Tuesday, June 5, 2018

12:30 – 1:00 – Gurkirat Deol/Siddarth Panchal/Siddarth Saidava – Twelve Mile Creek Benchmarks

Project Description:

Trout Unlimited Canada (TUC) is a not-for-profit organization working for conservation and protection of cold-water ecosystems (Trout unlimited Canada, 2017).

The major work by this organization is the restoration of fishes which is to be carried out in the watersheds across North America which is considered as one of the huge transformations by them.  The Cold-water stream Twelve Mile Creek is where the efforts of restoration are carried out by the Niagara chapter of TUC.

A decrease in the population of Brook Trout in local streams was noticed as a consequence of anthropogenic activity in that area majorly by urbanization (Green & Smith, 2017).  After a noticeable decrease in population of Brook Trout, The Niagara Chapter of TUC has started research to help in restoration work for the incremental growth of Brook Trout habitat within Twelve Mile Creek.

The main goal of this project is to conduct a survey of main branches of Twelve Mile Creek from Effingham to Short hills provincial park and create benchmarks at required location which will help to design and analyze the creek.

1:00 – 1:30 – Melissa Matthews/Nicholas Wasilik/Scott Innes – Twelve Mile Creek – Effingham Branch – Geomorph and Thermal

Project Description:

This project is for Trout Unlimted Canada (TUC) Niagara Chapter TUC is a national not for profit organization whose mission is to conserve, protect and restore North America’s cold-water ecosystem. The Niagara Chapter of TUC focuses their efforts on the Twelve Mile Creek, which is Niagara Region’s only cold-water stream. The study area for this project is Effingham Branch of Twelve Mile Creek, between Kilman Road to Luffman Drive. The project goal is to undertake a geomorphic survey and thermal analysis of the Effingham Branch of Twelve Mile Creek on the properties located between Kilman Road and Luffman Drive, which will improve the understanding of Brook Trout habitat suitability in this area.

This project will be completed using GIS techniques and analysis. As per the project terms of reference, two main objectives will be completed that support the goal. They include continuing the thermal analysis of Twelve Mile Creek and completing a geomorphic survey of the Effingham branch between Kilman Road and Luffman Drive.  With the conclusion of the project, the client will be provided with a formal report, formal maps and layouts and presentation.

1:30 – 2:00 – Winona Drouin/Rikin Gajjar – Twelve Mile Creek Effingham Branch – Geomorph and Drone

Project Description:

Trout Unlimited Canada has partnered with Niagara College to conserve and restore the Twelve Mile Creek, Niagara’s only cold-water stream. The stream has historically held Brook Trout, an indicator species for cold-water streams as they only reside in clear, cool, well oxygenated waters (Scott WB & Crossman EJ, 1979).

The Twelve Mile Creek has increased in temperature due to increasing anthropogenic developments and agricultural practices (Trout Unlimited, 2017). Thus, the historical Brook Trout population has begun to decline. With partnership, TUC and NC have been able to monitor the changes on the stream by performing geomorphic surveys and thermal analyses since 2012 (Niagara College, 2017; Trout Unlimited, 2017). The focus of the study occurs on private properties along Roland Road (2km stretch of stream) and the drone survey focuses within Short Hills Provincial Park.

The goal of the proposed project is to assess the suitability of Brook Trout habitat within the Effingham Branch of the Twelve Mile Creek near Roland Road and within Short Hills Provincial Park. In order to complete the project goal, five project objectives have been delineated: project management, project understanding, project execution, data analysis and results & conclusions. These objectives will be achieved through a variety of tasks completed throughout the 2017-2018 academic year.

2:00 – 2:30 – Anson Ng/Ognjen Coric – Sediment Loss Hot Spots – Urban

Project Description:

The Credit Valley Conservation Authority (CVC) was established in 1954 by the Ontario government as 1 of 36 conservation authorities in Ontario (Credit Valley Conservation, 2017).  It’s a community-based environmental organization, dedicated to protecting, restoring and managing the natural resources of the Credit River watershed (Credit Valley Conservation, 2017).  Currently, the Credit River watershed is one of the major contributors of total phosphorus into Lake Ontario.  CVC is looking into methods of identifying problem areas vulnerable to soil erosion and sediment loss, and then applying best management practices (BMP) to mitigate.

The project goal is to create an automated tool which will allow Credit Valley Conservation the ability to easily locate areas susceptible for sediment runoff and soil erosion. Specifically, NGCOR will focus on the runoff of phosphorus and other suspended solids. The tool will calculate the Total Phosphorus and Total Suspended Solids based on land use, and sewersheds and will actually rank them based on levels of emitted minerals. Once the tool is operational, NGCOR will produce a series of maps to show the results as they pertain to the Fletcher’s Creek area of the Credit River Watershed.