Two Mill Creek organizations in Puslinch Township are getting $35,000 from the federal government to assist in efforts to enhance the local waterway.
The funds will be used to support both Friends of Mill Creek and its Mill Creek Stewardship Ranger program.
On Sept. 6, Wellington-Halton Hills MP Michael Chong announced the funding for the continuing efforts to improve the Mill Creek.
The grant is part of the new Recreational Fisheries Conservation Partnerships Program, which aims to bring like-minded partners and their resources together with the common goal of enhancing Canada’s recreational fisheries.
The grant will be a big boost to the Ranger program over the next couple of years.
“You can catch and eat a brown trout from one of the bridges in Soper Park thanks in large part to the Friends of Mill Creek and partners’ work over the past 10 years,” said Paul Willms, sustainability planner for the City of Cambridge.
The Friends of Mill Creek have been working on various projects this year, including the stewardship ranger program, a brown trout release in Soper Park, community tree planting events, ranger tree planting projects, in-stream litter clean ups and a “Junior Ranger Day” with 100 summer campers from the Neighbourhood Associations.
Projects this autumn include installation of an interpretive sign telling the Mill Creek story and a “Meet the Creek” walk on Oct. 6.
The Mill Creek Stewardship Ranger program consists of four 17-year-olds from Puslinch and/or Cambridge and their Grand River Conservation Authority crew leader.
The program is modeled on the Ministry of Natural Resources Stewardship Ranger program, but is community-funded by the Friends of Mill Creek, which is made up of local individuals, businesses and organizations.
Rangers work for eight weeks during the summer on a variety of natural resource management projects, including creating wildlife and fish habitat, improving channels for faster water flow and sediment transport, planting trees, conducting in-stream clean ups, and outreach activities to local residents, summer campers and neighbourhood groups.
Chong added, “As you know the government is committed to environmental protection and sustainability.” Over the past two years, substantial changes have been made to fisheries habitat protection and enforcement, as well as changes to pieces of environmental legislation, he said.
“The broad strategic objective of these changes … is to get the government focussed on major environmental challenges and using public resources in key areas throughout Canada, ensuring that large projects get sufficient scrutiny and serious challenges are addressed,” explained Chong.
In order to deal with smaller challenges, such as the rehabilitation of Mill Creek, Chong said the government has decided to partner with local environmental groups through a new program to allow those grassroots groups – such as Friends of Mill Creek – to use its volunteer base, and move even further in the restoration of fisheries.
The Recreational Fisheries Conservation Partnership is allocating $10 million over the next two years throughout Canada for local groups that want to restore fish habitat.
In this case, Mill Creek is being transformed into a cold water trout fishery. The Mill Creek project is one of 104 projects across Canada (18 in Ontario) through the Recreational Fisheries Conservation Partnerships Program.
“Working with local environmental groups to rehabilitate fish habitat, the government of Canada is helping to restore fisheries habitat in our province, for the benefit of our communities in years to come,” said Chong.
Friends of Mill Creek president Brad Whitcombe said, “We are pretty happy about this. We’re getting $35,000 from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans …
“It means so much to the Friends of Mill Creek. We’ve been working away with the Mill Creek rangers program for a decade and this will give the program new life.”
He explained that year-to-year, the funding is always tenuous. He pointed out that brook trout have been located in Mill Creek, which is exactly what proponents had hoped for.
That the fish are thriving is a sign of the creek’s health and of a healthy watershed, Whitcombe noted, adding “all these folks (volunteers)have been working so hard.
“You look at this landscape and think back; 10,000 years ago there were glaciers. When the glaciers receded, the deposits left behind laid the foundations for this great cold water fishery.”
Whitcombe acknowledged there was damage over the years, including the construction of the 401, which was devastating to the creek.
“But then people realized what a gem they had,” he said. “It is basically the heart of this community. It is the largest natural feature in Puslinch.”
Whitcombe said people have been working quietly since the early 1980s to restore the creek, which stretches all the way to Galt/Cambridge.
“There’s been a lot of heart and soul put into this,” he said. “Now the stream is responding. There is brook trout. That’s fantastic.” Whitcombe asked, “Can you believe it … on the edge of a soccer field in downtown Aberfoyle we have native brook trout swimming around.”
He added, “That is the canary in the coal mine. The trout show that there is cold water and a healthy habitat.”
