SCCWS continue with efforts to improve water quality and stream health
The Swift Current Creek Watershed Stewards (SCCWS) carried out various initiatives during 2018 to create more awareness among water users of the importance of water quality and stream health in the watershed.
Details about the not-for-profit organization’s activities during the past year were provided at the SCCWS annual general meeting at the Swift Current Research and Development Centre, April 2.
“I think it was a very good year,” SCCWS Executive Director Kevin Steinley said after the meeting. “If we look at the projects that we've completed, there was quite a few large projects that got to our mission of both improving water quality and also promoting practises that people can undertake to improve water quality on their own or as a larger organization.”
He considered the engineered rain garden project to be a highlight of last year’s activities.
The SCCWS received federal grant funding from Environment and Climate Change as well as in-kind contributions from the City of Swift Current to cover the cost of construction and some of the materials. The Saskatchewan Research Council also provided in-kind contributions through discounting the cost of water sample testing.
“The rain garden project was a big highlight, because it was one of the larger projects that we've undertaken,” he said. “There had been a lot of planning that has gone into it for a number of years and it's a very big project in terms of visibility for our group to show people what can be done to improve water quality.”
The project is located on a site along South Service Road in Swift Current, just east of the Regier Honda dealership. The rain garden will help to improve water quality in the creek through the collection of water run-off from a large catchment area that includes various businesses, schools and parking lots.
The flow of water through the rain garden will filter out pollutants and reduce the speed of water before it enters the creek, thereby reducing erosion potential.
Various other projects were carried out in 2018. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Saskatchewan Association of Watersheds provided funding for a natural edge project along the creek bank near the Ashley Park community hall in Swift Current. Common burdock, an invasive species, was cleared from the site and the area was then planted with native trees and shrubs.
SCCWS worked with stakeholders to develop a plan to protect the water supply of the town of Herbert. It included a protocol for testing the surface water used as part of the town’s water supply. Project funding was provided by the Water Security Agency.
A follow-up project was funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada to develop a water use plan to help water treatment plant operators to determine the mixture of surface and ground water for Herbert’s safe and sustainable water supply. Another component of this project is to work with the Town of Herbert to educate residents about water conservation.
SCCWS partnered with the Canadian Wildlife Service in 2018 to promote the Duncairn reservoir as a bird sanctuary. SCCWS was involved with efforts to raise awareness about aquatic invasive species and also did some monitoring at Lac Pelletier and Duncairn reservoir.
SCCWS continued to be very active to educate people about invasive weeds and to assist stakeholders with efforts to eradicate invasive species. Dallas Peters, the agri-environmental and watershed technician employed by SCCWS, went with summer students to Besant Park to collect leafy spurge beetles, which were released at six sites in the watershed to help control weed infestations.
SCCWS carried out a water monitoring project in 2018 as a follow-up to the more extensive 2017 watershed monitoring project. The 2018 project looked at the water quality and watershed health along a section of the creek from north of Swift Current to north of Waldeck.
Peters made a presentation about this project at the annual meeting. The findings indicated that riparian areas were healthy with problems at three locations, of which invasive species were the main problem. The riparian area at a fourth site was unhealthy due to a lack of deep-rooted vegetation to hold the creek bank together.
The water quality results for the sites were within acceptable parameters and issues of concern can be addressed through education and the implementation of beneficial management practices related to livestock stewardship and agricultural run-off mitigation.
SCCWS carried out a strategic planning exercise in 2018, which determined that the organization’s mission and goals are still relevant. Steinley felt it was really necessary to go through that exercise.
“It's been 20 years that we've been in existence as a group,” he said. “So we needed to renew our group and also to reset and reaffirm what our group does and what we want to do, and to set direction for the next three to five years.”
The exercise identified four key themes that are important for the long-term survival of the organization. One theme is related to finding longterm, stable funding and maintaining operational funding. Another theme is to deal with issues around finding new board members, attracting new watershed members and bringing back old partners.
A third theme is to make SCCWS relevant to residents and to improve the organization’s visibility. A fourth theme is about the best ways to identify and deliver projects that benefit the watershed and SCCWS.
“There's not going to be a change in direction,” he said about the overall purpose of SCCWS. “I think just more concentrating on what we do best, but we're going to be looking for partners, looking for new members, looking for people to help serve on the board to carry out the direction that was set. So there's no change, but just sort of a re-energizing of what we've been doing.”
According to Steinley the efforts to develop more partnerships with different organizations, to grow their membership base, and to expand their reach through the board of directors will also assist the SCCWS to create more awareness among watershed residents about water quality and the work done by the SCCWS to improve stream health.
“Our biggest challenge is to have a stable funding model to be able to properly do the work that we need to do to get our message to stakeholders and to be able to have a consistent message and to be able to work specifically to the mission and goals of the organization as they were set 20 years ago,” he said. “Part of the strategic plan is to create that stable funding model and to set criteria for projects that we look at to be able to ensure that they do meet our mission and goals.”
For more information about the Swift Current Creek watershed and SCCWS projects and activities, visit the organization’s website at www.sccws.com