eelgrass

Eelgrass Restoration and Stewardship 2009-2010 Materials for Children Photo Album July 2008 2005-2007 2005-2006 2004 – 2005 2004 – 2005 The Eelgrass Mapping Project 2004 was funded by Eco-Action and was a partnership with SeaChange Marine Conservation Society and the Seagrass Conservation Working Group. The objective was to gather information on the current extent of eelgrass beds in the Cowichan estuary and to train community members in eelgrass mapping protocol. June 2005 The Cowichan Community Land Trust completed mapping the eelgrass meadows in the Cowichan Estuary. They had lots of help from great volunteers, and are always looking to meet new faces. Partners and Community Support for the Eelgrass Project include: Cowichan Valley Naturalists Society (CVNS) Tom Rutherford, Community Advisor, DFO Public Conservation Assistance Fund Rob Russell, Habitat Biologist, DFO Seagrass Conservation Working Group Duncan Divers Dr. Bill Austin, Khoyatan Marine Laboratory Cowichan Bay Kayak and Paddlesports Pacific Water Sports, Cowichan Bay Cowichan Tribes Cowichan River Stewardship Roundtable Peter Law, Ecosystem Biologist, MoE Cowichan Valley Regional District Cowichan Bay Improvement Association Cowichan Estuary Preservation Society Young Naturalists Streamkeepers Environmental Club, Frances Kelsey High School Environmental Club, Shawnigan Lake School Queen Margaret School Streamkeepers Koksilah School Streamkeepers CVRD Electoral Area D (Cowichan Bay) Parks and Recreation Commission

Eelgrass Restoration and Stewardship 2009-2010 Materials for Children Photo Album July 2008 2005-2007 2005-2006 2004 – 2005 2005 – 2006 May 2006 It has been very busy these last few weeks! Approximately 60 volunteers came out over the April 29th weekend to help plant eelgrass. In fact we were so successful over the two days with many additional hands and help from Shawnigan Lake School, Frances Kelsey High School, Queen Margaret’s and the Sunrise Waldorf School that we exceeded our target of 2500 by transplanting over 3000 eelgrass shoots. This is amazing as each shoot has to be individually tied with a washer weight and then planted by divers!! It is wonderful to see these young students coming out on a very rainy Saturday to help with this project! We held a Streamkeepers course on Speirs Creek in Cowichan Bay and had 15 participants join us for the two days of classroom and field study. The last Streamkeepers course held on Treffery Creek resulted in the Young Naturalists Streamkeepers, aged between 12 and 19, regularly monitoring Treffery Creek for water quality, quantity and fish presence. If you would like more information on the Young Naturalists Streamkeepers please give me a call at the office, 746-0227, or contact John Scull or Linda Hill at 746-6141. We will be undertaking another eelgrass transplant early this summer and another Streamkeeper Course in early fall. Dates will be posted as soon as they are confirmed. Thanks to everyone for all your support! And if you couldn’t make it this time we hope to see you next time… April 2006 Good news! Our Eelgrass transplants from last year are surviving and multiplying! We were out in March checking on their progress and have found that 2 sites have increased by 70-80% which is a great success. The other 2 sites weren’t found but in September they were being used as forage by the swans. I think we planted a buffet for them in that area! Now we have confirmed that eelgrass will thrive in the selected sites we are starting up another round of eelgrass restoration. We are looking at the last weekend in April – the 29th and 30th for the transplant dates – divers will be harvesting shoots on Friday in preparation for the Saturday land volunteers. We will need many hands on land to tie the shoots with their weights and 2-3 buddy pairs of divers for harvesting and planting on both days. To help us organize this larger transplant I hope to meet with our volunteers from last year to get some suggestions as to how to make this transplant more efficient. As well, I would like to invite anyone who wasn’t available last year but is interested in helping out with this transplant to join us in the planning stage. The planning meeting is set for Wednesday, April 19th at 7pm. Please RSVP so I know whether we can meet at the CCLT office or if a larger space is needed. Thanks to all for your continued support – we couldn’t do it without you. August 2005 The Eelgrass Restoration Project has been busy through the summer. There is quite a bit of area in the Cowichan Bay void of eelgrass. The historical record gathered from long term residents and users of the Bay tell us that most of the bay was rich with eelgrass. One site in particular, off Kneipson Rd was referred to as “the garden”. This location was once a popular site for crabbing, now barren of all eelgrass, and home to crabs that do not taste as good. Restoring eelgrass is not quite as simple as one may think. The CCLT had to call in a team of eelgrass experts, Cynthia Durance from Precision Identification, and Nikki Wright from SeaChange. With their help, the CCLT, and many great volunteers attended two workshops on July 23 and July 31, receiving training in eelgrass site assessment and transplant methodology. The days were hands-on as volunteers harvested, prepared, and transplanted 400 eelgrass shoots. SCUBA divers gently pulled shoots from the donor bed, located around the boat launch ramp in Cowichan Bay. The shoots were then individually anchored and transported across the bay, to two different barren sites. These transplant sites are located between the terminal and the closest log boom, and the second one between the last log boom and the shore off Kneipson Rd. Two groups of 100 plants were transplanted at each of these two sites, testing the ability to support eelgrass growth again. If all goes well a large transplant will take place in the spring. The CCLT could not have done this without the help and dedication of our volunteers. Thank you all for giving us part of your weekends to help preserve and enhance eelgrass beds in the Cowichan Bay. Stay tuned for a date to revisit the transplants, and a link to the Community Mapping Network illustrating eelgrass in the Cowichan Bay. Partners and Community Support for the Eelgrass Project include: Cowichan Valley Naturalists Society (CVNS) Tom Rutherford, Community Advisor, DFO Public Conservation Assistance Fund Rob Russell, Habitat Biologist, DFO Seagrass Conservation Working Group Duncan Divers Dr. Bill Austin, Khoyatan Marine Laboratory Cowichan Bay Kayak and Paddlesports Pacific Water Sports, Cowichan Bay Cowichan Tribes Cowichan River Stewardship Roundtable Peter Law, Ecosystem Biologist, MoE Cowichan Valley Regional District Cowichan Bay Improvement Association Cowichan Estuary Preservation Society Young Naturalists Streamkeepers Environmental Club, Frances Kelsey High School Environmental Club, Shawnigan Lake School Queen Margaret School Streamkeepers Koksilah School Streamkeepers CVRD Electoral Area D (Cowichan Bay) Parks and Recreation Commission

Eelgrass Restoration and Stewardship 2009-2010 Materials for Children Photo Album July 2008 2005-2007 2005-2006 2004 – 2005 2005 – 2007 The Eelgrass Restoration Project 2005-2007 is our current project and is funded by the Pacific Salmon Commission, Habitat Conservation Trust Fund and through eelgrass habitat compensation funds from British Columbia Conservation Foundation.  This project aims to restore eelgrass habitat in the Cowichan estuary that has been heavily impacted through past industrial uses of the estuarine mudflats.  Through this project we have been able to identify potential eelgrass restoration sites and donor beds and transplant eelgrass to suitable restoration sites.  Interviews of First Nations elders and long-term residents have given project staff a good indication of the historical extent of eelgrass beds.  Using this local knowledge and surveys of substrate types and the current location of eelgrass beds in the estuary, five restoration sites have been identified.  Four test plots were transplanted in 2005 and results from those test plots will help to determine larger transplants in the spring and summer of 2006.  Please check our website regularly for updates and notices of upcoming transplant dates or activities or call the CCLT office at 746-0227 for more details. Now that we are familiar with where the eelgrass beds are in the area, we will be working on some site assessments. We will be looking at potential sites for transplanting as well as existing beds where we can gather transplants. The site assessment research has two dimensions. We will be out in the field, sampling and measuring, and we are also working on gathering information to paint a historical picture of eelgrass in the Cowichan Bay. To do this we are seeking information or knowledge of eelgrass from the community. This may be a memory of where the eelgrass grew in the past, your grandma’s favourite recipe for eelgrass root shoot stew, or a theory on what might have caused its decline. Any anecdote or tale involving eelgrass in the bay is what we are looking for. We’d love to hear from you. Eelgrass Restoration meeting was held on Wednesday, June 8th. The meeting took place at the Mellowside Café in Cowichan Bay. Interviewing long term residents, fisherman, and other community members that have spent quite a bit of time in the Cowichan Bay has allowed us to understand what the Bay looked like in the past. We heard many great stories about octopus wrestling and harvesting crabs, flounder, skates and clams from the eelgrass beds. Thank you to everyone who helped put this record together. Putting the general locations of where eelgrass grew in the past, beside the present locations of eelgrass beds gives us an idea of where we should be transplanting eelgrass. Any inconsistencies in present and past locations have become potential transplant sites. For example, it seems that the North side of the Cowichan Bay, off Khenipson Rd, did have eelgrass in the 70’s and 80’s. At the present time there is none, but knowing that this area did support eelgrass in the past suggests it might be worth trying again. We will be looking at sites more carefully through the summer, exploring limiting factors, and testing the areas ability to support new growth. On June 26 the CCLT hosted an eelgrass ecology workshop with Nikki Wright from SeaChange Marine Conservation Society. Thank you to Nikki, and all our volunteers for attending. We all learned a lot about what role eelgrass plays in the ocean, and the environmental conditions it prefers. Proceeding to the beach, we managed to get our hands and feet wet looking at different types of eelgrass, and seeing some of the creatures that exist in the food web created by the eelgrass bed. Next on the agenda is a site assessment training workshop. Cynthia Durance from Precision Identification will be joining the Land Trust on July 23, in Cowichan Bay. Individual sites will be assessed with a series of criteria to determine whether the area will support eelgrass growth again. The day should take us out on a boat looking at the substrate, elevation, salinity, current velocity, available light, and pH of potential transplant sites.  After this analysis we should have a firm idea of where to plant. The following week, July 31, a test plot of about 100 eelgrass transplants will be rooted in a selected site. In the spring of next year there will be a larger transplant done, putting the transplants in a new location right before the most productive time of year. Partners and Community Support for the Eelgrass Project include: Cowichan Valley Naturalists Society (CVNS) Tom Rutherford, Community Advisor, DFO Public Conservation Assistance Fund Rob Russell, Habitat Biologist, DFO Seagrass Conservation Working Group Duncan Divers Dr. Bill Austin, Khoyatan Marine Laboratory Cowichan Bay Kayak and Paddlesports Pacific Water Sports, Cowichan Bay Cowichan Tribes Cowichan River Stewardship Roundtable Peter Law, Ecosystem Biologist, MoE Cowichan Valley Regional District Cowichan Bay Improvement Association Cowichan Estuary Preservation Society Young Naturalists Streamkeepers Environmental Club, Frances Kelsey High School Environmental Club, Shawnigan Lake School Queen Margaret School Streamkeepers Koksilah School Streamkeepers CVRD Electoral Area D (Cowichan Bay) Parks and Recreation Commission

Eelgrass Restoration and Stewardship 2009-2010 Materials for Children Photo Album July 2008 2005-2007 2005-2006 2004 – 2005 July 2008 Long Weekend Warriors Save Sea Life!  July 2008 Eelgrass Transplant Flippers and fins are clapping and flapping for joy! We had over 50 volunteers help plant 2000 eelgrass shoots into our Cowichan Bay! We had volunteer divers, boat drivers, marine rescue crews and eelgrass shoot preps on land! Call it “underwater eco-gardening”; “environmental stewardship; “salmon enhancement” or “social time” – whatever suits your style. What is really important is that representatives from a mix of different interest groups worked together and this is the key to a successful restoration project. Despite the hot holiday fever of the Canada Day long weekend, CCLT volunteers took the time out of their precious weekend to help recover lost eelgrass beds. Eelgrass is a marine plant that serves as a nursery and food source for almost all marine species during one stage of their lifecycle. These CCLT volunteers demonstrated the dedication and enthusiasm necessary to successfully jump-start the restoration of eelgrass habitat. Community minded locals who came to save sea life included: grandmothers, young naturalists, local businesses, Somenos Marsh Society members, professional anglers, a forest industry manager, biologists and a mother-son diving duo. Huddled under the shade of tarps, 2000 anchors made out of iron rings were attached to eelgrass shoots on June 28th and 29th at the Hecate Park boat launch. Anchors will hold the eelgrass roots in place underground and give them a chance to establish and spread. The underwater marine life will surely ‘rejoice’ when they see their new homes that were planted to help bring back hundreds of different sea creatures. On Saturday, several volunteers stayed longer than they had originally signed up for, enjoying the personal satisfaction of knowing they are contributing to bringing back a vital marine ecosystem. SeaChange Marine Conservation Society and Precision Identification, eelgrass restoration experts, had the wonderful idea of giving Sunday’s volunteers an educational tour of the eelgrass transplant sites on the Mill Bay Marine Rescue Boat. Volunteers got the opportunity to see the crafty work of divers who planted rows of eelgrass in bunches of 10 shoots with 1 meter spacing. The eelgrass can spread by rhizomes and also by seed. Funding for this successful eelgrass transplant came from the BC Conservation Foundation, Pacific Salmon Foundation and CVRD. SeaChange Marine Conservation Society and Precision Identification were CCLT’s expert eelgrass restoration partners who provided biological methodology and techniques. It would be great to keep the momentum of eelgrass restoration in Cowichan Bay flowing along and to continue increasing our community involvement. CCLT is now actively looking for funding and local support to continue monitoring and transplanting eelgrass in Cowichan Bay.   Partners and Community Support for the Eelgrass Project include: Cowichan Valley Naturalists Society (CVNS) Tom Rutherford, Community Advisor, DFO Public Conservation Assistance Fund Rob Russell, Habitat Biologist, DFO Seagrass Conservation Working Group Duncan Divers Dr. Bill Austin, Khoyatan Marine Laboratory Cowichan Bay Kayak and Paddlesports Pacific Water Sports, Cowichan Bay Cowichan Tribes Cowichan River Stewardship Roundtable Peter Law, Ecosystem Biologist, MoE Cowichan Valley Regional District Cowichan Bay Improvement Association Cowichan Estuary Preservation Society Young Naturalists Streamkeepers Environmental Club, Frances Kelsey High School Environmental Club, Shawnigan Lake School Queen Margaret School Streamkeepers Koksilah School Streamkeepers CVRD Electoral Area D (Cowichan Bay) Parks and Recreation Commission

Eelgrass Restoration and Stewardship 2009-2010 Materials for Children Photo Album July 2008 2005-2007 2005-2006 2004 – 2005 Photo Album Photos collected over the years of eelgrass monitoring and restoration work done by the Cowichan Land Trust. Photos courtesy Christine Hind, Wendy Carey, Jen Paton, and Jamie Smith of Coastal Photography Studio Partners and Community Support for the Eelgrass Project include: Cowichan Valley Naturalists Society (CVNS) Tom Rutherford, Community Advisor, DFO Public Conservation Assistance Fund Rob Russell, Habitat Biologist, DFO Seagrass Conservation Working Group Duncan Divers Dr. Bill Austin, Khoyatan Marine Laboratory Cowichan Bay Kayak and Paddlesports Pacific Water Sports, Cowichan Bay Cowichan Tribes Cowichan River Stewardship Roundtable Peter Law, Ecosystem Biologist, MoE Cowichan Valley Regional District Cowichan Bay Improvement Association Cowichan Estuary Preservation Society Young Naturalists Streamkeepers Environmental Club, Frances Kelsey High School Environmental Club, Shawnigan Lake School Queen Margaret School Streamkeepers Koksilah School Streamkeepers CVRD Electoral Area D (Cowichan Bay) Parks and Recreation Commission