Prince George, B.C., conservation group fixes deadly problem for Nechako River fish
CBC
Fish will no longer be trapped and left to die in disconnected pools during periods of low water at Cottonwood Island Park in Prince George, B.C.
It comes after a local conservation group successfully reconnected a small side channel of the Nechako River that would regularly dry up.
The park is surrounded by the river, and the 1.4-km-long side channel, that is used by many fish species as a place of refuge and a spawning habitat.
However, when the water receded, the side channel drained — leaving fish stranded in the sediments or vulnerable to be picked off by predators.
“The fish were being stranded there, and the water was running out of oxygen and drying up completely," said Jesi Lauzon, the operations co-ordinator for Spruce City Wildlife Association.
"It could be freezing solid over winter."
At the beginning of December, the group used an excavator to move a final bit of dirt and permanently reconnect the channel to the Nechako River.
“During the past, it flipped pretty fast to become an area of mortality and destruction,” said Lauzon, who has been working on the restoration project for over five years.
Lauzon says she was first inspired to take on the project after her basset hound Daisy squirmed out of her leash and ran down into the drained channel while they were walking at Cottonwood Island Park.
“She came out black and super smelling because she got into this really gross muck.”
Lauzon was also a fisheries biology student at the University of Northern B.C. at the time, and was looking to do a project on the conservation of aquatic ecosystems.
“We had to create a habitat proposal, and kind of break down what it would take to do a restoration project,” she said.
The local non-profit Spruce City Wildlife Association, where she volunteered, was eager to help make her academic project a reality.
After two years of monitoring the channel to get a baseline of data, Lauzon was able to prove the channel was not a safe winter refuge for salmon.
Hundreds of thousands of used tires are piling up across Ontario as some companies responsible for tire recycling have stopped processing tires amid reduced provincial recycling regulations for tire producers, industry experts say.
People in Guelph facing homelessness will soon have a new place to go during the day.
Islanders are reminded to plan their rides ahead of holiday festivities if they plan on drinking alcohol or using cannabis.
Even before Gwen Healey Akearok began her new role as Nunavut’s Minister of Family Services, she was tuning into the Office of the Auditor General’s (OAG) hearings on the state of the Family Services department.
The racial reckoning of the COVID era saw Canada grapple with its checkered past — a process that led to statues of some foundational figures being removed, in some instances by force.
Holiday traditions are front and centre for many people at this time of year. But one Uxbridge family's Christmas tradition goes above and beyond the standard Christmas carols or holiday party.
A pedestrian is dead, and police are investigating following a collision in a north London parking lot on Tuesday afternoon.
Police have lifted a shelter-in-place order for parts of St. John's.
Nova Scotia Power is providing more information about the cyberattack on the utility earlier this year and its response in the months that followed.
A rare old-growth forest in Quebec’s Mauricie region is at the centre of a growing conflict between conservation advocates and the provincial government, after forestry roadwork was authorized in an area currently under review for protected status.
The FBI and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York sought an interview with ex-prince Andrew Mountbatten Windsor for connections to Canadian sex offender and fashion mogul Peter Nygard.
A mother is grieving after a carbon monoxide incident killed her 11-year-old son and put her husband in hospital in critical condition.
Just as Alberta begins to dig out from its last winter storm, most of the province is preparing for another blast of snow and brutal cold, just in time for the holidays.