Cheakamus IR11 Floodplain Restoration Project in Partnership with:
Squamish Nation, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), North Vancouver Outdoor School
Funding support:
DFO, Fish & Wildlife Compensation Program (FWCP), Nature Conservancy Canada
Project Background
The Cheakamus IR11 Floodplain Restoration Project is the culmination of over 30 years of partnership efforts between Fisheries Oceans Canada, North Vancouver Outdoor School, Squamish Nation, and the Squamish River Watershed Society in an attempt to re-establish ground water channels and spawning habitat within the diked off sections along the former Cheakamus River floodplain. This project expands upon previous habitat restoration projects in the Dave Marshall Salmon Reserve, adjacent to the Cheakamus River. The original floodplain habitats have become degraded over the decades due to changes in river flow, sediment budgets, and installation of flood protection works that resulted from the installation of the Daisy Lake Reservoir, transmission towers, and road access works that began in 1956.
Objective
Create spawning and rearing habitats to be utilized by Coho, Chinook, Pink, and Chum Salmon as well as Cutthroat and Steelhead Trout.
Works Completed
The new works have now expanded and restored restore fish habitat in and around the Lower Paradise Channel consisting of the following:
- Lower Paradise (Moody’s) Channel has now been back-watered to create a long riffle approximately 200m downstream of the Canoe Pond. This riffle is approximately 50m long and 3m wide and has been graded to provide 150 m² of spawning habitat for Chinook salmon, but it will also provide spawning habitat for Coho, Pink and Chum salmon.
- The riffle was designed to a target elevation that enables a small intake to divert a minor flow into a constructed channel, which allows flow into an isolated backchannel on the historic floodplain of Cheakamus IR 11 land. The constructed and existing backchannel are approximately 440m in length and 5m in width, providing 2200 m² of high quality rearing habitat for Coho Salmon.
- Two new watercourses were constructed to connect the backchannel to previously constructed habitats associated with Lower Paradise Channel. These watercourses provide a further 700 m² of spawning and rearing opportunities, primarily for Coho salmon.
- Large wood debris and rock were placed at strategic locations to improve habitat function of the channels. The slope of the gravel bed in the newly constructed channels and the riffle were set to ensure all areas provide optimum conditions for spawning salmon.
Post-Restoration Monitoring
The importance of this habitat was demonstrated during the flood of record in 2003, when over 90% of the surviving pink salmon fry that migrated past the BC Hydro Water Use monitoring traps the next spring, were found to have originated in this restored side channel.
Increased salmon returns to the relatively stable side-channel habitat now provide improved foraging opportunities for birds such as the Bald Eagle, Great Blue Heron and Belted Kingfisher. Additional marine derived nutrients from the salmon carcasses provide an important food and nutrient source for both aquatic and terrestrial animals and plants in the Cheakamus River.
Increased salmon returns to the relatively stable side-channel habitat now provide improved foraging opportunities for birds such as the Bald Eagle, Great Blue Heron and Belted Kingfisher. Additional marine derived nutrients from the salmon carcasses provide an important food and nutrient source for both aquatic and terrestrial animals and plants in the Cheakamus River.
Media
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The Kiwi Connector Channel is the latest addition (2018) to the Dave Marshall Salmon Reserve off-channel habitat to allow salmonids low-flowing waters outside of the Cheakamus River dike.
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