MANITOULIN—With the support and help of two different groups of Stewardship Rangers, and students at Lakeview School, Manitoulin Streams Improvement Association (MSIA) was able to complete several water-based projects recently.
“We have four projects involving the Mindemoya River this year, and the Windy Lake Stewardship Rangers helped to remove some log jams on two of the Mindemoya sites,” said Seija Deschenes, coordinator of Manitoulin Streams, last week. “For this work we had about eight Stewardship Rangers on hand (between the ages of 16-17), as well as two leaders from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF).”
“Basically we were removing wood jams from the river, with one walkway bridge having been washed downstream,” said Ms. Deschenes. She said the work done will benefit “migrating salmon and trout, noting that Maria Diebolt and Manitoulin Tree Services cut up the wood into smaller pieces and the Rangers removed them from the water.
“Then the Sudbury District Stewardship Rangers (and Windy Lake based Rangers) all helped the students of Lakeview School (M’Chigeeng) with the cleanup of the M’Chigeeng Creek,” continued Ms. Deschenes. She explained, “this project has taken place annually for the last three years, with Lakeview school students going back to school early. Sue (Meert) and Jessie Beaudin (both of Manitoulin Streams) went into the class and talked to the students about the biotechnology and engineering work aspects of what we are doing on the stream.”
The M’Chigeeng Creek cleanup took place August 22-23. “There were 15 Grade 8 students and their teacher there, and they all suited up in chest waders and went right in the stream to help clean things up. Lloyd and Son’s Trucking provided the aggregate to put into the stream.”
“One of the things that we put in place were wing deflectors (two) on each side of the stream to increase the water flow to flush the sand out in the middle to provide a good area for salmon to spawn,” said Ms. Deschenes. “There were also weeping weirs put in and during the cleanup. There was a lot of hooting and hollering from the students as they dragged things like a bicycle, strollers, tires and other materials out of the creek. They did a great job of cleaning the water area.”
Mr. Deschenes pointed out, “Linda Debassige, chief of M’Chigeeng, is very interested in the work we are doing with the students in the creek and wants to continue the program as part of the student’s curriculum. She indicated how proud she is of the work the students are doing on the stream. The work is labour intensive, and it is very encouraging to see the students run from the school bus excited about getting back into the stream to carry out the work.”
“The thing that is good is that Lakeview starts school in the summer, when we can do work on the water,” said Ms. Deschenes. “It is a unique situation—the students work really hard—and the teachers are going to get the students to make posters to put up at the top part of the creek to explain the work that has been carried out.”
Ms. Deschenes added, “the Stewardship Rangers are a great group of kids and the Grade 8 students look up to them as mentors. With this project maybe it will lead to some of the Lakeview students, when they are in high school to consider working for the stewardship rangers in the summer.”