Fish arriving in revitalized stream in View Royal, B.C.
CTV
New fish have been spotted in a recently revitalized section of Craigflower Creek in View Royal, B.C., thanks to a development site with an environmental focus.
New fish have been spotted in a recently revitalized section of Craigflower Creek in View Royal, B.C., thanks to a development site with an environmental focus.
Twenty Coho salmon and seven cutthroat trout have been spotted in the new waterway where BC Transit is building a handyDART centre near Burnside Road and Watkiss Way.
When construction of the facility began last year, work was also done to restore a dried-up streambed that runs into the salmon-bearing Craigflower Creek.
Now that the stream is flowing, initial monitoring of the new Craigflower tributary shows that it has become a viable habitat for aquatic life.
"There was no real aquatic habitat here [before]," said aquatic ecologist Cori Barraclough with consultation company Aqua-Tex Scientific.
"We did find two Coho last spring before the construction started," she said. "They were salvaged and removed from the creek and put into Craigflower Creek where they belonged."
"So we weren't surprised when the fish came back, but we were pleasantly surprised at how healthy and how many fish came back – and so quickly," said Barraclough.
