Trout Creek (Mid)
Freshwater Conservation Canada Implementer
Project Goals and Objectives
The Porcupine Hills are a landform consisting of a montane ecoregion of outlying foothills located in southwestern Alberta. Historically the headwater streams originating from these hills provided valuable coldwater habitat for both Bull Trout, and Westslope Cutthroat Trout, both of which are listed as threatened under the federal species at risk act within Alberta. The Trout Creek watershed is one of these headwater streams which previously contained populations of both Bull and Cutthroat Trout. However historic land uses such as timber harvesting, OHV use, livestock grazing and road construction, paired with periods of both extreme high and low flows have resulted in Trout Creek and it's tributaries becoming disconnected from their floodplain and becoming incised, single threaded channels, which experience periods of no surface flow. As a result, Westslope Cutthroat Trout and Bull Trout have both been extirpated from Trout Creek. Trout Unlimited Canada's goal is to bring back healthy populations of beaver, and Westslope Cutthroat Trout to Trout Creek through a variety of LTPBR activities including the construction of BDAs, planting willow stakes in riparian areas, decommissioning and reclaiming trails, and installing a barrier to prevent the movement of non-native Rainbow Trout into Trout Creek.
Structure Construction Elements
Between September 25th and 27th, 2023, TUC Staff and volunteers constructed 11 Beaver Dams Analogs (BDAS) within a 300 meter section of King Bolt Creek, a major tributary of Trout Creek, which has had ephemeral creek flow in recent years. A total of eleven BDA structures were built using low-tech processed-based restoration (LTPBR) techniques. Untreated wooden posts were driven into the creek bed using a hydraulic post pounder to serve as structural reinforcement for the BDAs and catch additional debris during periods of high flow in the spring. All of the BDAs constructed were channel spanning and ranged in size from 3 square meters, to 9.6 square meters depending on the width and depth of the creek channel. Additionally, trail Improvements were carried out at three locations within the Trout Creek Watershed: The Middle Trout Creek Trail was, prior to work in 2023 situated in the floodplain, causing braiding of streamflow, with unbridged stream crossings and stream segments running down sections of OHV trail producing fine sediment that made its way into Trout Creek. One of these crossings previously featured a culverted stream crossing which presumably washed out during the 2013 flood. The remaining corrugated steel culvert is still sitting in the creek downstream. The new trail was rerouted through a forested area on a hillside outside of the floodplain, on the west side of the valley, and connects to the new bridge over Trout Creek at site 1006. The new trail is approximately 600 meters in length. Finally, upper portions of the Upper Trout Creek Trail at the northernmost end of the watershed were rerouted to address issues caused by the trail formerly traversing through large tracts of the floodplain and stream channel of Trout Creek and featuring 4 unbridged stream crossings and hundreds of meters of trail with drainage issues causing significant sedimentation.
Project Photos
Cover Photo
2023-08-19
OHV Trail running parallel to Trout Creek