Kevin Woodley
Peninsula News Review

As Tom Davis works his
way along the banks of Sid-
ney’s Reay Creek, it’s easy
to see the results of the
restoration ~ project he
helped start back in 1982.

In fact, it’s hard not to no-
tice the 3,000 to 4,000 coho
salmon fry currently occu-
pying the small stream lo-
cated just south of Victoria
Airport lands. Add to that
the 400 to 500 cutthroat
trout fry making their way
through the shallow water
and you have a pretty good
picture of the healthy
spawning and rearing envi-
ronment that Davis helped
create. a

Factor in Davis’ estimates
that 75 per cent of the

creek’s current salmon pop-.

ulation and all of the trout
are the result. of natural
- spawning and you begin to

get a sense of just how suc-.

-cessful this ongoing Penin-
sula project has been.

“When we started, this.

water was highly. contami-
nated and the creek was to-
tally degraded,” says Davis

while” tearing off a small
: _ piece of paper and rolling it
into a ball. Back then the ©.

stream could be character-
jzed: (PY, :

‘limited; spawning ~

11:30 am - 2:30 pm
Monday thru Friday.

gravel, heavy silt and debris,
poor riparian zones and per-
sistent toxic contamination
from both the industrial and
residential. development
drain systems in the area.
“There was also no sum-
mer flow in the creek and
no water means no’ fish,”
says Davis. Now the returns
are so good that the federal
department of fisheries and

oceans uses it as an exam- }

ple of urban stream en-
hancement.

“This is the referral
stream they use.”

To emphasize how much

_ times have changed, Davis
tosses the small piece of. |
white paper into the water §

and watches.as a group of
the three-inch coho fry con-
verge on the perceived feed-
ing

The fall of 1998 marked:

the tenth straight year of
adult coho returns. One
year saw the return of 40
adults and jacks, but Davis
says the average has been

- between 18 and 25 return-

ing coho. Most are between
four and seven pounds, but

~ last year’s spawning period
featured the return of sev-
eral. coho « in the. 12-pound -

range.

In recent years, the: sea >

run cutthroat trout. have
re-colonized | - Rea

Md

finial HH A echt

: Tom Davis points out some of the small coho.salmon fry in Sidney’s Reay Creek to

Gary Taylor, The pair have been part of a long-term effort to rebuild the creek back
to its pre-development levels as a natural salmon sustaining environment.

Creek and multiple age
classes exist. in the Bu cam.
-. today.

Current coho sairion lev-

els are the result of natural

tional hatchery’ fry are used

a ds CARER AeAnas

- production augmented by™ -
-, coho fry introduced to the.”
‘system through. classroom.
~ projects inthe area: Addi- -

only in years when return-
ing numbers are down.
The restoration work,

- however, is only half-way”

complete.

Davis is expecting a big.
bump in the number of re-
turning salmon in 2000 and -
: 2001 and “says: more needs :

_is enough quality spawning —
ground to support higher

numbers.
“There could be 50 to 100
coho coming back and the

cut population keeps grow- .
ing,” he says. “We need to

expand rearing and spawn-

ing habitat as the:returning

2442 Beacon acon Avenue © Sidney . + 656-4449 ~ (next to TANNER RS)

‘i

Working his way down
Reay. Creek’s  kilometer-
long banks, the need be-
comes clear. Just below the
half-way point — where
work is at the partial-
restoration stage — another
small piece of white paper
produces less interest. A lit-
tle further down towards
the Bazan Bay, where Reay
spills into the ocean, the
same test produces almost
no fish.

“As we move down, the

habitat becomes less. and

less favorable and there are
less and less fish,” says
Davis. The creek is heavily
silted in its lower portions
and there are very few good

. spawning beds.

Between the lower. por-
tions of the creek and the
point where it merges with

the slat water, there is a low- _

gradient bog that provides
no spawning value, but can
serve as a wintering habitat
for fish wanting to avoid the
high flow. of. the upper
creek.

“It’s valuable,” says
Davis, “but there’s very lit-

“tle we can do with it for
5 spawning."

Instead ‘workers will con-

centrate on upgrades to the
middle portions of the creek...
and starting | to build spawn- ou

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