In the spring of 2012, the Alouette River Management Society began working on Habitat Monitoring in the Katzie Slough Blind Channel. The goals of this project were to:

  1. To improve the Katzie Slough Construction for the function of the fish habitat for salmonid overwintering.
  2. To increase the number of riparian plants and wapato plants (traditional food for the Katzie First Nation)
  3. To engage Katzie youth in the restoration and improvement of the Slough on their traditional lands

In spring this year, ARMS received a grant from the Pacific Salmon Foundation to monitor the health of a newly constructed channel in Pitt Meadows for overwintering salmonid species. ARMS coordinated training for Katzie youth to assist in monitoring the channel.  This compensation project is a Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure initiative to offset lost habitat from Katzie Slough when Highway 7 in Pitt Meadows was expanded to install a bus lane.

In May of 2012, the first year of monitoring began with the help of Pearson Ecological, an environmental consultant organization. Mike Pearson, the senior biologist at Pearson Ecological led a small crew of volunteers from the Katzie First Nation and Alouette River Management Society to set and retrieve juvenile fish traps; and lay vegetation plots to record the type, number and size of plants occurring in the project area.

Figure 1. Image of the Katzie Slough Blind Channel signage installed.
Figure 2. Image of the Google Map location of the Katzie Slough.

Later in July, Streamkeepers training was completed by Katzie First Nation youth and Alouette River Management Society (ARMS) volunteers and staff. The training was hosted at Coho Creek in Maple Ridge. Coho Creek is one of the many streams and creeks that have returning salmon species, which allowed for the ideal environment to train folks. We’re grateful for the training provided by the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation.

To further the Habitat Monitoring, ARMS staff and volunteers had the opportunity to learn about photo-point monitoring camera skills in mid August. This technique is used to monitor changes in habitat over different seasons. This training provides staff and volunteers with the skills to track the changes in this channel and make notes for future enhancement.

An integral part of the habitat monitoring training was to test the water quality. Our first full day of water testing was conducted at the end of August. We tested the water in the slough and compared it to that of the channel. The quality of the water in the slough was between poor and acceptable water quality, while the channel read an acceptable quality. Dissolved oxygen levels in the Local Control Site were much lower, and largely within the guideline range, likely due to oxygen consumption by decaying organic material, resulting from prolific plant growth.

Figure 3. Image of Katzie community members and ARMS staff & volunteers conducting a vegetation assessment.
Figure 4. Image of aerial view of the vegetation plots surrounding the slough.
Figure 5. Image of volunteers identifying shrubs in vegetation plots

At the site, fish traps were set to see what species were residing in the area. There was a variety of aquatic life found including, stickleback fish, pumpkin seed fish and American Bullfrog tadpoles. The low fish diversity and salmonids use in the Katzie Slough is likely a result of three factors:  

  • Physical isolation from the Fraser and Pitt Rivers by dykes and floodgates  
  • Episodes of very low dissolved oxygen levels during the summer months due to eutrophication driven by agricultural nutrient loading  
  • Low habitat productivity within the Project Site.   

Habitat conditions in the Project remain poor for fish.  Physical habitat structure, in the form of submerged aquatic plants, is improving annually, but fish habitat productivity remains limited by a lack of cover and biological productivity.  The clay substrate limits aquatic plant and invertebrate production so little food is available. In the fall, ARMS will be going out again to record what aquatic invertebrates (water bugs) are using the blind channel and to record the water quality in slightly cooler temperatures.

Figure 6. Image of Pearson Ecological and volunteers assessing fish found in traps
Figure 7. Image of an American Bullfrog tadpole that was found in one of the trap, which is an introduced species.
Figure 8. Image of species captured during monitoring and their numbers being recorded.