Riverbank Makeover Project
Similar to 2018, this year Calgary River Valleys is again doing a “Riverbank Makeover” project with a homeowner who backs onto the Elbow River, with funding support from City of Calgary Water Resources. This project is in alignment with the City’s recently adopted program, the Riparian Action Program, which is designed to improve and maintain the health of river-adjacent areas as well as the quality and quantity of water flowing through Calgary’s rivers and creeks.
The project this year has 3 main components:
- Research about people’s knowledge of riparian issues,
- Field work to modify an Elbow River adjacent homeowner’s riparian zone with new vegetation and monitor its success over time, and
- Educate the public about the value and function of riparian zones in our ecosystem.
Click here to learn more about this project.
Elbow River Brown Trout Redd Count
This project was supported by a Watershed Stewardship Grant, a program of the Land Stewardship Centre, as well as our own operational funds, and support from City of Calgary Water Resources. We appreciate the support provided by these partners which allows this important citizen science project to proceed.
Calgary River Valleys has been working with other groups to count Brown Trout redds or spawning nests in the lower Elbow River since 1994, and has been the main sponsor of this important project since 2009. We want to ensure this citizen science continues as an annual count in order to ensure the data collected is as accurate as it can be, that trends over time can be observed, and the location of redds can be used to ensure land use decisions don’t negatively impact Calgary’s blue-ribbon trout fishery. In 2018, we were able to include, for the first time, data collection on Brown Trout redds in the Upper Elbow on the western edge of Calgary to establish a baseline in that reach.
These counts are conducted in November after spawning by the Brown Trout has occurred, a behavior that is triggered by water temperatures becoming sufficiently cold in the late fall. You are invited to participate in the 2019 Redd Survey dates, which will likely be on Saturday November 2 or 9 (Upper Elbow Count) and Friday November 3 or 10 (Lower Elbow Count). Click here to learn more about this project, and then scroll down.
CRV on Twitter
The ten latest CRV Tweets on Twitter.
Raw sewage leaking into a watershed w/o remediation? @cityofcalgary has the right & the respons'ty to fix the sewer line. One of our contacts has advised that the developer/owner of this land has PREVENTED #yyc from fixing the leak = illegal as per Enviro Prot'n & Enhancemt Act twitter.com/RustysTale/sta…
Interested in hearing what a "sensitive area" is...IMO #HighlandValley is the most sensitive part of the North Hill Coulee...hope our representatives can take time to see for themselves how this sewage spill affects this #watershed. Review Confederation Regional Drainage Study!
— Rusty (@RustysTale) August 1, 2019
Many of these grant-funded projects are time-sensitive or seasonal, so no funds until Oct 2019 means a full year delay in the project @Wenzel @dbinyyc @skiergurl @TUCanada1 twitter.com/clgrivervalley…
Unfort'ly, it's not just school playgrounds that are affected by a budget delay. Also delayed is our already APPROVED enviro stewardship (WRRP) grant from March for riverbank restoration work that helps mitigate #flood damage. Funds delayed = no restoration in 2019 https://t.co/mZoiVAYbea
— CalgaryRiverValleys (@clgrivervalleys) July 26, 2019
Unfort'ly, it's not just school playgrounds that are affected by a budget delay. Also delayed is our already APPROVED enviro stewardship (WRRP) grant from March for riverbank restoration work that helps mitigate #flood damage. Funds delayed = no restoration in 2019 twitter.com/Wenzel/status/…
There are also a whole bunch of community groups applying for school playgrounds through this fund that had hoped to have playgrounds for the new school year. https://t.co/VTaHqWeFSA
— Wenzel (@Wenzel) July 25, 2019
Restating: the land for new #arena location will #flood in a 1 in 50 year flood (i.e. has a 1 in 50 or 2% chance of flooding each year). A 1 in 100 level (1% chance/yr) flood would be much worse. Who pays for flood reparations? Taypayers, that's who #yyccc #UrbanPlanning
It does seem odd that it's hard to even find the details of the deal on the City's website -- not even on the @cityofcalgary Engage Portal! twitter.com/DaleCalkins/st…
Not in my view. Certainly there’s no plan for engagement, as was required. Just, tell us what you think I’m too little time based on incomplete information.
— ᴅᴀʟᴇ ᴄᴀʟᴋɪɴs (@DaleCalkins) July 25, 2019
Interesting article about barriers to action (or "dragons" that need slaying) on #climatechange -- we can't just nibble at the edges anymore. We all need to do our part, not just the largest emitters #cdnpoli See macleans.ca/news/canada/ye… for actions we can take twitter.com/ElkeBabiuk/sta…
"If Canadians are to help fight the climate crisis by changing their own lifestyles, knowing how to spot their own dragons is the first step to slaying them."#cdnpoli #climatechangehttps://t.co/0UPCT9QtmS
— Elke Babiuk (@ElkeBabiuk) July 23, 2019
You are correct. Fluoride is naturally occurring in rivers, including in #yyc but levels aren't high enough to help prevent tooth decay. Target for most NAmer cities is generally 0.7 mg/L cbc.ca/news/canada/ca… Science nerds can check this: canada.ca/en/health-cana… twitter.com/Squee22/status…
Flouride in the quantities found in our tap water, replicates the quantity of natural Flouride that is found in river and streams - that our bodies evolved to use to strengthen our bones and teeth.
— Brian (@Squee22) July 17, 2019
Removing Flouride is an attack on the health of poor people who can't afford it.
Eagles are sometimes seen in #yyc -- generally near water bodies such as #NoseCreek and its tributary @ConfedCreek Check out @birdscalgary & their website: birdscalgary.com/?s=eagles twitter.com/loveflowers33/…
@ConfedCreek we just saw an eagle flying on the 4th St edge of your valley! So exciting!! @clgrivervalleys do we normally have eagles in Calgary?
— Heather Knorr (@loveflowers33) July 14, 2019
To even consider a Nose Creek alignment for #Greenlineyyc instead of Centre St (after dec'n made in 2016 with millions in tax $ spent & input from 1000s of Calgarians) ignores the floodplain risk, & is in part why no one lives there. @DruhFarrell @seanchucalgary @JyotiGondek twitter.com/gregmorrow/sta…
Here's are a few 5-min illustrations of why a #yyc Nose Creek Green Line LRT alignment makes no sense. You can see precious little of a 600m simplified (circular) walkshed serves homes (it mostly serves nothing!). Put the transit where the people are. #yyccc #yycplan pic.twitter.com/12ZmuvLnty
— Greg Morrow (@gregmorrow) July 15, 2019
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