Seymour River Rock Slide Mitigation Proje ject “To restore migration conditions for all species in the Seymour River that existed before the 2014 rockslide, in a safe and sustainable manner.”
Outline • Background • Project summary • Fish fence and Trap and truck • Progress to date • Looking ahead
Background • Slide on December 7, 2014 • 80,000 cubic meters of debris • Blocked fish migration • Raised water levels upstream by 10 meters
Project Summary • Tagging program 2015 – no fish migration. • Trap and truck 2015 - current • 2015 - 3,000 volunteer hours • Unsustainable
Project Summary • 2015 Fundraised for engineering report. • Roundtable partners selected mitigation option. • Fundraising for project • Rock slide opening ceremony – August 24, 2016
Above Trap and Truck Why do we need to move fish? • More abundant and productive habitat above the slide. • Very little spawning grounds, cover and off channel habitat below. • Below will not sustain wild Above coho and steelhead populations. Below
Installing anchors Installing the fence Fish Fence Fence construction: • 36 aluminum poles/panel • 100 ft. long bladder Building the panels • 20 panels • 100 feet across • 15 ft. long poles • 25 anchors, 3 ft. deep • 300 sand bags • Hundreds of volunteer hours
Fish Fence • Fence fishing as of August 6, 2016 • Fence maintenance and daily operations: ➢ Squamish Nation ➢ Tsleil-Waututh Nation ➢ Seymour Salmonid Society
Fish Fence and Trap and Truck From fence - 2016: The fence made a barrier in late summer, at very low flows. Creating ideal conditions to seine the pool directly downstream. Fish moved above slide: The results of 6 weeks of seining from August 30 to November 6: • Summer steelhead: Trap and Truck Seining Program 2017 • Coho: 330 Total: 335 Species Broodstock Release Total From fence - 2017: pink salmon 334 334 Fish moved above slide: summer steelhead 25 29 54 • Summer steelhead: 36 coho salmon 276 1,777 2,053 • Coho: 128 chum salmon 67 67 Total: 304 Total 2,508
Monitoring • Instream Fisheries Research • Adult program ➢ Gastric tags ➢ Tagged and released at fence ➢ No adults detected above slide in 2017 • Juvenile program ➢ Surgically implanted ➢ Coho smolts at hatchery ➢ 87% survival downstream of slide in 2017
Before Progress in 2016 • Rock breaking at the toe of the slide • 5 weeks of drilling • 5 rock breaking events After
Before After
Progress in 2017 • Rock breaking through the mid portion of slide • 12 weeks of drilling • 7 rock breaking events
Before and after photos from 2017
June 2015 September 2017 After year 2 of rock breaking work Prior to rock breaking work
Before and after photos from November 2017 rain event
Looking ahead • Funds raised for 12 weeks of drilling and blasting in summer of 2018. • Progress reassessment after Spring freshet. • Adult monitoring for at least 5 years.
Thank you for your support!
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