Its a beautiful summer afternoon. We’ve just driven through a torrential downpour and arrived at Harper Creek. You can still detect that fresh earthy smell after a storm. We’ve come down to pay a visit to two of the most recent development projects in the watershed. As we pull off the road we can already see the significant changes that have taken place on the site of the future casino. The developer of the site has gone to great lengths to backfill the site with soil. Nearly a meter and a half of material has been deposited on top of the former wetland. Looking in areas where fill has not been placed, it is apparent why such great effort to fill the site has taken place. Patches of water, mud and aquatic plants permeate the site, signaling water at the surface of the soil, or just below. Years of degradation have still not managed to beat back the inexorable march …
The month of March was an exciting time for the Harper Park Stewardship Initiative (HPSI) as we were joined by new members AND attended the Community Stream Stewardship Program (CSSP) workshop held in Holland Landing, hosted by OFAH (Ontario Federation of Angler and Hunters). Stream stewards from all over Ontario attended this workshop. During this two day event discussion topics ranged from permitting to stream restoration techniques, with a large majority of the second day spent outdoors; this was a favourite portion of the course because despite the slightly colder weather, we all love to be outdoors!
During the outdoor activities we were split up into two groups. The first group learned about stream morphology and how to properly measure the width and depth of a specified channel. Meanwhile, the second group had some fun kicking around the stream bottom as we learned the kick and sweep method used for collecting