Trout Unlimited going the distance for Niagara Region’s Twelve Mile Creek
When 500,000 people live nearby, you might say the quality of your region’s main water source is paramount. But where do you start with a river whose health has been deteriorating for over 30 years?
The Niagara Chapter of Trout Unlimited Canada has looked to a number of stakeholders—both warm-blooded and cold, you might say—for help in addressing this problem.
Landowners. Government. And the brook trout species native to the area.
“We have lots of streams and waterfalls in the area, but Twelve Mile Creek is the only cold-water creek that runs year-round,” says Dennis Edell, chair of the Trout Unlimited Niagara Chapter.
“It’s the only river that can sustain aquatic habitat and fish.”
Twelve Mile Creek runs through St. Catharines, in southern Ontario, and supplies habitat and drinking water for the surrounding area, including Niagara Falls, and flows directly into Lake Ontario.
Problems were first noticed when brook trout, a heavily-relied-upon indicator species, began to disappear from the area 30 years ago. When it was discovered that a number of private dams along the stream were creating an environment uninhabitable for the fish, action was taken.
“When landowners dam up the stream to create ponds, a heat sink is created, which warms the temperature of the water,” says Edell. “It got to a point where the brook trout could no longer withstand it and were disappearing, so we set out to convert top-flowing to bottom-draw dams, and educate the landowners on how to look after their stream.”
Image gallery: Trout Unlimited Niagara Chapter
Conservationists with Trout Unlimited Canada's Niagara Chapter are helping to bring back brook trout in southern Ontario's Twelve Mile Creek.
The problem was nothing new to the Niagara Region. Edell says the Ministry of Natural Resources and local conservation authorities had tried for 20 years to carry out the project that Trout Unlimited eventually accomplished.
“If you were to knock on the door of a landowner and tell them you were from the government, they would immediately think they were in trouble,” notes Edell. “It was very difficult for a government agency to establish the trust.”
The quick success that Trout Unlimited has enjoyed as a non-profit in connecting with the 800 landowners—by making moves to reverse the dam situation, tree planting, stream rehabilitation measures, and providing guides on future stream care—is just an example of the organization’s importance to the area.
Trout Unlimited’s Niagara Chapter also works with local Scout troops on various education programs, as well as holding an annual Healing Waters three-day fly fishing course, via Soldier On, to teach injured Canadian Forces fly fishing as therapy.
Not bad for a chapter only established in 2012.
Enbridge is committed to improving quality of life in the communities near our operations and projects, including our Line 10 Westover Segment Replacement Project.
A recent $5,000 donation from Enbridge will assist Trout Unlimited in continuing its work with private landowners and expanding its reach into other projects on Twelve Mile Creek—including one in the popular Short Hills Park, where erosion is a growing issue.
Although Trout Unlimited has been active since 1972, the speed at which its relatively young Niagara Chapter has become established in the region perhaps makes them too an indicator species of sorts.
“We are extremely proud of the number of projects that are underway in such a short period of time,” says Edell. “The support from Enbridge means that we can continue to work towards increasing public awareness of the benefits of our work.
“Ultimately we want to give people in Niagara an appreciation for their natural resources, and cold-water conservation in general.”
(TOP PHOTO: Volunteer Dave Forgeron, left, a member of the Canadian fly fishing team, teaches injured soldiers to fly fish during a three-day 2017 Soldier On Fly Fishing Boot Camp, co-organized by Trout Unlimited Canada's Niagara Chapter and the Canadian Forces.)
