Local watershed alliance targeting Seven Persons Creek with restoration campaign
By Tim Kalinowski on August 4, 2017.
tkalinowski@medicinehatnews.com @MHNTimKal The South East Alberta Watershed Alliance will be targeting the Seven Persons Creek watershed for its new, two-year, stream-bank restoration campaign. “We have received funding from the Government of Alberta to perform a stream restoration and assessment within the Seven Persons Creek watershed area,” confirms SEAWA watershed co-ordinator Patrick Jablkowski. “What that entails is an aerial assessment which will be done with by a consultant. So using remote sensing data to classify areas of the streams within the watershed. Not just in the Seven Persons Creek, but in its named and unnamed tributaries… The other part of fund is going to work directly with landowners and land managers to perform restorations.” The aerial assessment component is meant to help SEAWA identify possible problem areas in the riparian health of the watershed, and to provide a baseline data set for future evaluation. “What this will do is help us prioritize areas which will benefit from restoration, and we can see over time how it will change, whether it improves or degrades,” says Jablkowski. That report based on the aerial assessment will come out in the spring of 2018, but Jablkowski says he is trying to recruit landowners who want to put some cash and effort into restoring their riparian areas today. “We know there are people out there already who have been planning to do this kind of work,” he says. “Whether its off-stream watering, riparian fencing, replanting or invasive species removal, there are people who have those things they have already slated to do, but have been waiting for the right time… We are willing to work with them… There is a list of eligible projects they can do, and the portions of those projects which are actually eligible to be funded. It’s a partnership. It’s going to be a 50/50 split between us and the landowners up to a maximum of $5,000 per applicant, we will fund.” Those interested in learning more about SEAWA’s Seven Persons Creek watershed restoration campaign call 403-580-8980 or email patrick.jablkowski@seawa.ca. “This is a good opportunity to build relationships with the landowners themselves, and the community of watershed stakeholders,” states Jablkowski. “Seven Persons Creek is a major tributary of the South Saskatchewan River so it is valuable to do this kind of restoration work.” 10
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