News & Events – Page 2

Campbell Creek Stream Restoration: Public Engagement Session

July 16, 2020

The Campbell Creek Restoration Project is a 4-year partnership between NGOs, Wolastoqey (Maliseet) communities/ organizations, and the City of Fredericton. A major component of the ecosystem restoration is the removal of the derelict, 100-year old Campbell Creek Dam (or Millbrook Dam). The dam has never provided fish passage and does not meet the Canadian Dam Association Guidelines in terms of public safety, spillway capacity, or stability. It is preventing access to important spawning, feeding, and cold-water habitat for species-at-risk including the Atlantic salmon and the American eel. Restoring connection not only benefits aquatic species but also reunites Wolastoqwiyik with an important region in their traditional territory and local residents to an iconic and productive tributary.

The project is funded by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation. This webinar will feature ~30 mins of presentations that will cover the following topics:

Wolsatoqey history of the area
the history of and information on the dam
environmental concerns including water quality and fish passage
safety concerns
engineering design for the headpond drawdown
the restoration schedule.

A Q&A session with panelists will follow.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

CBC NB coverage of this project: Here

Landowners in Penniac Protect the Riverbank

June 1, 2020

Marie-Eve and Yves are protecting the Penniac riverbank for the betterment of our watershed and community. In May and June with considerable help from the landowners 150 silver maple and 100 balsam poplar trees were planted by Chris Smissaert and his team. 160 shrubs were planted; of which 100 were red-osier dogwood and the remainder were red-tipped willows.

Marie-Eve and Yves are pictured on their riverfront property surrounded by pin flags, marking the tree planting locations. Tree planter Chris Smissaert is pictured closest to the Penniac River.

A healthy stream bank, or riparian zone, provides better fish habitat, cleaner surface water, and valuable habitat for birds and other animals. With good vegetative cover the Penniac river is less vulnerable to environmental changes.

The planting property is located on the far side of the river with pin flags marking the tree planting locations.

Natural Edge brochure

Willows to the Rescue!

May 8, 2020

Landowners step up to plant trees on watershed

May 5, 2020
By John Chilibeck, The Daily Gleaner

The people who run the Nashwaak Watershed Association were worried the pandemic might fell their tree-planting program this year, but instead they’ve seen it blossom.

Normally the nonprofit organization lines up volunteers in spring to plant native floodplain trees on private land along the Nashwaak River, a 110-kilometre tributary of the St. John in central New Brunswick that’s suffered a long history of bank-side clearing and soil erosion.

However, the threat of COVID-19 meant it had to severely curtail its outdoor activities this season. Instead of offering volunteers to plant along river banks, it advertised on social media and its website it would make available red-tipped willows to landowners who wanted to do the planting themselves.

Within no time, several takers stepped forward.

“It’s willows to the rescue!” Marieka Chaplin, the association’s executive director, said in an interview. “There’s definitely been renewed interest in people gardening and landscaping their properties during this pandemic. It’s nice to have positive, creative solutions to the mess we are in.”

On Wednesday, Chaplin plans to deliver 1,000 tiny trees in plugs dipped in fertilizer to 15 landowners along the river between Fredericton and Cross Creek, a 40-minute drive north of the capital. Two First Nations – Oromocto and St. Mary’s – have also expressed interest in planting trees along their shorelines, even outside the Nashwaak. Chaplin said the strong demand means her group will start growing another batch of 1,000 trees and will create a waiting list, with landowners along the Nashwaak prioritized.

The willows are grown from cuttings for five weeks at Skyline Gardens, a small nursery in Keswick Ridge. Ideally suited for sandy, porous soil, the floodplain trees are typically planted in a zigzag pattern by the volunteers along denuded riverbanks.

The trees’ root systems mitigate sediment leaching into the river and the ravaging effects of a big flood by holding back water like a sponge. The shade thrown by vegetation also helps keep the water temperature cooler, Chaplin said. By reintroducing more native plants in riparian zones, the group hopes to enhance and protect the water quality in the river, making it better for humans, fish and animals.

Survey work done by the group shows that 90 per cent of the land along the Nashwaak is fragmented by development, so there’s plenty of restoration work to do. Riverfront has traditionally been cleared by farmers who benefited from floodwaters adding nutrients to their soil and cottage and homeowners who wanted an open view of the water.

“It’s an ingrained part of the culture, clearing away riverbanks,” Chaplin said. “We’re trying to change that.”

This year, landowners have asked for anywhere between 25 and 100 trees each. The executive director said a good rule of thumb is to plant the vegetation with half a metre spacing, following a staggered, diamond pattern.

Since the program began 15 years ago, the association has planted more than 37,000 acorns, tree seedlings, and willow, dogwood and alder cuttings to restore the floodplain forest.

Here is the original article:

Funding Announcement

April 27, 2020

The NB Environmental Trust Fund announced funding support for projects in 2020-21. The renewed investment is for work in watershed restoration and education. The funding prioritizes restoration of floodplain forest, re-establishing the critical habitat these ecosystems provide to sensitive and at-risk species, and increasing the ability of the Nashwaak’s floodplains to modulate river flows. Monitoring projects, including water quality monitoring and assessing culverts for fish passage, are included in the provincial announcement. The monitoring program enables us to prioritize future restoration and management efforts.

At times like these we appreciate the early funding announcement supporting our work in the watershed. The NB Environmental Trust Fund generously contributed a total $100,000 to fund three projects in our watershed. The total of Environmental Trust Funded projects in 2020-2021 is $9,058,000.

We’re Hiring!

February 10, 2020

Are you a post-secondary graduate looking to gain some experience in the environmental field? Come work with our team of watershed enthusiasts on a wide range of projects.

The Restoration and Outreach Coordinator will be responsible for our riparian restoration projects within the watershed. The selected candidate will coordinate the Landowner Conservation Program, including report-writing and budgets. S/he will co-lead education programming for children and youth in both the public school and summer camp setting with grades 3 and 4 as the primary focus. The position will include time spent in the field – assisting with culvert assessments, field trips, restoration projects, work in the tree nursery, and water quality monitoring. S/he will assist in representing the organization at external events, and be active in the planning, development and implementation of NWAI sponsored events. The project assistant will represent the association at special events in rural communities in our watershed e.g. Stanley Fair, Nashwaak Music Festival and Taymouth Community Market.

Here is the easy online application:
Click here to apply!

The application deadline is Friday, February 21st.

Campbell Creek Stream Restoration: Public Engagement Session

Landowners in Penniac Protect the Riverbank

Willows to the Rescue!

Funding Announcement

We’re Hiring!

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