than acceptable for my own standards, and I need some more data with a captured trout to prove my point that there was successful spawning.


My decision to conduct an angling survey would save a tremendous amount of time and effort and at the same time, I could record the varieties of course fish that are present in the stream, like suckers, dace and lake chub. In the early part of my two day angling survey I finally did strike pay dirt, and captured a juvenile brown trout that measured 80mm and was still too young to migrate very far from its capture location, which happened to be just downstream of the golf course, and Harvest Hills bridge over the West Nose Creek.




This is a juvenile brown trout - captured just downstream of Harvest Hills bridge

There were lots of lake chub in west nose creek - dace and suckers were also captured and released in the angling survey - the photo below is a Lake c

West Nose creek spawning 2015

This is the first spawning video that I took on West Nose Creek in 2015

West Nose creek spawning 2016

Check out this great video of brown trout spawning in West Nose Creek in 2016 and then check out the video below.

Video of newly hatched West Nose Creek brown trout

Brown trout were confirmed to be successfully spawning in the West Nose Creek in 2016!

The West Nose Creek Trout

The only trout that I have observed spawning is the mature West Nose Creek brown trout, which are resident trout that winter over in the creek. To verify this, I conducted some late season fly fishing surveys to confirm that the brown trout could winter over and also that the spawning was successful. During those late October surveys on West Nose Creek, I have caught and released some rather large mature brown trout, just before ice up.


During late season angling, the upper reaches of the stream in the city of Calgary, is cut off from the lower end of the creek because of some large beaver dams, which preventing migration either upstream or down, during the late fall. The beaver dams were actually key wintering habitats, because I caught and released brown trout in those very dams, during my angling survey work.

Late October West NOse creek Brown trout

West Nose creek before and after

The Year of the Planting - 2016

In 2021 - Same Reach of the Stream

In 2021 - Same Reach of the Stream

This is one of the planting sites on West Nose Creek, in the year of the first planting in the Bow Valley Riparian Recovery and Enhancement Program. No riparian willows or treesI

In 2021 - Same Reach of the Stream

In 2021 - Same Reach of the Stream

In 2021 - Same Reach of the Stream

The willows are just starting to grow above the tall summer grass and sedge. The resident beaver population is constantly grazing on our planted crop, but the willows will win in the end!

MY September Tour

The Bow Valley Riparian Recovery and Enhancement Program 2021

Although it has been a busy September for me, I fortunately had an opportunity to walk about 6 kilometres of the West Nose Creek, on September 18th. It felt really good to inspect some of our plantings from the past years. It is now the eighth year of the BVRR&E program, but the planting on West Nose Creek was completed in 2019, after six good years of  working in the city of Calgary.


The cover habitats and growth that is now available, is incredible to admire and thoughts of what these new plants will look like in the future, the growth continues. The amount of organics that the woody mass will provide for the soil in the riparian zone is all good, and this will boost the microbial life, which is so important to a trout stream's well-being!

Planting along the water's edge

The Thick Cover Provides Great Trout Habitat

The Thick Cover Provides Great Trout Habitat

The Thick Cover Provides Great Trout Habitat

By planting right along the water's edge, we have transformed the stream's habitat for the brown trout that live in  West Nose Creek. The new willow growth is also already constricting the flow, which over time results in deeper runs for trout, fantastic overhead cover and excellent suspended lateral margin habitat for aquatic invertebrates.

Shade Will Keep The Water Colder For Trout

The Thick Cover Provides Great Trout Habitat

The Thick Cover Provides Great Trout Habitat

Riparian cover improves the water quality, and helps keep the water temperature colder, which makes the resident brown trout more comfortable and able to cope with the poor water quality that is presently a problem for the creek! Agricultural activities upstream of the city of Calgary have damaged the stream's overall health, so change is needed!

West Nose Creek BVRR&E Program Willows April 1st, 2022

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