Summer Update from Perserverance Creek Streamkeepers
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The Perseverance Creek Streamkeepers Society, a group of volunteers who have taken on the stewardship of the creek for over a decade, would like to remind anyone hiking along the creek bed in Perseverance Creek canyon to be aware that many of the pools contain stranded fish.
Perseverance Creek flows from Allen Lake across private lands, through the Cumberland Community Forest and Coal Creek Historic Park, and again through private land to outlet at Comox Lake.
As the water supply from the upper reaches of the watershed diminishes during the summer, much of the surface flow in the creek disappears leaving many of the pools isolated. Some of the deeper pools retain water through the summer and the fish in these pools do survive. Others become don’t, but they become food for other animals and insects and as they decay they add nutrients to the riparian zone. As the fish in these pools are already stressed due to the warmer temperatures and lower dissolved oxygen content of the water it is best to avoid disturbing them as little as possible.
The Streamkeepers do try to rescue stranded fish when possible, but as it is very difficult to access some of these pools and the fish are further stressed by the long transport time in buckets (>45 minutes), we do not normally attempt fish rescues in the canyon.
We become much busier in August as the water level in Comox Lake drops and the lower reaches of the creek shrink into isolated pools trapping thousands of Coho fry. Many of these fish are scooped up by the Streamkeepers and transported to the lake where they have a better chance of surviving.
Anyone interested in finding out more about the Streamkeepers’ work or becoming a volunteer with the group can contact Hamish Murray.
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