Students at an east Maple Ridge school have been taking care of a waterway next to the school
A group of students inspected the radishes they were growing in one of the junior kindergarten to Grade 5 garden plots.
Photography by: Submitted, TIMES
Meadowridge students recently released 500 salmon into a creek that they had been cleaning up since December.
This was the first time salmon were released by Meadowridge School and it is part of an effort to clean up and rehabilitate Latimer Creek, which runs through a recently acquired property next to the school.
“Latimer Creek is a class A watercourse which provides habitat for a variety of fish species including rainbow and cutthroat trout and coho and chum salmon,” said Lyn Tyler, the private school’s director of development.
The students and staff have been rehabilitating the creek in partnership with the Alouette River Management Society (ARMS) and other community groups since December. They have received grants from the Vancity Community Fund and RBC Blue Water Project, and help from Eco-system Restoration Associates.
The rehabilitation efforts include removing invasive plants, for example, morning glory and blackberries, and planting native plants like vine maple, salmonberry, skunk cabbage, rhododendrons, sword ferns, as well as native trees.
“The restoration is going well, but we are constantly working on ways to stop the Himalayan blackberry from reclaiming the area,” Tyler said.
There is also come debris in the creek that needs to be removed, Tyler added.
