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We would like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who came out to help us restore salmon habitat at this year’s annual Fall Clean-up at Windebank Creek!
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We had 26 energetic volunteers join us on a sunny Saturday in October to help us improve Windebank Creek in preparation for the fall return of the spawning salmon.
Armed with our tools and a shared enthusiasm for local habitat conservation, we split up into groups to pick up garbage, remove invasive species, and plant native shrubs along the banks of the creek.
One of our biggest accomplishments was clearning all the invasive morning glory that was taking over the willow whips. These were planted last fall to help stabalize the creek bank.
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We were also able to expand our restoration area, planting over 300 new native plants in northern section of the property this year. These included snowberry, nootka rose, red-osier dogwood, salmonberry, thimbleberry, vine-maple, big-leaf maple, and western red cedar.
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We finished off our day with a lunch-time talk by Scott the Community Advisor from Fisheries and Oceans Canada. He shared his knowledge about fish and urban streams, and encouraged us to start monitoring this site for salmon spawners, fry, and water quality. Collecting this information will help us assess the sustainability of this urban creek’s salmon population.
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We love inviting the community to this annual event so they can see the progress we’re making at this site. They can see our native plantings recolonizing this impacted site. The nootka rose is finally growing taller than the blackberry, and we are well on our way to our invasive species control for this site. In case you missed it, you can watch the video below give you an idea of what we accomplished this year’s clean-up.
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The Mission Environmental Stewardship Society was a partner for this year’s Windebank Creek Clean-up. Thank you for helping us engage our community in nature stewardship.
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This resoration work at Windebank Creek is made possible with a Land Stewardship Grant from the:
