Spring Edition, 1995 Vol. 5 No.2
Stream Science and Estuary Exploration
By Elaine Golds
New Public Education Programs for the Noons Creek Hatchery
Last fall, Al Thomas of the Coquitlam School District told me about a new grant program supported by the BC Ministry of Employment and Investment. The goal of this program was to encourage volunteer organizations to form community partnerships with the purpose of developing public education programs to increase science awareness. With only a couple of weeks to go before the application deadline, we scheduled an initial meeting and tossed a few ideas around. After a conversation with Jutta Haunerland, our director of Water Quality and phone calls to some of our Directors, I booted up my computer and started composing. Within a few days, we had commitments from community partners in place, several letters of support and a 22 page grant application ready to be picked up by the courier for a race to Victoria to meet the deadline.
It was with great delight that we recently learned that our grant application has been funded in full with no conditions attached. Our grant ($15,245.00) will be directed towards developing public education programs at the hatchery. These programs will be based on developing an understanding of the water quality parameters essential to stream health, the complex ecology of the mudflats and their importance to juvenile salmon. While we anticipate that most of the groups participation in our field trips will be elementary school classes, our programs will be available to all members of the public and community groups. Most of the grant money will be directed towards start-up costs -- developing the program and preparing the materials.
It really would have been impossible to put the grant application together in such a short time without the help of many people who were willing to put aside what ever they were doing to help us out. Letters of Support came from Robert Barratt of Point Four Systems Inc. in Port Moody; Lee Nikl, water quality biologist from DFO and Rick Simpson, (former) Chair of the Friends of the Environment Foundation for Canada Trust. I especially appreciated the help of Carol MacLean at City Hall who worked late into the evening one Friday to prepare letters of support from Rick Simpson and Ann Hulbert.
Our grant application would not have been successful without the support and interest of our community partners. Bob Wingrove of Flavell-Cedar (now a division of Interfor) in Port Moody kindly offered to donate lumber supplies for construction of puzzles, manipulatives, and discovery boxes. Gary Williams of G. L. Williams and Associates, a marsh biologist who conducted a field trip to the Noons Creek estuary last summer for PMES members, has offered to spend some time on the project with us and donate his technical expertise. Al Thomas, Environmental Program Coordinator for the Coquitlam School District, will assist us by offering printing, laminating and video services. The commitment bay our partners is estimated to be in the range of the equivalent of $7,500.00 -- a significant contribution, indeed!
The programs which we want to develop will require much more than simply volunteer help to prepare and present. A major portion of the grant will provide salary support for a skilled individual to prepare the curriculum and create two tour booklets which will be made available to teachers and members of the public. We are indeed fortunate to Quirien Mulerten Kate (aka "Q"), a school science teacher and former GVRD naturalist, has agreed to develop the programs for us. In a volunteer capacity, Jutta Haunerland, Doug Bennie and myself will be working closely with Quirien. We anticipate that the programs will be ready to be offered to the public by the fall of this year. We feel that the programs will work best if they can be presented to groups by a trained naturalist with volunteer assistance from PMES members.
If any PMES members are interested in getting involved in this project, please give me a call (937-3483). We are looking for enthusiastic people with all types of talent! We could make use of a variety of skills -- photography, drawing, carpentry, interacting with children, et cetera. By the late summer, we will be offering volunteer training to individuals who are interested in assisting with tours. We also want to develop display materials which will enable PMES to "take our show on the road" and travel to malls and special events and , possibly, school classes.
The award of this grant will enable the Ecological Society to expand our horizons and help us to become a society truly dedicated to the promotion of ecological awareness -- a goal which has been stated on our letterhead for some time!
Collecting the Caddisfly
by Susan Norie
Five lab workers got together on our regular Wedesday morning session on February 22, 1995 and proceeded to the creek outside the hatchery to collect invertebrates. We used Asher's makeshift net and gently rubbed the sides of stones in front of the net to loosen them. The net secured a number of specimens that we collected to view under the microscope in the lab. The invertebrates that we were able to identify confirms the high quality of water we have as yet in Noons Creek.
We have been attempting to draw what we see; however, DFO and others have much better line drawings of the creatures. But, what they don't show are some of the more interesting aspects of how it is the invertebrates live. So, we would like to share with you some drawings of three different casings, or "houses", of Caddisfly larvae, which are creastures that can only live in steams that are of high quality (i.e. not polluted).
Caffisfly photograph taken at PMES hatchery
