Brooklyn Creek Watershed Society

JOINT NEWS RELEASE – September 23, 2019
Town of Comox precedents are working examples of what “reconnecting hydrology and ecology” looks like in practice. 

Comox experience shows what is possible when a local government has a strong working relationshipwith the stewardship sector, and leads by example to implement responsible water balance management. This is a key message in Town of Comox – A ‘Beacon of Hope’, a Watershed Case Profile document released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC at the meeting of Comox Council on September 11.

“The Town’s story comprises three building blocks. Over the past decade, experience gained and lessons learned through the Lower Brooklyn Creek channel enhancement project and Northeast Comox land development planning process have been integrated into the Draft Anderton Corridor Neighbourhood Concept Plan for Middle Brooklyn Creek,” observed Kim Stephens, Partnership Executive Director. 

“Along the way, the Town of Comox has established three provincial firsts.

1) Changed engineering practice and implemented the Water Balance Methodology in Northeast Comox to reduce downhill risk.
2) Became the first demonstration application for testing EAP, the Ecological Accounting Process, for valuation of the Brooklyn Creek corridor.
3) Changed the Draft Anderton Corridor Neighbourhood Concept Plan in mid-project to enhance the ‘Package of Ecological Services’,” he added.

“The ecological services within Brooklyn Creek are integral components of the Town’s core services of rainwater management, parks and fish habitat protection. Once the Town switched to viewing ecological services as core municipal services, we then asked ourselves: how can we do things better?  “The Draft Anderton Corridor Neighbourhood Concept Plan is the result,” stated Mayor Russ Arnott.

“The Town is reconnecting hydrology and ecology by embarking on a systems approach on all levels. The approach includes amending bylaws, training staff, educating the development community and homeowners, creating new procedures, and formalizing roles and responsibilities.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

CONTACT: Partnership for Water Sustainability – Kim Stephens, Executive Director
or 604-817-4657

READ the accompanying Backgrounder_Comox-A Beacon of Hope_Sept-2019 (PDF)

CLICK on the link to download the WATERSHED CASE PROFILE:
https://waterbucket.ca/rm/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2019/09/Comox-Beacon-of-Hope_Sep2019.pdf

The Brooklyn Creek Watershed Society (BCWS) carries out a coho smolt count every year. Coho fry spend one year in the creek before migrating to salt water as smolts.

Brooklyn Creek flows from Courtenay (Crown Isle) through the CVRD and empties into Comox Bay in the Town of Comox. Though small, it has a viable run of coho salmon and occasional chum salmon, as well as resident and transient cutthroat trout.

We install a smolt fence every year that channels the fish through a pipe into a holding box, where they are counted every morning by volunteers. This year was a bit of a bust. As all residents of the Comox Valley know we have had a remarkably dry spring. Though there was lots of water in April, most smolts don’t start to migrate to the ocean until May. By that time the amount of water in the creek severely affected their ability to move downstream and many of the smolts are stuck in pools. As a result we took down our smolt fence about 3 weeks early since we were not counting any smolts.

Some years we have had a count as high as 3600 smolts travelling out to the ocean, but the median is closer to 1800, a respectable number considering the size of the creek. This year we counted just 181. We hope the smolts are holding upstream in the pools and will migrate when able. There has been some anecdotal evidence of large numbers of smolts holding upstream.

On the bright side, there are many reports of high counts of coho fry in the creek. BCWS thanks all of the volunteers for this year’s smolt count.

Assessing the Worth of Ecological Services Using the Ecological Accounting Process for Watershed Assessment, Brooklyn Creek Demonstration Application in the Comox Valley.

Readers will find in this report a demonstration of the Ecological Accounting Process (EAP) as it was applied to the Brooklyn Creek watershed in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. September, 2018.

EAP-Demonstration_Sep2018 (64 page PDF)

(click to read or right-click to download)

The Brooklyn Creek Watershed Society has a new fish counting box courtesy of Kris Neilson, a volunteer fish counter.  Our old box was falling apart and had many design deficiencies, Kris used his ingenuity and made a new box with the following features:

–  marine plywood for the sides, bottom and top, stainless steel hardware and cedar skids to protect the bottom

– a screen that slides down over the pipe entrance and the entrance to the second chamber which prevents fish from swimming back up the pipe or going from chamber to chamber

– the bottom is flush with the screen which will make it much easier to net those frisky smolts.

I know our fish counting volunteers will really appreciate the new design for it will make the task much easier.

Many thanks to Kris Neilson for his hard work!

In Spring 2018 BCWS was awarded the Comox Valley Project Watershed’s Keeping It Living Award.  The honour was bestowed because the “work of the dedicated Brooklyn Creek Watershed volunteers adds a vital chapter to the widespread community effort to restore and protect watersheds and habitat that are part of our K’ómoks Estuary.”

BCWS is thrilled to have received this award.  It culminates work that was carried out over a 12-year period – 2005 to 2017 – where BCWS worked with the Town of Comox and Current Environmental Ltd. to improve rearing and spawning habitat for salmon stocks and develop erosion counter measures to stabilize sections of the stream.  A secondary goal of the project was to improve pedestrian access within municipal greenways in Comox.

The Directors of BCWS extend their gratitude to Project Watershed for recognizing the work done in the Brooklyn Creek Watershed.

BCWS has initiated a storm drain fish painting activity in the watershed. We did our first trials in Crown Isle area of Courtenay and will be expanding our activity in other areas of the watershed. Thanks to Jack Stevens for taking on the coordination role. The marking of storm drains with the yellow fish is an important reminder to people that what goes down the storm drain on the street goes into Brooklyn Creek.
Anyone (including families and friends) interested in joining the team may join in by contacting BCWS (see Contact Us).

A big thank you to Ed Fudge (one of our many BCWS volunteers) for his generous financial donation. These funds will go towards supporting one of the many enhancement initiatives of BCWS.

Pacific Salmon Foundation

Brooklyn Creek Watershed Society (BCWS) was fortunate to receive funding from the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF) for an education outreach initiative.  The PSF funds were used to design an information leaflet describing good stewardship practices to protect watersheds in general and specific information about Brooklyn Creek.

The leaflet was designed by Caila Holbrook of Comox Valley Project Watershed in partnership with three other watershed societies – Millard-Piercy, Glen Urquart, and Morrison.  The one side of the leaflet is the same for all four societies with the reverse side containing information specific to each watershed.  By combining efforts and funding we were able to produce a high-quality document.  Images of the BCWS leaflet are posted on the website under Brochure and Maps.

In September 2018, volunteers distributed over 1,000 leaflets to households directly adjacent to the creek.  Response to the canvassing activity was overwhelmingly positive.  Many homeowners had no idea of the importance of the stream for supporting fish populations and other wildlife, or that storm-water drains in their neighbourhood drained directly into the stream.

We are most appreciative of the support from PSF and our volunteers for a very successful educational awareness campaign.  We plan to distribute more leaflets in the Spring.  Anyone interested in participating in this activity is encouraged to contact BCWS here.

Our new map of the Brooklyn Creek Watershed was produced in a cooperative effort involving Project Watershed and funding from the Pacific Salmon Foundation. BCWS has printed the map in a brochure that will be used to promote community education and best practices in urban watersheds.

2018 Map

Click to view the 2018 Brooklyn Creek Watershed Map Brochure (PDF).

Urban watersheds face special challenges with ever increasing development. Check out this guide for tips on healthy watersheds and information on watershed challenges.

Watershed Challenges

Click to view the Watershed Challenges Brochure.

Final Phase of Channel Enhancement Project at old Brooklyn Creek Elementary School Site Completed.

Brooklyn Creek Volunteers November 2017. Photo by R. Wong

The final phase of a three-year project was completed on November 12, 2017 with sixteen hardy volunteers planting over 200 trees and shrubs along the banks of the expanded off-channel pond.

BCWS has worked with Town of Comox and Current Environmental over the past three years on the Brooklyn Creek Channel Enhancement Project. The opportunity came about when the Comox Valley School District sold the Brooklyn Elementary School property to the Phil and Jennie Gaglardi Academy in 2013. The Town of Comox acquired a corridor along the border of this property with the intent to turn the space into a restored municipal greenway and to improve fish habitat in the creek. The mainstem of Brooklyn Creek flows through the western section of this property. This reach was straightened in the 1960s to gain more land for school development and a wetland area to the south of the property was drained to create playing fields. In 2015, a first phase of restoration reestablished a meandering channel pattern with pool / riffle sequences and large woody debris structures.

The next phase of restoration involved constructing a 60-meter long off-channel pond along the southern border of the school property and connecting it to the Brooklyn Creek mainstem via a 75-metre channel. The pond was constructed in 2016 in the location of a wetland which was historically drained for a school playing field. The connection channel and off-channel pond added over 600 square meters of off-channel juvenile salmonid rearing habitat.

The third and final phase of the project was carried out in 2017 with the installation of a connection to a ground water spring located in the Northeast corner of the school property and extension of the off-channel pond. The goal of this final phase is to augment water flow into Brooklyn Creek and increase rearing habitat for cutthroat trout and coho fry. The plantings help stabilize the banks and provide shade in the summer months. Current Environmental Ltd. coordinated all activities associated with this project. The Town of Comox provided compost and mulch, as well as extra shovels and wheelbarrows.

Water “fence” directs fish into the counting box.

The Brooklyn Creek Watershed Society (BCWS) 2017 Coho smolt count was completed June 3 with the help of 49 local volunteers.  Each day between April 12 and June 3 two or three volunteers counted and released the fish near the mouth of the creek.

Though the primary goal is to monitor Coho salmon smolts, data is also collected for Coho fry, Chum fry, Cutthroat trout, Stickleback, Sculpin and Crayfish. The Coho salmon smolts (about 9-15 cm long) have spent slightly over a year in the creek and are now going to the ocean.  At this stage they are called smolts and have changed colour to silver to enhance their survival in the ocean. Click to download the PDF report: 2017 Smolt Fence Data Final

Volunteers are the ones that get the job done!

Over the past 10 years BCWS has initiated a number of habitat improvement projects along with the help of the town of Comox, Pacific Salmon Foundation and several other grantors and the labour of local volunteers.

In the past three years the numbers counted increased substantially (3457, 3137, 3346) over previous years. This year volunteers counted 2434 Coho smolts. The reduced numbers may have been influenced by the later start this year (April 12) compared to 2016 (April 3) or rainfall patterns which determine flow levels in the creek. It is expected that numbers will fluctuate due to many factors including survival rates of eggs and fry and the impact of urban residents in the watershed.

A great job done by the many volunteers, rain or shine!

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The members of BCWS welcome interested friends of Brooklyn Creek to attend our monthly meetings to hear about activities and new initiatives. The meetings are usually scheduled for the first Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. Please contact us to confirm time and location.