Stratford Area Watershed Improvement Group (SAWIG)

Summer 2012: Final Report

Kelley Arnold, with input from Carter Livingstone and Iain Cudmore

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

The second batch of Stratford Area Watershed Improvement Group summer students began work on

June 25. Karalee McAskill was hired on as Field Crew

Supervisor, and Carter Livingstone and Emily Gallant as Field

Crew Workers. Karalee, an enthusiastic and motivated

student from UPEI, left SAWIG after two days to pursue

another position. She was missed immediately and shortly

afterwards Emily politely decided to decline the offer.

Undaunted, SAWIG quickly hired on Justyn Young as

supervisor, and Iain Cudmore as a field worker. Justyn

remained with the group until the third week of July, when

it became evident to the Watershed Coordinator that he

was not suitable to be in a leadership role. Justyn’s

employment was terminated on July 24, 2012.

Kelley Arnold, Coordinator, stepped in as part-time

supervisor, overseeing the work conducted by Carter and

Iain, and was on-site on a regular basis to ensure work was

being completed in an efficient and adequate manner. She

was never disappointed in the quality of work by these two

labourers.

The eight weeks these young staff members spent with SAWIG could be summarized in a few short

tasks: tree planting, stream restoration, Parks & Recreation, and a lengthy Coastal Zone Assessment.

Although there were plenty of other daily activities and tasks completed by the crew, these categories

took up the bulk of their contracts.

EIGHT WEEKS IN A NUTSHELL

The crew started their work term with a comprehensive orientation tour of the watersheds that

comprise SAWIG. This was beneficial to the crew to become familiar with the work that SAWIG has done

in the past, and what is expected of them throughout the course of the summer. Kelley was pleasantly

surprised to benefit from this tour as well; as all crew members were from Stratford, they had insight

into work that could be done in areas that the group had not previously thought of. These areas have

been added to the list of work for 2013. After a brief but intensive shopping trip to purchase waders,

tools, bug spray etc., the group was ready, willing and able to begin their 8 week adventure.

Parks & Recreation would be an intricate part of the group’s work week; as the funding for summer

students partially came from the Town of Stratford, partnership with the town was both essential and

desirable. Therefore, once a week (and during the infrequent rainy afternoons), Carter and Iain would

work with Parks on jobs throughout the municipality. This often gave them a sense of appreciation for

the work they did for SAWIG!

Figure 1 Carter Livingstone (left) and Iain Cudmore (right)

Week one involved extensive work with Parks and Recreation; the SAWIG crew was requested by the

department to help remove what appeared to be a metal-laden dump in a new green space. Cars, farm

machinery etc. was present in this area, and all hands were on deck for this task. After Karalee left to

pursue another position, Carter stayed with Parks while SAWIG hired a new supervisor and field crew

worker.

Iain Cudmore and Justyn Young commenced work on July 3 (week two). Iain helped the Town of

Stratford at the Canada Day festivities during the long weekend. Over 600 trees were delivered that

week, and hundreds were delivered to Vista Bay Golf course and multiple residents within the

watershed boundaries. The crew tree planted at a variety of locations, including Vista Bay, Connolly

Drive and Brehaut’s creek. The crew assisted the Town prepare for the Strawberry festival, where Iain

and Justyn worked on Saturday, July 7.

Week three began with tree planting and a day-

long Watershed Training Course, sponsored by

the Province of Prince Edward Island. This gave

the crew a comprehensive introduction to

various facets of watershed protection, field

tours and a chance for the crew to meet other

groups’ summer staff. It was greatly enjoyed by

the boys. The new green spaces on Connolly

Drive and Williams’ Gate were planted, as

requested by Jason Hughes (Parks). Kelley and

the staff met with Rosemary Curley on July 11 at

Cotton Park to help determine the locations for

birdhouses and bathouses; this was in

preparation for the July 14 volunteer day. The

group placed posts around the park to help make

it easier and faster for volunteers to put up the

birdhouses. They continued tree planting, and

then did some stream restoration at Kinlock

Creek. Carter attended the Cotton Park

Volunteer Day on July 14, and with his help over

35 birdhouses and bathouses were placed at the

park. The volunteers were extremely impressed

with Carter, as he shone with his hard work and

attention to detail. Timbits were well deserved

at the end of the morning!

Figure 2 West Branch of Kinlock Creek

Week four brought more tree planting at Pondside, Jenkins Pond and William’s Gate. Kinlock creek

stream restoration was completed, and a large amount of

demolition/construction debris was hauled out of the buffer

zone and to the side of Saint’s Crescent; this would be

removed by the company whose name was on the debris.

Kelley contacted the company, and they were only too happy

to remove the garbage. It was great to see both branches of

Kinlock Creek completed, there were beautiful sections

thankfully captured on ‘film’.

The fifth week of work started with Parks & Recreation; Justyn

did not come to work, with no notice or call of absence. Kelley

felt it was time to bring Justyn to the office to let him go, as he

was not faring well as a supervisor. Justyn was understanding,

and left on good terms. As there was no longer a supervisor

present, Kelley checked in with the boys on a regular basis,

and ensured they had jobs and tasks for the remainder of the

season. Carter and Iain moved onto Birch Creek in Alexandra,

where brushmats were installed to help slow the movement

of silt through the system. Although there was no water

running in Boyer’s Creek, there was ample need for trees and

shrubs within the buffer zones; the crew moved there to plant

larch, white spruce, yellow birch and balsam fir.

In week 6, the staff

returned to Birch creek

to finish up the stream

enhancement;

although it was not in

detrimental condition,

it took time to get

through Birch Creek,

and it was a good

experience for a SAWIG

crew to learn how to

build brushmats on the

streambanks. They

traveled to Pisquid

watershed to help out

their crew on Tuesday, where they helped plant hundreds of trees in their area. This was done in the

spirit of cooperation between local watershed groups, especially those who exist under the Hillsborough

Area Watershed Cooperative (HAWC). This assistance was met with approval by both groups. Tree

Figure 3 Brandon, Iain and Carter Working on Coastal Zone Assessment

Figure 4 Iain, Kelley and Carter in Kinlock Creek

planting continued at Boyer’s Creek, and the Coastal Zone Assessment (CZA) began; all of the coastal

region from Alexandra to Fullerton’s Marsh would be GPS’ed and assessed to determine the condition of

the coast and the amount of armoured coastline that exists within the Stratford area watershed

boundaries. Brandon from Parks & Recreation assisted Carter, Iain, and Kelley on the first round of CZA,

and it was a great first walk. It was a beautiful day,

everyone was in great spirits, and it was certainly

the most aspect of the entire summer. Who else

can say they walked along the beach for several

days and get paid for it? Iain cut his foot, but that

was pretty minimal considering he was always the

one getting injured!

Week 7 arrived quickly, and started Monday

morning with the continuation of the Coastal Zone

Assessment. No one had any idea how long it was

going to take to perform the CZA, but it will be a

worthwhile endeavor when all of the coast and

armoured coastline are marked and documented.

This will be used as a baseline for future revisits and

assessments along the coast. Carter took a bit of a

spill at the beach while performing the assessment,

ending up with a nice parting gift of a bloody knee

and hand. He took it like a trooper, but it was not a

pretty picture! Tree planting at Boyer’s Creek took place on Tuesday, where mosquitoes, hornets/wasps,

and heat annoyed the boys, but they were troopers and planted dozens of trees along the buffer zone.

Tanya Craig asked if we could help her start a new flower bed around a new art installation at Cotton

Park; we met her at a residents home, where the boys dug up a few dozen plants and transplanted them

to the park. This was an incredibly hot day, and the ground at the site was tough as shale, so the crew

had to transplant soil and sand to build a false bed on top of the ground. It was a hard long day, and the

guys were rewarded with ice cream sundaes! The week was capped off by tree planting at Kinlock Creek

to complete the western side of the creek, and then off to the beach for a Friday afternoon of CZA.

Figure 5 New Flower Bed in Cotton Park

Figure 6 Reeve's Estates Park

Week 8 seemed to arrive so quickly! MacPhail Woods Ecological Forestry Project was contracted to do

some tree planting throughout Stratford, and the boys went to help them with any work they needed

done. Planting started at Reeve’s Estates Park, where ~25 holes were dug; it was at this point when we

realized that the Town was hesitant to put trees or shrubs along the front line of the park. We had to get

Joanne Weir out from Parks & Recreation, where she vetoed the notion. We filled in about 8 holes and

moved on to plant beautiful large trees throughout the rest of this public space. Trees were placed along

the front of MacNeill baseball fields. The final leg of the Coastal Zone Assessment was completed at the

beginning of Fullerton’s Marsh. Way to go guys! After one last day with Parks & Recreation, Carter and

Iain were treated to a day off for Gold Sup & Saucer Day.

Week 9-10 included make up time for a few days that the boys had to take off for illness, lack of

supervisor etc.; as Iain began work a week after

Carter, this was his official last week of work

for the summer. Tree planting was completed

at Kinlock Creek, as the boys were determined

to get as far as they could with the trees along

the buffer zones. A summer-end

inventory/cleanup of the equipment was

undertaken, and the hundreds and hundreds of

pots and trays were returned to forestry. It was

a proud moment to see how many we went

through this summer! It may not look like

much in the picture, but they were very happy

with what they put in the ground over 8 weeks.

Iain spent the first part of the week with Kelley doing some final cleanups and ‘chores’, and spent the

rest of his contract organizing and compiling the Coastal Zone Assessment. There were many, many raw

data sheets which needed to be typed up and matched to their corresponding photographs; finally, he

inputted them into an online mapping program and produced a map of the assessed area.

Figure 7 So Many Pots and Trays

RECOMMENDATIONS

This was SAWIG’s second summer crew, and the essential equipment had been purchased for the work

season. It is great to have equipment donations from local businesses; however, the quality of the

equipment is often not suitable for this level of activity and ‘abuse’. It is highly recommended that

heavy- duty bucksaws, loppers and pruning saws are purchased in the future.

A weekly schedule would be more efficient to give to the crew; there were times when the crew had to

contact Kelley to ask for the next job. Although the crew was always busy, they should have a list of

tasks to accomplish that would keep them busy without having to constantly contact the coordinator.

Partnership with the Town of Stratford is invaluable; however, it should be made clear that if the

students are working for a day, few days, week etc. with the Town, there should be ample jobs for them

to do. Idle time is not acceptable, and if the Town does not have enough work for them to do, they

should be sent back to the watershed group to continue with the summer’s activities.

Figure 8 Coastal Zone Assessment

REFLECTION

This was a great summer; the boys enjoyed working with the watershed group, the Town of Stratford

and the Pisquid watershed group. Their jobs were varied, and they were constantly moving throughout

the watersheds on a variety of tasks. This led to a much lower level of boredom and monotony, which

was greatly appreciated by Carter and Iain!

They both felt proud of the work they had done over the summer, and were happy to have contributed

to the environmental improvement of their community.

Table 1 Breakdown of Summer Activities

Date Activity

Week 1 June 25 Orientation and watershed tour June 26 Group with Parks to help remove metal dump from new park June 27 Carter went with Parks, Justyn and Iain hired June 28 Carter with Parks June 29 Carter with Parks Weekend Canada Day Festival (Iain)

Week 2

July 2 Canada Day Holiday July 3 Re-orientation and watershed tour for Justyn and Iain July 4 Tree Deliveries, tree planting at Vista Bay, Connolly Drive and

Brehaut’s Creek July 5 Tree planting at Vista Bay, Tree watering at Connolly Dr July 6 Tree planting at Vista Bay, Setup for Strawberry Festial Weekend Strawberry Festival (Iain and Justyn)

Week 3

July 9 Tree Planting July 10 Provincial Watershed Training Day July 11 Cotton Park with Rosemary Curley, Tree planting at Vista Bay

and Soccer Fields July 12 Parks & Recreation July 13 Birdhouse placement at Cotton Park, put up posts to prepare

for volunteer day, Kinlock Creek stream restoration, tree planting at William’s Gate

Weekend Cotton Park Volunteer Day (Carter)

Week 4

July 16 Tree planting, bathouses and birdhouses at Pondside, painting July 17 Finished Stream work at Kinlock Creek, hauled demolition

garbage out of Kinlock for pick up July 18 Tree planting at Jenkins Pond, Tea Hill (putting up posts) July 19 Parks & Recreation July 20 Painting and Maintenance Weekend

Week 5

July 23 Cleanups and gardening July 24 Let Justyn go, tree delivery and stream restoration at Birch

Creek July 25 Birch Creek stream restoration, Boyer’s Creek tree planting July 26 Parks & Recreation

July 27 Iain was out sick, so Carter worked with Parks (unable to work in field alone)

Weekend

Week 6

July 30 Birch Creek stream restoration, Coastal Zone Assessment July 31 Assisted Pisquid watershed group Aug 1 Tree planting at Boyer’s Creek Aug 2 Parks & Recreation Aug 3 Coastal Zone Assessment, tree planting at Boyer’s Creek Weekend

Week 7

Aug 6 Coastal Zone Assessment, rain day in afternoon Aug 7 Tree planting at Boyer’s Creek Aug 8 Picked up Trees from Forestry, helping at Cotton Park, Coastal

Zone Assessment Aug 9 Parks & Recreation Aug 10 Tree Planting at Kinlock Creek, Coastal Zone Assessment Weekend

Week 8

Aug 13 Tree Planting in Reeve’s Estates and MacNeill Field Aug 14 Tree Planting in Reeve’s Estates and MacNeill Field Aug 15 Tree Planting at MacNeill Field and Coastal Zone Assessment Aug 16 One last time with Parks & Recreation

Aug 17 Gold Cup & Saucer Day Weekend

Week 9

Aug 20 Tree Planting at Kinlock Creek, cleanup/inventory of equipment Aug 21 Returned pots/trays to Forestry, Cotton Park cleanup,

Aug 22-27 Iain organized and developed spreadsheet, maps and photos

for Coastal Zone Assessment