Creek restoration could reduce erosion, support brook trout in Kitchener

The City of Kitchener is looking to restore stretches of North Strasburg Creek, with the aim of reducing erosion and flood risk while improving habitat for species like rare brook trout.

The project will focus on four segments, or reaches, of the creek on either side of Strasburg Road, and north and south of Trillium Drive.

Most of these reaches, between McIntyre Place and Strasburg Road, consist of concrete-lined channels, while the fourth, east of Strasburg, is described as degraded, with “actively-eroding banks.”

The project, aided with funding from the federal Disaster Mitigation Adaptation Fund, will remove the concrete lining and replace it with natural materials.

The project team held a recent online open house to discuss various design options. Two more public information sessions are expected in the coming months as design work progresses.

Construction could take place in 2025 and 2026.

One of the key drivers for the project is stormwater management, explained Chris Denich of engineering consulting firm Aquafor Beech.

“Naturalized creeks and stormwater management ponds or facilities help to slow water down, allow for infiltration and cleans pollutants from stormwater, as well as creates habitat for fish and birds,” he said.

A project page on the Engage Kitchener site notes that North Strasburg Creek is home to brook trout, a species increasingly hard to find in urban areas due to their reliance on more sensitive cold-water creek systems.

“Though North Strasburg is not a cold-water creek, we manage it as if it is to protect the cold-water species that live there,” the page notes.

“We have already improved three stormwater ponds along this creek’s path to help with cooling, water quality and flood risk.”

The planned work will help to naturalize some of the creek’s reaches between retrofitted ponds.

Design options include using armourstone retaining walls with a low-flow channel and native vegetation inset between the walls, vegetated buttresses (typically large boulders inset with soil and vegetation), or a combination of methods, said Rob Amos of Aquafor Beech.

Different designs could provide opportunities for trails at the top of the creek banks if space permits.

“We want to make sure that we are not increasing (flood) risk to any of those adjacent private properties, or creating a situation at which point those private properties may be flooded more often,” he said.

Unlike a larger naturalization project for parts of Schneider and Shoemaker creeks, where 11 commercial buildings will be acquired by the city and torn down, city project manager Pacifique Nicholas said “we do not have any plans to do that” through the Strasburg Creek work.

“I think that the intention is entirely to stay largely within the cityowned corridor,” added Amos.

During the session, Rebecca Robinson of Reep Green Solutions also shared information on the Rain Smart Neighbourhoods program, a partnership with the city providing consultations on managing and reducing runoff on private property. Information is available at reepgreen.ca/rain-smart.

For more information on the creek project, visit engagewr.ca/ northstrasburgcreek.

The project will focus on four segments, or reaches, of the creek on either side of Strasburg Road, and north and south of Trillium Drive