Last weekend’s windstorm may have caused havoc, but Burnaby streamkeepers are welcoming the rain and what it will do to help local salmon.
Byrne Creek Streamkeepers took a tour of the waterway over the weekend with the South Coast Conservation Program, and things looks good.
“There were a few trees down on trails from the wind, but other than that, the portion of the creek that we covered looked fine,” said volunteer streamkeeper Paul Cipywnyk.
“We kind of went from really dry to really wet overnight. I think the creek is fine. Byrne Creek is really amazing; it ran all summer long without any rain at all,” he said, adding the fish were safe.
Streamkeepers often dread the “first flush,” because the first rainfall after summer often washes chemicals, tiny bits of metal and debris from roads and catch basins into delicate fish habitat. For four or five years over the past decade, the streamkeepers have discovered dead fish after the first flush, but not this year.
“We were fortunate that when it started to rain, it rained a lot. It started to flush stuff off the roads but it was very diluted,” Cipywnyk said.
Byrne Creek is home to cutthroat trout and coho. Meanwhile, Nick Kvenich from the Eagle Creek Streamkeepers was raising concerns that Eagle Creek was drying up so much that fresh water and oxygen levels were dropping to dangerous levels in a connected rearing pond for salmon. Kvenich welcomed the recent rain.
“It’s a plus for the creek to have the additional water,” he said. “It’s going to be cooler in the creeks, and that’s what the fish like, too.”
John Templeton from Stoney Creek Environment Committee has been keeping an eye on Eagle Creek and Stoney Creek, the most prolific salmon stream in Burnaby.
“So far, the creek seems to be handling it OK. The water is very dirty. There’s a lot of sediment, but we’re not in winter right now, so there’s not a lot of salt,” he said.
Templeton also welcomed higher water levels.
“When the water was as low as it was, all the salmon fry were trapped in small pools. In other words, they couldn’t move,” he said. “Now the water level has come up and the fish will be able to move around, it will … sort of rejuvenate it.”
