Letter to Council: Trepanier Creek Watershed Restoration Project

Peachland Town Council
April 11th 2006

For years, the Peachland Sportsman's Association has been doing habitat restoration work in local watersheds in an effort to improve conditions for fish and wildlife. That has included replacing spawning gravel for kokanee in Powers and Peachland, and Trepanier Creeks, brush cutting in the Antlers' Saddle to improve browse for over-wintering deer, alterations to the stream channel downstream of the dam spillway on Eneas Lake to allow fish passage, doing riparian planting along the lower reaches of Trepanier Creek in 2002, and fish and wildlife counts.

With receipt of a $10,000 grant from the provincial government in 2005 for continuing restoration work on Trepanier Creek's watershed, club members discussed how best to tackle the next project, and decided to enlist the aid of a consultant.

Hydrologist Lorne Davies of Geostream Environmental Consulting was brought on board to provide technical advice and proved to be invaluable in helping volunteers translate their hopes into reality.

His advice was to begin at the top of the watershed and work our way down, identifying problem areas and potential solutions.

Siltation is one problem that has adverse impacts on both aquatic and human life downstream, and since Trepanier Creek has a history as an important kokanee spawning stream for Okanagan Lake; it was decided to tackle that problem first.

In 1998 a landslide in an upper tributary of MacDonald Creek, which is a tributary to Trepanier, resulted in significant sediment being deposited in the creek. Sediment still enters the creek from secondary erosion of the landslide track, particularly in the gullied section downstream of the gravel pit.

That unnamed tributary appears to originate in a Ministry of Transportation gravel pit across the highway from the tailings dam for Brenda Mine.

A site visit was made by club members and the consultant July 5, 2005 and a letter sent put to stakeholders July 6, requesting input, information and support for a project to stabilize the banks of that unnamed tributary.

It went to all relevant government departments, from health and highways, to environment and forests; watershed users such as Gormans, Brenda Mine, the Trepanier Ditch Water Users' Community, and the Okanagan Nation Alliance; and local government bodies such as Peachland, the Central Okanagan Regional District and the Westside Water Committee.

Brenda Mine manager Georges Guilleminot offered $2,000 to further help with the bank stabilization work, CORD offered planting stock to help in bank stabilization, and Gormans invited us to come to them when we needed grass seed or technical expertise.

Following a more intensive field trip July 19 by Judie Steeves and the consultant, it was decided to hire a professional faller to stabilize the upper slope area of the gullied section, this included dropping some of the mature trees which were leaning over the edge of the bank, as it was felt it would be too dangerous for amateurs to deal with.

A faller was hired and did the work in early August last year. The logs were laid parallel to the slope so they would provide surface roughness and reduce the potential for surface erosion.

A final site visit for 2005 was conducted Oct. 16 by club members and the consultant, who pointed out where grass seed might be broadcast next spring to help further stabilize the steep banks left after the washout.

Concurrently, another facet of the watershed restoration project was undertaken by a group of area teenagers, who the club hired under the management of Ernie Hurd, to remove the rusty wire and other trash from the Trepanier Creek canyon in the lower reaches of the creek.

They rigged up a pulley and cable system, using trees on either side of the creek, to help them haul out the wire and get it transported downstream where it could be hauled out by truck.

The wire is the remnants of a wood stave pipe system used in 1909 when the municipality of Peach land built a hydroelectric dam on the creek in the canyon. It was estimated 1,000 pounds of wire was removed by the crew.

As well, consultants were hired to assess the viability of removing the old and decaying hydro dam in order to re-naturalize the creek's flow. That report is what I am bringing forward to the Municipality of Peachland tonight.

Finally, the club voted Sept. 21 to purchase two flow monitoring devices for Trepanier Creek to help the environment ministry investigate where the creek's flow disappears to in the lower reaches.

Low flows are an issue which sometimes creates fatal conditions for spawning kokanee in the fall.  Brenda Mine staff has been cooperative in recent years in releasing treated water down the system at spawning time to help alleviate problems. Members plan to continue work on watershed restoration in coming years. It's estimated that 150 hours of volunteer work went into this project this year by PSA members.

The report which you have all received a copy of gives us concern for a future time when the old dam may give way if there is a large spring runoff such as would occur in a 100 year flood or larger. Before the school was where it is now we understand that floods have inundated that area.

The channeling of the creek just above the highway, from its former meandering path through the area many years ago presents a potential bottleneck that could become a problem if the dam gave way and the 1000 cubic meters of gravel behind it came down during a flood.

The Sportsmens Association had Creek Restoration specialist Bob Newberry inspect that area of the creek and we were told that the creek at that point is less than ¼ the width it should be to safely take flood water through it without any added gravel or boulders piling up in that area. The high water will undermine the boulders placed on the banks for stabilization and these could collapse into the creek causing further problems especially in a severe flood.

We have been advised to place this report into your hands and would like to see a plan move forward to mitigate any potential flooding damage in the future. We also will work with you in any way possible in the future, but at this time beside the current upper creek work we are doing and possible further removal of any wire resurfacing after spring runoff we have been advised that this area is the responsibility of Peachland. Liability issues will not allow our organization to do any more work in the lower area, above highway 97.

Al Springer
Peachland Sportsmens Association.