Connie Simmons

Earth Day - Does It Really Matter?

(Editor's Note: You may call me cynical, but I did ask myself today whether naming this one day "Earth Day" actually made a difference. Here is a blog piece by OWC's Planning Manager, Connie Simmons, attempting to answer that question.)

          The Oldman Watershed Council marks Earth Day with a spotlight on the                                                                         Headwaters Action Team! 

In preparation for this Blog post, I visited Earth Day’s website, http://earthday2015.ca/ and thought a lot about how the OWC and our key partnerships with stakeholders and volunteers supports Earth Day Canada’s mission to foster and celebrate environmental respect, action and behaviour change that lessens our impact on the earth.  I looked at the questions they asked:

“What can I do to help the environment?”
“How can my individual actions make a bigger difference?”
“Can the impact of one person really help the planet?”

It didn’t take me long to figure out what to say – without the power of key partnerships and committed people and groups working together for common goals and outcomes for watershed health – the OWC would be just another planning organization with piles of plans on a shelf gathering dust.

Committed action by individuals, stakeholders and government is what makes the difference – and this action makes Earth Day (and everyday) a reason for acknowledgement and thanks to the people who are doing this important work.



The OWC’s Headwaters Action Team (HAT) is focused on getting things done for headwaters health.   The HAT was formed in 2014 to begin the process of implementing 5 priority actions of the Headwaters Action Plan, and to see how far we can go in the first two years of collaborative work (for more on this:  http://oldmanbasin.org/teams-and-projects/integrated-watershed-management-plan-team/).

The HAT is a great group of people, with different perspectives, interests and values. Some of our conversations are bluntly honest, and some of the interests around the table are at times cross-threaded. Nonetheless, as a foundation for collaborative work, we agree that the health of the headwaters needs improvement, that there are important initiatives that can address the priority concerns - and through this work, we raise support for improved watershed management, and achieve better outcomes for headwaters health.


OWC Headwaters Action Team - April 9, 2015  
left to right:  Jason Blackburn (Alberta Conservation Association); Lorne Fitch (Cows and Fish); Mike Wagner (Environment and Sustainable Resource Development – Forest Hydrology); Connie Simmons (OWC); Wade Aebli (Spray Lakes Sawmills); Rosemary Jones (Environment and Sustainable Development-Parks); David Green (Southern Alberta Sustainable Communities Initiative); Terry Yagos (MD Pincher Creek); Tony Bruder (Drywood-Yarrow Conservation Partnership); Bill Kovach (MD Crowsnest Pass); Jim Lynch Staunton (North Fork Grazing Association); Richard Burke (Trout Unlimited – Lethbridge).  Missing:  Darryl Ferguson (Crowsnest Pass Quad Squad); Carolyn Aspeslet (Castle Crown Wilderness Coalition). 

The Headwaters Action Team works in both an advisory and implementation capacity, within the mandates and resources available from their respective organizations.  So when I look at the questions posed for Earth Day, …what can I do, and how can my individual actions make a difference?-   I see in the HAT the commitment and willingness to act stemming from connection and appreciation for the beauty, the critical ecological function as key water tower, and resources that support people and communities – all of these values, and more, are inherent to the Oldman headwaters.    

To really hear what is important to the team members,  it is best to hear from them on why they are putting their time and energy into action for headwaters health: 

I have lived near to the Oldman River most of my life and have spent many hours fishing, and playing in it, but most of all walking along it enjoying the hugely diverse wildlife and plant life enabled and nourished by it. The headwaters is the source and the Oldman River is the lifeblood of Southern Alberta.                                                     Ted Smith – Rancher, Livingston Landowners Group, HAT member

The Oldman River headwaters encompasses the largest remaining core areas of pure strain Westslope Cutthroat Trout within the historic range of Alberta, and is critical to the long term sustainability of the species in the province.  Watersheds within the headwaters not only contribute to the overall persistence of this species, but also represent some of the best quality, and most popular native (and introduced) trout fisheries in the province, a service highly valued by a major stakeholder group of ACA, Alberta’s anglers.
Jason Blackburn – Alberta Conservation Association – HAT member

Headwaters are the epicenter for source water, native fish and wildlife (several of which are ‘threatened’) and a sense of space for recreation, watershed integrity and biodiversity maintenance. The headwaters are where the Oldman watershed begins and how well we manage this critical area dictates whether we meet the goals of downstream residents.
Lorne Fitch, Cows and Fish – HAT member

I live in the Oldman headwaters.  Every day I see the snowpack on the mountains, hear the melt-water music of Gladstone Creek as it joins Mill Creek, which flows into the Castle River, and then joins the Oldman River system at the Oldman Reservoir. I think of all who live upstream and downstream and depend on this water – the towns and cities, the forests, the fish, birds and wildlife, and the farmers, ranchers and businesses that help support the economy of Alberta.  Over 90% of the water of the Oldman River comes from the headwaters.   For this reason, and because this place is my home, I am committed to working for headwaters beauty, function, spiritual values and source of life and sustenance.   
                                                         Connie Simmons, Oldman Watershed Council – HAT coordinator

On Earth Day 2015 – we celebrate and thank the commitment of people and organizations who are  working  together for watershed health.
Thank you, Headwaters Action Team!!!


Blog post by: Connie Simmons,
OWC - Headwaters Stewardship Coordinator
connie@oldmanbasin.org




  

Native fish – our very own aquatic ‘canaries in a coal mine’

(Editor's Note: Why is your clean, clear, drinking water threatened? And how does it depend on fish? OWC's Planning Manager, Connie Simmons, explains exactly what's "fishy" in the headwaters. Your comments are, as always, most welcome.) 

The Headwaters Action Plan (HAP) is a key outcome of the Oldman Integrated Watershed Management Plan, and was developed with the input of key stakeholders and the public throughout 2013-14. The HAP developed targets, actions and recommendations for three indicators of headwaters health to focus efforts to effectively protect and maintain source waters and headwaters values.   
One of these three indicators provided direction for action related to fish - and not just any fish, but a focus on two native species that are now listed as ‘threatened’ by the Government of Alberta:  westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout.   
With the ‘threatened’ listing, come Recovery Plans and a legislated requirement to safeguard the species from further population decreases, and to protect and restore critical habitats to support and ensure their continued persistence and recovery.  Westslope Cutthroat Trout have an approved Recovery Plan, and a Recovery Plan for bull trout is currently being developed.   (See: http://esrd.alberta.ca/fish-wildliditfe/species-at-risk/   )
 Why focus on fish? 
Native fish need healthy source waters and headwaters to thrive,  and source water and headwaters integrity directly link to sustainability of healthy streams and rivers that provide us with high water quality and sufficient water quantity – a critical foundation for sustainable human communities and economic stability. 
The looming crisis with these two native trout species tells us that all is not well in the Oldman headwaters, or Alberta. 
Development and recreation pressures, habitat degradation, fragmentation and loss, invasive species incursion (i.e. competitive or hybridizing species such as rainbow trout), climate change, and angling pressure have created a perfect storm of issues that threaten the continued existence of these key native fish species in Alberta.   
This is our wake-up call – these native trout are truly our aquatic ‘canaries in a coal mine’ – telling us that all is not well, and that we need to pay attention, prioritize what to do, and then act with responsibility and solid scientific direction to ensure the continued persistence and flourishing of native trout in the strongholds of cold, clear mountain streams and lakes. 
 Our native trout – wild aquatic beauty in peril
 Westslope Cutthroat trout

Westslope cutthroat trout are listed as threatened by both the Government of Alberta and the Government of Canada.   In Canada, westslope cutthroat trout are native only to the Bow and Oldman River systems.  
Historically in the Oldman watershed, their populations extended from the high mountain creeks, rivers and lakes to as far as Lethbridge.  But - that was then, this is now.  WSCT have declined so precipitously in the last 50 years that they now are at around 5% of their former population numbers, and these remnant populations have retracted to the small and scattered streams in the highest reaches of the Rocky Mountain tributaries of the Oldman River.  
Human activities were and continue to be the greatest threat to the persistence of WSCT remnant populations in Alberta.  These activities include the historical introduction of invasive species (ie: stocking of rainbow trout hybridize with WSCT and reduce or exterminate pure strain populations); development/industrial pressures that adversely impact or destroy habitat; and consumption (angling).
This alarming trend is further exacerbated by the looming issue of climate change, when projected mean temperatures in summer of many streams, especially in lower elevation streams and lakes, will rise to a point that WSCT cannot continue to exist.   High mountain streams with intact forests and riparian areas provide the foundation for the clear, cold, connected and complex aquatic systems that support WSCT.  
If we want to have WSCT in the future, there is an immediate need to take greater care of these important remnant habitats – to protect, rehabilitate and restore, and to manage adverse and cumulative impacts in these mountain headwaters areas.
 Bull trout


Bull trout were listed as a threatened by the Government of Alberta in 2012.   The status of bull trout is also currently under review by the Government of Canada.  A Recovery Plan for bull trout is now being prepared to guide the recovery of bull trout in Alberta.   
Bull trout occur in all of the major watersheds of the eastern slopes in Alberta, but have experienced significant reductions in both range and numbers, including the loss of some populations. Historically, bull trout were estimated to live in approximately 24,000 stream kilometres in Alberta, but are now down to an estimated 16,000 kms.   This is a 33% reduction in the extent of their historical range.
Bull trout in southern Alberta watersheds have had the greatest losses, including the Oldman, Bow and Red Deer rivers.  Bull trout populations in the Oldman watershed have been decreasing due to increasing cumulative impacts of industrial and recreation activities in their historic range, including logging, gas exploration and extraction, off-highway vehicles use, livestock grazing and random access camping.
  Recovery of bull trout will require conservation of healthy aquatic ecosystems, restoration and protection of degraded habitats, and the adoption of disturbance thresholds that will not be exceeded.
 What do we need to do for native trout?
As a first step, Albertans need to be aware that the populations of native trout are in trouble and that action is needed to ensure healthy headwaters and source water native fish habitat.  As a sharp lesson about the nature of cumulative effects that degrade native fish habitat and population persistence, Lorne Fitch put it most succinctly:
"Farmers, miners, off highway vehicle users, roughnecks, homeowners, politicians and a cast of thousands have devastated Alberta’s fish populations without ever catching or frying a single fish. Instead, large numbers of fish, populations of fish, and watersheds of fish were killed through habitat alterations, loss of critical habitats, water withdrawals, and pollution. It has been a death by a thousand cuts, not a thousand hooks. Individually there was no malice, spite or even intention – only the ignorance of fish ecology and cumulative effects."

Lorne Fitch (excerpt from essay ‘Two Fish, One Fish, No Fish: Alberta’s Fish Crisis’)
If we are able to secure healthy, productive headwaters and source water habitat for native fish, we are also helping to secure healthy and productive headwaters and source waters for all who need water in the Oldman watershed.   
In addition to raising public awareness, a concerted effort to effectively manage cumulative development/use impacts, provide excellent conservation information to public and stakeholders, and work to address threats to the continued persistence of native trout is greatly needed in the Oldman headwaters.  
The OWC Headwaters Action Team and partners are starting to address some of these concerns this summer (more on the Team and partnerships is coming in a future Blog!).    Recreation user engagement programs in Dutch Creek will share information about critical habitat for westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout, and engage recreationists to seek solutions that will would help ensure continued native trout persistence.  
Trout Unlimited (Oldman chapter) has taken the initiative to begin to work on riparian restoration and sedimentation issues in Hidden Creek – a sub-watershed just north of Dutch Creek and home to bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout.   The Alberta Conservation Association is working on a more complete inventory of westslope cutthroat trout in the upper Oldman headwaters area, and will be doing population assessments in Dutch Creek, Hidden Creek and White Creek in 2015.   Cows and Fish are working with the OWC to inventory riparian areas and flag areas that need focused restoration work in the form of restoration, and engagement of users to mitigate further impacts.  South Saskatchewan Regional Plan sub-regional initiatives are underway with the Linear Footprint Management Plan and Recreation Management Plan for the Livingston and Porcupine Hills areas.   
All of these initiatives are greatly needed, but we need a focused approach to preserving and extending critical habitat for native trout as an important iconic species, and a marker of healthy, productive headwaters and source waters in the Oldman watershed and beyond.   
Bull trout - at home in cold, clear, complex and connected high mountain streams and lakes


Connie Simmons
Planning Manager



OWC's Planning Manager Connie Simmons on ... PLANS ... & ACTION!!!

(Editor's note: Thanks to John Stoesser of the Pincher Creek Echo for this article - and for championing a healthy watershed).

Around 75 conservationists, ranchers and people interested in the area's watersheds crowded into the Twin Butte Community Hall for the Nature Conservancy of Canada's 10th annual Eat and Greet evening recently.

Early in the evening jokes were made that the huge turnout was thanks to the delicious catering from Jeny and Phil Akitt of the Twin Butte Mexican Restaurant, but once dinner was over attention was focused on riveting presentations by members of the Oldman Watershed Council, the Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association and Cows and Fish.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada's 10th annual Eat and Greet at the Twin Butte Community Hall was chock full of information about the area's watersheds on Friday, Feb. 6, 2015. Representatives from the Oldman Watershed Council, Cows and Fish and the Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association spoke to the crowd.  From left to right: Jenel Bode, Anne Stevick, Connie Simmons, Jen Jenkins, Tony Bruder, Wonnita Andrus, Kristi Stebanuk and Lorne Fitch. John Stoesser photo/QMI Agency.
The Nature Conservancy of Canada's 10th annual Eat and Greet at the Twin Butte Community Hall was chock full of information about the area's watersheds on Friday, Feb. 6, 2015. Representatives from the Oldman Watershed Council, Cows and Fish and the Waterton Biosphere Reserve Association spoke to the crowd. From left to right: Jenel Bode, Anne Stevick, Connie Simmons, Jen Jenkins, Tony Bruder, Wonnita Andrus, Kristi Stebanuk and Lorne Fitch. John Stoesser photo/QMI Agency.

The theme of the evening was protecting the headwaters and OWC planning manager Connie Simmons dove right into an update on the organization's Headwaters Action Plan and Dutch Creek Pilot Project.

"It's the doing that's so important," Simmons said. "We're going to be talking about collaborative partnerships and that's really where we have to get going."

The Oldman Watershed Council is a registered charity and one of 11 watershed planning and advisory councils in the province. They work under Alberta's Water for Life strategy.
"This is the way folks can actually be part of watershed management and planning and doing," Simmons said, noting that while the group receives some funding from the government they also raise exterior money.

The OWC studies water quality, water quantity and, most important to them, the health of aquatic ecosystems while also creating watershed health assessments and providing recommendations to any levels of government that makes decisions.

"We hope that they listen and take that information into consideration," Simmons said. "But most important we enable, and hope to enable change. Change is basically, education, engagement, encouragement in this great watershed community of the whole Oldman basin."

After creating a vision, state of the watershed report, a "10,000 foot" watershed view, risk assessment and priorities, the OWC will focus on studying water quality and emerging contaminants throughout the entire basin.

"It's daunting, it's very daunting," Simmons said. "So we're definitely going to need a lot of help from communities and community members."

Approximately up 90 per cent or more of the water that leaves the Oldman River originates in the headwaters region, which are located west of Highway 22 and extend south from Chain Lakes down into Glacier Park in Montana.

"I know it's an iconic landscape, very important to all of us and we care about it deeply," Simmons said. "It is so important... we have to take care of this. It's really an important region."

The OWC has combined science such as cumulative impact mapping and local input to create a plan for protecting the headwaters. "We didn't just do science," Simmons said. "We also did a lot of work with local knowledge. That's listening to you and the communities and it's absolutely important. So it wasn't just (science) it was a marriage between the two."

Some of the priorities that came out of the public meetings were fish populations, invasive species and linear features. "We want to explore options for recreation user fees, to fund enforcement, education and stewardship projects," said Simmons. "I can't underscore enough how every single community we talked to, when talking about impacts on the watershed, said, 'What are we going to do about the recreational pressures. We have to something but we have no enforcement for that." "The headwaters is fair game... they shoved everything down to this corner of the world and now we've got, oh my goodness, a bit of a management problem," she added.

Simmons showed a map of the Dutch Creek area where unregulated stream crossings are interspersed with bull trout habitat. The area is part of OWC's new Adopt A Watershed program."It's beautiful in there but it has pretty much every cumulative effect you can imagine. So that's why we chose it," said Simmons. This coming summer their plan is to make a difference on the ground in Dutch Creek and also turn that into a story and a guide for others interested in protecting their watersheds. "What can we start to do... to still provide good recreational experiences for folks while also looking after watershed health. It's a tall order but we have to start somewhere," Simmons said. "The recovery plans seem to be dead in the water, pardon the pun. So maybe they need a little kick-start," she said in terms of protecting bull and cutthroat trout.

Next up was Kristi Stebanuk, the new riparian resource analyst for Cows and Fish. She presented three digital stories, narrated slideshows, to the audience.

Jen Jenkins, a local rancher and communications coordinator for the WBRA gave an update on the group's new website and upcoming projects. 

Tony Bruder, with the WBRA's carnivore working group, briefed the room on preventing livestock predation including the dead stock program.

Award-winning biologist Lorne Fitch finished off the evening with his presentation, Grandfather's Trout - Grandkid's Memories, a slideshow and accompanying stories of what fishing was like in southwest Alberta at the turn of the 20th Century. "We often look into that fog called tomorrow and we often don't turn our heads over our shoulders and look back onto the path called yesterday," Fitch said. "So I thought I would take you on a little retrospective journey throughout the watersheds."

According to archived records, NWMP in the Calgary and Pincher Creek areas noticed a difference in fish populations from 1876 to 1890. Fitch showed photos of anglers hauling over 40 pounds over cutthroat and bull trout from areas where they do not exist today.

"We need to be reminded of where we were in the past and what the potential is for the future," he said. "Because wildlife, including native fish, are part of our myths, they're part of our history, they're part of our lives, they are part of our landscapes. But they're also a measuring stick of the health of our landscape."

"When you have cutthroat and bull trout in your watersheds, it is the litmus test, it is the gold seal of water quality," Fitch, a founder of Cows and Fish, said. "Unfortunately these critters can slip to become only part of our memory and even worse, even worse, we may forget them altogether. That's why we need to keep these landscape albums alive. To remind us where we were and where we could be and where we need to be."



Linear Features in the Oldman Watershed – Risk and Necessity

(Editor's note: OWC's Planning Manager, Connie Simmons, weighs in about a little understood aspect of watershed management and health. As always, we welcome your comments and your submissions as guest bloggers!)

What do linear features – that is all roads, seismic lines, powerlines, pipelines, railroads, cut lines, and recreation trails  - have to do with a healthy watershed? 

Well, in a nutshell, too many of these

linear features

(LF) - where they are placed, and how are they are used - can be a

risk to watershed health.  And a risk to watershed health is a risk to our water quality, quantity and continued health of ecosystems that support us all.  

All that water coming out of the sky in the form of rain or snow eventually runs over the watershed lands, along ditches, through culverts, on and through clear-cuts, quad trails, roads and power-line right of ways – and flows into the Oldman River system.   Depending on how and where they are developed and the way they are used, LF proliferation is shown to have adverse impacts on water hydrology - affecting ground water re-charge and surface run-off, erosion and sedimentation in streams, impacts on aquatic ecosystem health (fish and benthic invertebrates (water bugs) and extra cost to public water utilities to address water quality needs for our growing communities. 

Necessity

We Albertans have been very busy with building communities, and infrastructure that supports the people who live, work and play in this region of Alberta. All of this development has depended on the building and maintaining of linear features. 

For every need to develop these LF, we have constructed and used these features without too much thought on how all of this cumulatively impacts the foundation of a healthy functioning watershed.  While this development was accepted as a necessity for economic, social and cultural well-being, scientific assessments and the concerns of the local communities have flagged the proliferation of LF and intensity/type of their use as a problem.  

This has raised the need to do something about this growing concern for watershed health, particularly in the

headwaters

area of the Oldman River system.       

Risk

The headwaters of the Oldman watershed provide approximately 90% of the water for the Oldman River – it is a critical water tower for southwestern Alberta.  

Linear feature proliferation has been evaluated in the headwaters region, and 77% of the sub-watersheds in the headwaters are at moderate to high risk and pressure from this kind of development.  

See the Headwaters Indicator Report.

Oldman headwaters area with all linear features (ESRD 2012 data)

The OWC completed the Headwaters Action Plan 2013-14 (HAP) in early 2014.  The HAP was developed by the multi-stakeholder Partnership Advisory Network, and revised and completed after a thorough public review process.  

The plan addresses the need to properly manage the increase and use of LF,  and rollback and reclaim LF where there is moderate to high risk to water and watershed health.  

The HAP is a good start, but it is only a plan.  We need to

ACT

on it. 

(For more information see the ‘What We Heard’ public review of the HAP at: 

http://oldmanbasin.org/files/1613/9757/4313/Headwaters_What_we_Heard_Report_web.pdf

The

Headwaters Action Plan Summary Report

will soon on the website. If you would like a PDF of the report, please email

shannon@oldmanbasin.org

The OWC’s Headwaters Action Plan provided recommendations and advice to the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan (SSRP), and to an important sub-initiative of the SSRP - the Linear Footprint Management Plan (LFMP).   

Currently, the LFMP is integrating multiple data and information sources to analyze, plan and eventually implement actions that address LF proliferation in the Oldman headwaters and elsewhere in the SSRP region. 

The OWC’s

Headwaters Action Team

is keen to understand, and where possible assist with this important work as it is a key priority of the Headwaters Action Plan – and we have made progress with this endeavor by recent completion of the

‘Linear Features Classification’ project

in the

Dutch Creek sub-watershed in the Oldman headwaters.  

Historically, Dutch Creek has been mined, logged, grazed and has multiple LF to attest to this history.  The majority of LF continue to be used for other purposes than their original use, and the intensity and type of this use needs to be managed to safeguard key water/watershed values.

Dutch Creek Watershed Linear Features Classification Project – December 2014

Risk to watershed health by linear feature proliferation in the Dutch Creek sub-watershed is indicative of what is going on most of the Oldman headwaters.  

It is a sobering thought.   The risk to water and watershed health that supports all who live and work downstream needs careful attention, and that includes education and social willingness to address the issues that go along with the proliferation and intensity of use of linear features.      

Trade-offs

It is hard for Albertans to seriously consider trade-offs when it comes to protecting and/or using resource rich areas. The iconic wild west has been a place of opportunity, and we have taken advantage of resource richness for over a century.  

However, as we reach limits to how much can be done on the landscape without compromising future opportunities and losing or negatively impacting important headwaters values (water quality; water quantity, species at risk for instance) we need greater wisdom and community understanding of how we work and play in this unique and special place.  Is water and watershed health important?  

The OWC has heard a resounding “YES” to this question.  It is kind of a no-brainer.  

However, the hard work isn’t done through just talking and planning, it is done by carefully assessing and then

putting into action

what we need to do to sustain our human and non-human communities within ecological limits.  That is increasingly difficult with rising resource demands from increasing human populations, but we can do it if we tackle the tough questions now – not later.

What to do about Linear Features?

The OWC’s Headwaters Action Team has completed the Dutch Creek Linear Features Classification Project, and provided this information to GOA planners who are working on the Linear Footprint Management Plan. 

This information will also be considered in the SSRP’s

Recreation Management Plan

– a process by which the Government of Alberta will be able to provide solid recreation options for Albertans, but also address the need for safeguarding ecological values and functions in the headwaters. 

The Recreation Management Plan will address the need for designated trail systems and camping areas, and will need to have public and user buy-In and understanding to be implemented properly.

That is why the OWC’s Headwaters Action Team is now working towards bringing the science and social need (we all live downstream!) for water and watershed health to Dutch Creek this summer

Our first step will be to work on awareness and education programs with stakeholders and user groups around the need to reclaim some problematic linear features, and to encourage greater awareness of impacts of use on water and watershed values.   

With greater understanding, we expect some measure of behavior change will be a result –

that people will voluntarily stick to designated trails and camping areas, avoid wet areas and riparian zones, use bridges over streams, and that this change in behavior will become the norm.

 Some have told us we are dreamin’, that this is a big ask, but we have to start somewhere!

So what can

you

do?

If you are recreationist or other user of the headwaters area – for whatever purpose, the big ask is to understand why better linear feature management is needed, and to support and adhere to designated trail and access management outcomes of the SSRP.  

It would also help if reclamation and restoration work on linear features is respected and supported by not undoing this good work through carelessness or worse, willful destruction. 

Both of these attitude or behavior problems are counter-productive for sustainable water/watershed values that we need now and into the future.    

We all think it is the

other

s who are responsible for these issues, but reality is – we are

all responsible

and we

all need

to take action!

Avoid the muck!  Help stop erosion and loss of ecologically important wet areas!

Through the Dutch Creek Pilot Project, the Headwaters Action Team hopes to have a success story that can be used as inspiration and a guide for community and watershed stewardship groups and stakeholders to address linear feature impacts in other problematic sub-watersheds in the Oldman Headwaters, and indeed, in the Eastern Slopes region of Alberta.   

We have a lot to do, but the idea is timely and needed, people and stakeholders are committed to this challenge, and partnerships are working towards achieving this worthwhile outcome. 

If you feel this effort is worth supporting,

please donate to the OWC for this important work for the headwaters!

  (OWC is a registered charitable organization - all donations are provided a tax receipt). 

Please visit: www.oldmanbasin.org to make your donation go to work for the watershed!

Connie Simmons

Planning Manager

100, 5401 – 1

st

Avenue South

Lethbridge, AB.  T1J 4V6

Work: 403-627-1736

Cell: 780-816-0654

Web:

www.oldmanbasin.org

Blog:

http://oldmanwatershed.blogspot.ca/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/OldmanWatershed

“Like” us on Facebook to hear about the latest news & events

Connie's blog

(Editor's note: This is a really special blog posting, with insights into the OWC's focus on the headwaters, written by Connie Simmons, OWC Planning Manager. She was inspired to write the blog upon hearing the news that the OWC is the recipient of an  RBC Blue Water grant. The grant has been earmarked for the Headwaters Action Plan, which Connie steers. I'll let her tell you all about it, below) ....

I am passionate about the Oldman headwaters.   I live here, and the water I drink is straight out of an artesian well, gravity fed to our tap.   The little catchment up behind our home is forested with big windswept firs, spruce and aspen, and picturesque rocky outcrops criss-crossed with game trails.  It percolates rain and snow melt-water through the ground to our spring, coming to us clear, cold and delicious.   Are we fortunate?  You bet!  There isn’t a day that goes by without deep gratitude!   And this realization is what maintains my commitment to healthy and safe drinking water for all downstream - every hamlet, village, town and city - and the myriad other life forms that call this watershed home.

We have a lot to celebrate in our work for the Oldman headwaters.  Most importantly, we are grateful for committed stakeholders, volunteers, a caring public, and funding support for our work.   When we have the backing of the greater watershed community, it appears the funding follows!   This week, we are celebrating significant support from the Royal Bank of Canada Blue Water Project - who recently approved a grant for $57,880.00 to implement key priority actions of the OWC’s Headwaters Action Plan 2013-14!  Thank you RBC!

We are so excited to have this funding for this important work! The OWC is committed to working with the greater watershed community, and this funding provides a solid step forward to keep our commitment to a diverse group of stakeholders (Partnership Advisory Network; PAN) and the public who participated in good faith and provided significant contributions to create the Headwaters Action Plan 2013-14, with the expectation that positive work for the headwaters health will be put on the ground.   To begin this work, the Headwaters Action Team has just been formed - a great bunch of people from diverse sectors who stepped forward from the Partnership Advisory Network to begin working on our priority actions.  
So what actions are we starting on? 

Connie's beautiful view of the Gladstone Valley in the Oldman watershed


Classifying linear features is an important first step.   When the PAN reviewed the scientific assessment of headwaters pressures and risks - the amount of linear features was at moderate to high risk to 77% of the headwaters sub-watersheds.   That means every seismic line, cutline, road, railroad, pipeline, powerline and quad trail adds up to risk to key headwaters values.   

Sure, we need many of these linear features, but there are many that can either mitigated to safeguard headwaters health, or reclaimed so that we reduce the pressure and risk to important headwaters values and functions.  These include surface water quality, retention and control of water levels and flows (e.g. during floods), and taking care of biodiversity values - like habitat for threatened bull-trout and Westslope cutthroat trout.  

But first, we need to have a method of assessing which linear features to keep, which need mitigation work to lessen impacts on water sources, which ones should be prioritized for rollback and reclamation.   This requires a solid effort of collaboration between scientists, stakeholders and public users to understand the way we are classifying linear features, and take the necessary steps to begin the job of remediating negative effects on headwaters health. 

We are also looking at a recreation education program to help recreation users in urban and rural communities to understand how their actions impact headwaters values.  Recreation education related to sustaining water and watershed health is focused on ensuring that recreation activities are mindful of impacts on water quality and the sustainability of healthy aquatic ecosystems.   This is a big one for the Oldman headwaters - we are in jeopardy of loving the place to bits and losing key values that make it so incredibly beautiful and special!   

And speaking of special - First Nations have had a special spiritual connection to this place for millennia.   We would like to honour and learn from this connection.  With the participation of First Nations community members, we are working towards hosting a First Nations Youth and Elder Water Day - where Elders share their traditional knowledge about water and spirit of water with Youth, and where we can also find links to western watershed science. 

We have a lot to do!   And are moving things forward as I speak!  We sincerely thank RBC Blue Water for this significant support of the Headwaters Action Plan, and to the urban and rural communities that rely on a healthy Oldman headwaters as a critical water tower in southern Alberta. 

If you would like to learn more or would like to contribute to our efforts - please contact us: info@oldmanbasin.org
   
Connie Simmons
Planning Manager
Oldman Watershed Council