NORTH SHORE STREAMKEEPERS SOCIETY – 2016 JAN 18 MINUTES

Present (18) Barbara Frisken, Chair, Jan Lander, Angela Negenman, Graham Knell, Glen Parker, Dolores Parker, Rhiannon Coppin, Lyle Vallie, Doug Hayman, Bob Gelling, Lorne Poersch, Karen Munro, Ron den Daas, Sandie Hollick-Kenyon, Tacha Hyde, Willie Davidson, Janet Dysart, Janet Wilson

Regret: Sharee Dubowits, Zo Ann Morten, Brian Comey, Paul Berlinguette

ACTION ITEMS

• Update Creek pamphlets
• Watch for stakeholder ISMP meetings in March
• Submit a list of items for purchasing and projects supported in 2016 to Karen for budget

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Wednesday, Jan 20, 2016 Networking with Environmental Stewardship Groups in the Lower Mainland and presentation “Re-Wilding” by author JB MacKinnon at Capilano University, starting 4 pm.
• Thursday, Jan 28 6-9pm. Delbrook Lands. You need to register soon though. Here is the DNV notice:https://www.dnv.org/notices/delbrook-lands-are-being-surveyed-our-upcoming-community-dialogue
• Sunday, Jan 31, 2016, 9:30 am– 12:30 pm WWD event at MacKay Conservation Pond
• Saturday, Feb 6, 2016, 1:30 pm – 4 pm Climate Change Forum/Workshop at Lynn Valley Public Library meeting room
• Wednesday, Mar 16, 2016 7:30 pm – next NSSK meeting
• Saturday, Mar 19, 2016, 10:00 am – noon at Hastings Creek, Hunter Park, Friends of Hunter Park & Lynn Valley Community Association Weed Pull & Plant

MUNICIPAL REPORTS

City of North Vancouver (Angela Negenman)

• Integrated Stormwater Management Plan – Thank you for your input and support of the ISMP process to date. As we move forward in creating the plan, we are focusing the next workshop on potential projects. There will be a joint City and District staff work workshop in February and the next stakeholder workshop will be scheduled in March.
• Lynn Creek Estuary Restoration – The City and District of North Vancouver and Port Metro Vancouver are in discussions with BCIT and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations regarding proposed estuary restoration works in Lynn Estuary, south of the rail bridge. As details become available, we will provide updates.

North Vancouver District, Trail and Habitat Coordinator (Graham Knell)

• The BP Trail reroute out of Canyon Creek is now complete – it has taken over 5 years and many groups have been involved – Mountain Madness, KneeKnackers, Scouts, Army Cadets, and the Fraser Academy, to mention just some of the groups. The trail in this area is now environmentally sound.
• Mosquito Creek – People are once again pushing to have a bridge built across Thain Creek, to open up the east bank goat trail below William Griffin Pool. There is a perfectly safe and well maintained trail on the west side. The City has always maintained that the east bank goat trail should remain closed, due to the severe sloughing of the bank in this area.
• Similarly, the top section of the Mosquito trail just before it reaches the BP Trail is a really dangerous goat trail. The District has not formalized this section of trail because the sloughing off is very prevalent. Mayor Richard Walton and a number of runners are pushing for a safer situation. The District will be going ahead with this work, but no impact to the creek or bank will be permitted.
• A great deal of work has been done on lower MacKay Creek. The District has taken truckloads of Invasive Species, garbage, tires and old cars away. Tara Mathews and crew have worked hard and the area is starting to look amazing; especially after native riparian plants have been planted. On Sunday Jan 31st the District and the North Shore Wetlands group will be in the MacKay Pond removing more Invasive Species, garbage and doing some planting – all welcome to join in.
• There was a planting of a Memorial Forest in the damaged area next to MacKay Creek in Murdo-Fraser Park in honour of Kevin Bell for all that he has done for the ecology of North Vancouver. There was an excellent turn-out and many of the Stewardship groups were represented – NSSK, North Shore Wetlands group, Lynn Valley Community Assoc., MacKay Creek middle section Stewards, Friends of Hunter Park, Lisa Muiri for the District, and the Wild Bird Trust of BC. Trisha Mason (Kevin’s wife) reported that Kevin was incredibly touched and really appreciated the gesture. Let’s hope that this is the last time that this area will need restoring from mountain bike damage.

FISHERIES.

DFO Community Advisor (Sandie Hollick-Kenyon)

Not too much to report on since our November meeting, I’ve been very involved with all activities relating to the Seymour slide.  Chum egg collection from Alouette River went well this fall and eyed pink eggs were transferred in from Tenderfoot Hatchery for release to Mackay and Lynn Creeks.  Chum eyed egg delivery takes place this Wednesday, January 20^th to North Vancouver schools for DFO’s Salmonid in the Classroom Program.

MEMBER’S REPORTS

Friends of Hunter Park (Janet Dysart)

Friends of Hunter Park along with Lynn Valley Community Assoc. & Lynn Valley Seniors Assoc. are hosting an Invasive plants pull & planting in Hunter Park, Lynn Valley. 10am-12noon Saturday March 19th.  All ages welcome! Meet at Chaucer Rd entrance just inside the park. Wear suitable clothing and bring garden gloves, other tools supplied. Bring your own water, refreshments supplied, coffee donated by Waves LV. Rain or shine!  This event is supported by North Shore Streamkeepers, LV Community Association, LV Seniors Association and DNV Parks Dept.

Hastings Creek (Doug Hayman) In summary of this fall’s spawner surveys we started on Nov 7 and finished up Dec 19 we spotted 8 live in Section 5, and 4 live in Section 4. Total 12 live, 5 dead (carcasses) of which 3 were hatchery fish. The creek is doing well and coho juveniles made it through the dry summer. The pond and fish ladder are doing well, also the water is going out in all the right places. With some recent windfalls and losing some large trees some planting of larger trees is needed to regenerate the forest cover.

Upper Mackay Creek (Ron den Daas)

• Spawner surveys were conducted in September/ October and December, 2015 and January 2016 on Upper Mackay Creek. Coho Adult spawners were found up to the very top of habitat access on Upper Mackay Creek (to the Belevedere engineered waterfall) in Sept./ Oct. No Coho Adults were detected in Dec./ Jan.
• Biologist Doug Swanston has participated in several of these spawner surveys and has created a series of wonderful underwater image stills and videos of what was happening underwater. It has been very interesting to see what was captured with the underwater photography, as much of what was captured on film could not be seen when looking from above the water.
• NSSK supported Coho Festival 2015/ 16 mural and banner full day workshops were offered in December to local elementary schools. A second series of workshops has already been fully booked for February and March 2016. Interest is growing in the educational community to get involved in this form of salmon conservation education.
• These workshops will result in a new 100’ x 30’ mural that is to be installed beside the Mosquito Creek estuary in May/ June 2016. This will afford further opportunities for community and students to get involved with this salmon conservation themed work.
• The Mackay Creek Series Book, featuring paintings of Mackay Creek by Ron den Daas, with a foreword by PSF CEO Brian Riddell and essay by Bill Jeffries was released by Black Dog Publishing November 2015. Proceeds from this book will go towards the salmon conservation programming offered to local elementary schools.

Morten Creek (Doug Hayman)

With a constant 9 C ground water temperature, on January 1^st, our 33,000 chum started hatching and are now all down in the biorings. We have about 3500 coho eggs in our coho box. We will have the true number after shocking them next week. The new ground water source is working well just like we planned—hard work, but worth it. Last week a mother otter with 2 babies found our pond which had about 2000 coho parr. Looks like they cleaned out the pond. Possibly the District is able to help us with that? Willie Davidson would like to do some tissue work for DNA samples and he kindly explained at the meeting for us here. Coho research project – Willie Davidson, SFU professor, introduced a recently funded project EPIC4 (Enhancing Production in Coho: Culture, Community, Catch), which will examine the efficacy of the DFO Salmon Enhancement Program hatcheries. It will use Parentage Based Tagging (PBT), which involves isolating DNA from tissue samples from all broodstock in the hatcheries and then matching the DNA from returning Coho to their parents. This will provide detailed information about the hatchery fish. For example, do some families have more jacks; is there differential marine survival among families; what about pathogen load; return times; etc. PBT will also enable DFO to make better management decisions regarding Coho (e.g., harvesting quotas). Willie would be pleased to discuss this project with anyone interested in learning more about it, and could incorporate community run Coho hatcheries into the program if there was interest.

Mcartney Creek (Glen Parker)

After 2 “informal” stream walks in 2015, plans are to do a Stream Habitat Survey (Modules 1-2), a Water Quality Survey (Module 3) and a Stream Invertebrate Survey (Module 4) on about 200 meters at the stream outlet to the ocean and 200 meters below the Mt Seymour Road crossing or Windsor Secondary School Bridge. These plans are subject to guidance from more experienced Streamkeepers.

DISCUSSION OF OTHER CREEKS AND CONCERNS

The Board had a meeting to discuss some event planning, new business cards and the updating of some new brochures on the creeks of the North Shore.

Barbara brought in one she prepared which was just about the North Shore Streamkeepers and what they do.  Also, in the process of completing “Living in the Riparian Zone” outlining issues impacting salmon, pervious surfaces etc.

Others may wish to take on and submit a new brochure for Hastings Creek, Mackay Creek, and other creeks.

Business Cards are ready for pick-up from Barbara at her home, 604-985-9497, otherwise she will have them at the next meeting which is March 16.

Climate Change Forum (Janet Dysart) – The North Shore Streamkeepers (NSSK) are having a workshop on Climate Change and its Impact on the North Shore Fish & Habitat. The workshop will consist of two speakers and a facilitated discussion:

• The first will be a speaker on climate models and their results for the North Shore. The results of the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium Plan2Adapt tool for the North Shore will be of great interest.  Stewart Cohen, Senior Researcher Environment and Climate Change Canada, is confirmed as this speaker.
• The second will be a speaker on what good salmon habitat looks like and what has happened to it on the North Shore (history and current conditions). Ken Ashley, Director of BCIT Rivers Institute, is confirmed as this speaker.
• The third item will be a facilitated engagement of the speakers with the attendees to create a list of possible projects that could address the impacts of climate change on the North Shore fish habitat. The desired outcome is to articulate what can be done and to help motivate people to identify and enable climate change adaptation and mitigation projects.

The workshop is on Saturday, February 6, 2016 from 1:30 to 4:00 pm at the Lynn Valley Public Library meeting room. To date of this report 68 people are signed up.

BUSINESS

Finance (Karen Munro)

Bank Balance Dec. 31 2015 is $5374.40

Income in Nov/Dec is a grant from Mountain Equipment Coop of $750 (staff choice award) and an honorarium from Capilano Garden Club of $150 (Karen gave a 1 hour talk on streams, riparian health, ISMP and value of gardens), and negligible interest. Expenses in Nov/Dec were paid to Janet Dysart $100 (invasive plant conference).

There is $2426 remaining in the Mosquito Creek grants for 2015 instream works. DFO will complete riparian work soon.

Karen has requested members submit a list of items they wish purchased and projects supported in 2016, so a budget can be finalized.

NEXT MEETING –  WEDNESDAY, March 16 – 7:30 to 9:30 pm, District Hall, 355 West Queens Road, North Vancouver

DFO VIOLATION REPORTING:  OBSERVE, RECORD, RECORD (ORR) 604-607-4186

A SPILL OF ANY TYPE Environment Canada – use EMBC number below

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT B.C. – 1-800-663-3456   www.embc.gov.bc.ca/index.htm

CITY OF NV – Operations Division 604-987-7155 (8 am – 4:30 pm Monday to Friday) or After-Hours Emergency Line 604-988-2212 (after 4:30pm, weekends & Holidays).

• President: Barbara Frisken, 604-985-9497, frisken@gmail.com
• Secretary: Jan Lander, #109 – 1155 Ross Road, 778-838-1103, lander@shaw.ca
• Pacific Streamkeepers Federation: Zo Ann Morten 604-986-5059, pskf.ca
• North Shore Streamkeepers Web Site: nssk.ca
• Message board http://disc.yourwebapps.com/Indices/232171.html
• District Web Site: dnv.org/Services/Environment/District Information
• City of North Van:: Angela Negenman 982.3932 anegenman@cnv.org, www.cnv.org
• Community Advisor: Sandie Hollick-Kenyon- 604-666-0743,
• Email: Sandra-Hollick-Keynon@dfo-mpo.gc.ca
• Hastings Creek: Doug Hayman 604-987-0434, pastoys@yahoo.com
• Lower Mackay Creek and North Shore Fish and Game Club incubation facility: Brian Comey, bmcomey@hotmail.com
• Upper Mackay Creek: Ron den Daas, ecosystem@shaw.ca
• Morten Creek: ZoAnn Morten 604-986-5059, zmorten@shaw.ca
• Seymour River: Sharee Dubowits, 604-288-0511; volunteering@seymoursalmon.com or seymoursalmon.com