FWC PROJECT NEWS
Last Update - 2024/04/08
Our FWC project news, FWC reports and other project contributions, in a blog-like manner...
Including an opportunity to "get to know your (or a) watershed!
-A thank you to our Volunteers for their in-field/home-office contributions
& to the SSI Foundation and others for their financial support and equipment donations -
A FWC Dashboard...?
A FWC "data dashboard" is being considered for some of our key project metrics, a possible 2024 RBC grant application(?). A dashboard would us to monitor where we are: on project media hits (our website and webmap); our (growing) data collection numbers (field locations and wells); and for which creeks are actually flowing... In the meantime... some SSI FWC "dashboard type" numbers, last updated - 2024/04/08
Field surface locations (flow/chemistry) records: 8,350 (> 38,000 measurements) viewable locally , available for visualisation & download
Watersheds with frequent sampling ( including edge-marine...): 20 (aka 90 regular field sites!)
Well basic chemistry data sampling: 16
Approximate number of FWC active volunteers (field & office): 40 +/-
Number of un-named (and often unaccounted for) island creeks XXXIX that's those with no real information available (in roman numerals)
FWC streams flowing: * (see footnote)
*"Live" creek-flowing data is available for a number of our active data collection areas, but an "on/off" flow metric needs work (and a GIS webmap "dashboard" programmer/ developer) see Volunteering for further details...
Interested in volunteering check out our SSIFWC Volunteering webpage.
Watershed Walks...?
We are now offering island freshwater stewardship introductions, or "watershed walks", for some selected, Salt Spring Island, watersheds. These are (currently), in the:
North island - the "1983" watershed, accessed via the CRD, Jack Foster Trail).
A classic and compact (boutique?) island watershed, you can see all the elements of a watershed in this short, 1983, watershed walk. A favourite for school trips and an introduction to an island watershed and what it is!Central island - New, a "9110" Ruckle Park area watershed walk
In an area of the island where surface freshwater is not always evident and yet it is there... why is that? Details of this new walk, and an answer to the why...South island - the Xwaaqw'um watersheds, accessed via the Burgoyne Bay BC Parks road and trails
Past - Present - A Future - In an important watershed(s) area, a restoration flagship project on our island, with the ongoing restoration being led by the Stqeeye' Learning Society.
The above, and other watershed(s), walks are always possible to arrange, if you are not sure which is your watershed (you do have one...), please have a look at our SSIFWC webmap (and swithc on the watersheds layer) or refer to the CRD SSI Watersheds map.
Interested in knowing more? - for more information please contact the SSIFWC Project Lead.
Our FWC News (bloggish)
Breaking News
In a blog-like format, as at:
2024/04/04 - continuing discussions with Pacific Datasteam re fine-tuning our FreshWater Catalogue data sharing with this great Canada-wide freshwater organisation (and their now launched "Pacific" site). Our SSIFWC freshwater cataloguing flow, turbitidy and coliforms data are being setup for even more of a SSI freshwater data presence on Pacific Datastream!
2024/03/28 the first Maxwell Creek watershed TSS-CARL - FWC (2022- ) collaboration field data is starting to trickle into our SSIFWC cloud database.
2024/03/20 a Driftwood article - (our island’s) World Water Day a Water Preservation Society (WPS) - Thoughts For The (World Water) Day
2024/02/27 our recent FreshWater Catalogue "Salt Spring Island FreshWater Catalogue Project Applied Reconciliation" Living Lakes "article gets an honourable mention in the latest Navigating drought with data - The power of community-based water monitoring Lakes Canada news article.
2024/02/12 project related software development (aka more Excel macros), for improved data handling (data QC, data manipulation), are being worked by one of our home-office volunteers at GISS.
2024/02/04 Our SSIFWC field data collection app has now been updated to allow the SSIFWC cloud capture of our Stream Velocity Board (for flow data) measurements, that's three major field attributes added to our freshwater field data capture, in the last few months!
2024/01/24 And our WPS FWC project had two honourable mentions in the 14th January 2024 Island Trust Freshwater Sustainability webinar: 1] for direct use in a local, detailed island freshwater budget study for the Weston Creek watershed (CRD, 2023), and 2] for a possible best-practice freshwater watershed stewardship model for use in our Salish Sea (AKA Gulf) Islands!
2024/01/23 Field trails of our new, locally made SSI Stream Velocity Board (v1.0), a first deployment of one of these tools on SSI! And... supporting velocity "metre" equipment testing and field-usage for a velocity metre (flow) comparative study in the SSIFWC - TSS-CARL Maxwell Creek Watershed collaboration project area.
2024/01/10 Our Q2/2023... article "Salt Spring Island FreshWater Catalogue Project Applied Reconciliation" , based on Living Lakes Community Based Water Monitoring interviews, is now available (P. 10 and frontispiece image) on the Living Lakes Canada website.
2023/12/15 With the help of volunteers from OceanWise our Freshwater Catalogue (this website) and our SSI Water Preservation Society and Shaped By Water Film Project fund raising websites are to be merged, more details to follow... next year!
2023/12/07 For a FWC field flow measurement techniques field trial in our collaborative FWC-CARL Maxwell Creek watershed project area we are building a Stream Velocity Board. The board is a simple velocity measuring tool designed by a province hydrologist with the design shared with us in a visit by them earlier this year, the device streamlines creek velocity measurements (and is better than the duck...).
2023/12/06 Salt Spring Island's water: a developing storyline article was published in the (6th December) Gulf Islands Driftwood
2023/11/20 Our FWC project field data collection reached a significant - 8,000+ field location datasets - milestone. A very big Thank You to our community science volunteer community for getting us there!
2023/11/01 and here is our Pilot water quality report for streams discharging into W̱E¸NÁ¸NEĆ /Hwune’nuts (Fulford Harbour, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia) report, published and online. This report is be accompanied by a Driftwood article in the upcoming (6th December) publication.
2023/11/30 - The publication of our collaborative Pilot water quality report for streams discharging into W̱E¸NÁ¸NEĆ /Hwune’nuts (Fulford Harbour, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia), is coming very soon!
2023/11/16 great discussions on our WPS-FWC - TSS Maxwell Creek (MXCK) Climate Action Research Lab. (CARL) project collaboration, working on fine-tuning ongoing field internship freshwater baseline characterisation in this important watershed area restoration project.
2023/11/15 our FreshWater Catalogue project has reached 8,000 field site recordings (so more than 40,000 actual field measurements!
2023/11 our WPS "Freshwater Salt Spring" educational, school/youth short film continues to get hits (some 1700 to-date) !!!
2023/11/05 with the help of the WPS (financing) and Raincoast Foundation we are able to do a small invisibles (colliforms, metals, other) field-lab programme in the GGCK watershed! And, we have added in a “refuse” field site flag to enable us to develop a database of possible contaminant sites in our island's watersheds...
2023/11/02 FWC - GISS Environmental Science field work kicked off and WPS equipment handed over for use in the Ganges Creek watershed field work!
2023/10/20, based on field reconnaissance, a new FWC Fulford Creek watershed, Fulford Creek field location (and well?) sampling programme in development, and maybe involving the CedarRootsLearning Group.
2023/10/19 more FWC - other stewardship group collaboration, with "Fulford Creek watershed field volunteers" offering support to the newly launched SSI Streamkeepers Salmon Monitoring group (a TSS - Marine working group project)
2023/10/12 first "freshwater on an island" GISS student (classroom) FWC discussions (grades 11 and 12 (16-17 year olds), with a plan for Ganges Creek (GGCK) watershed, a GISS - GGCK field programme, being finalised!
2023/10/06 developing a FWC field data analysis/visualisation programme with an interested GISS student.
2023/09/10 released a Central island, 9119 (Grandmother Tree) Watershed Note to accompany our recent August, 2023 Which Creek Is It (WCIT) Competition result.
2023/08/28 discussions with GISS on a environmental, hydrosphere biosphere programme including FWC classroom and field work programme for this coming semester. Leveraging some of our FWC education/teaching modules - SD64 Teacher Hydrosphere/Biosphere modules and our SSIFWC website Schools page!
2023/07/31 started discussions on a FWC classroom and field work programme with GISS. Hopefully we can further leverage some of our developing FWC education/teaching modules!
2023/07/11 onboarding a new SSIFWC volunteer in central island, and rebooting our Maxwell Creek watershed creek outfall data collection. More to follow on our newer volunteers helping with our North Island group.
2023/07/07 central Fulford Creek watershed area field data analysis and outline reporting completed, cf. updated Fulford Creek Watershed Notes.
2023/06/23 onboarding a new SSIFWC volunteer in central island, and restarting our Old Lowther Creek watershed data collection!
2023/06/05 launched a QField SSIFWC Cloud field mapping/GIS interface online. This is a, smartphone accessed, freshwater field data webmap sharing platform, which shares some of our island's freshwater mapping data. This App interface is for use in the field by some of our freshwater catalogue field volunteers and for our collaborative, watershed stewardship, groups.
2023/06/01 released a North island, (golf course) 8343 Watershed Note to accompany our recent March, 2023 Which Creek Is It Competition result.
2023/05/30 we have added in some additional "water quality" capture parameters (coliforms, NTU) within our SSIFWC Cloud database. These freshwater data additions enable us to capture and ultimately share some of the ongoing water quality field results from recent and ongoing work, via our various data sharing interfaces (SSIFWC webmap and Pacific Datastream)!
2025/05 - we are working on a draft report-out capturing the results of our collaborative (WPS, Raincoast Foundation, Transition Salt Spring - Marine, Gulf Islands National Parks), Fulford Bay Stewardship Water Quality Pilot (FBSWQP) field work project and considered next steps for watershed health monitoring.
2023/05/12 WPS AGM FWC presentation summarising where we are with our freshwater catalogue, many highlights, at five years in!
2023/05/11 Onboarding two new volunteers (north and central/regional reconnaissance).
2023/04/04 Home-office updates completed for some of the FWC field-data-in-the-cloud an important data management task, to ensure that we maintain data suitable for calculations and correct mapping.
2023/03/29 New McFadden Creek field site reconnaissance and site identified. Check-in on province Fulford Creek flow sampling station re-install - monitoring at this island site now re-instated!
2023/03/24 re-deployed (SLS) field data loggers at Xwaaqw'um, to support our SLS-FWC collaborative monitoring of the Xwaaqw'um watershed areas. Creeks water temperatures give an indication of creek flow (presence/absence influencing measured temperature), and of in-stream conditions (aquatic health and summer levels of groundwater baseflow!)
2023/03/23 a full day in the field with Jon J. a Hydrometric Specialist, from the BC, Env:Ex hydrometric group. A day reviewing our island freshwater cataloguing: small creeks field measureent techniques, discussing options for fine-tuning these, sharing our FWC workflows, and on getting our data into that province (Aquarius) database... for wider accessibility and study use. A Stream Velocity Board to help with creek flow measurements sounds like something that might be useful!
2023/03/22 A 2023 World Water Day, Driftwood article, on our holistic view of our island's watersheds and freshwater capture systems
2023/03/17 with our expanding water quality data capture field programme (coliforms, metals and turbidity) in our developing FWC project stewardship collaborations, we have added additional water quality field parameters to our FWC field data collection App.
2023/03/01 on our SSIFWC "images & videos" webpage, we have added a developing collection of "Rubbish in Our Watershed Creeks" link, and a, south island, Arnold Creek Watershed Note.
2023/02/16 In conversations with Living Lakes Canada around our FWC work and capturing something for the record - an "inspire other communities (and science)" interview!
2023/02/14 We have a WPS, FWC, Community-based science raises water balance awareness on Salt Spring Island article in the latest Water Sustainability BC “Water Bucket” newsletter.
2023/02/14 In support of ongoing island freshwater modelling (and hydraulic connectivity, water balance and availability assessments) we have shared a further batch of a SSIFWC Weston Creek watershed area field dataset with GW Consultants who, in conjunction with the Islands Trust are working on SSI modelling.
2023/02/13 The date for our last collaborative Fulford Bay Stewardship Water Quality Pilot (FBSWQP) field session (-III), this and the water quality sampling parameters for this event, are now fixed for mid-March, 2023. As per the TSS-Marine working group, 2022 TSS AGM summary, our FBSWQP collaborative stewardship group includes the WPS, TSS-Marine, Gulf Island National Park (and via them First Nations groups), and Raincoast Foundation. Next(?) FBSWQP report writing, and results and conclusions information sharing!
2023/02/09 Our Freshwater Catalogue field dataset now stands at 7,000 field site observations (that's in excess of ca. 25,000 actual field measurements). Another WPS FWC project milestone.
2023/01/13 Our Freshwater Salt Spring film-short is going to be shown (Sunday 4th March at 10.00AM) at the 2023 Salt Spring Island Film Festival, Formal film festival schedule film: https://saltspringexchange.com/.../Salt-Spring-Island...
2023/01/11 We are exploring batch uploading freshwater cataloguing measurements from a key, north island, Duck Creek (and St Mary Lake) surface recharge area.
2022/12/01 We have two new partners in our Shaped By Water film-making project, both the Islands Trust and Salt Spring Conservancy are now a part of our film-making group. Some film-making funds are starting to trickle in though we "have a ways to go". Interested in donating to our film making project?
2022/11/25 via Pacific DataStream we continue to work on making our FreshWater Catalogue field datasets accessible for use (we now have the biggest, local, freshwater dataset in the beta Pacific Datastream area!), and are investigating how to gain a province field data quality grade classification...
2022/11/24 our monthly Which Creek Is It (WCIT) competition running on our community Facebook pages (accessing something like 3,500 island folks) now stand at forty-four entries, though the number of correct answers (or any response at all) from the community is less than 20.... so some work to do on this WCIT education/outreach effort - a prize for the monthly winner is needed!
2022/10 and into 2022/11 and beyond... we are moving into raising the profile of our collaborative, freshwater and watershed stewardship "Shaped By Water" film-making project, reaching out further to potential film-making partners (IT, SS Conservancy, CRD etc), and kick-starting obtaining funding for this important freshwater education (science, community awareness and support) project to move forward... Read here for more on the "why bother"
2022/10 we were invited to lead a "Pathfinders watersheds and natural systems" field session as a part of their outdoor programme, and our past-present-future outline of the Xwaaqw'um area watersheds restoration area was well received by an enthusiastic group! Our thanks to the Stqeeye' Learning Society for what they are doing in this place, and for their willingness to share their knowledge.
2022/09 our FWC Weston Creek watershed field dataset has been used by the CRD to support the recently released 2022 Weston Lake Water Budget study (page 116), impacting the results of this important central island (Fulford Water District area) study. The CRD study used our flow measurements, chemistry, 24/7 data logger datasets to help define, surface water - groundwater interactions in the Weston Creek watershed.
2022/09 The FreshWater Catalogue was at the WPS booth at the SSI 2022 Fall Fair. Some 75-100 folks dropped by to investigate that island watershed map and the WPS, SSIWPA, CRD, TSS, + educational materials we had on-hand, and over half of the visitors wanted to talk about the island's freshwater. This was a very useful education/outreach event, with some great questions (and a few good answers...), much work still to do on the "freshwater on an island" education front.
2022/08 our FreshWater Catalogue project work is in the news, with best of accolades for "Environment", and "Use of Visual Medium" in the Gulf Islands Driftwood's "Best of Salt Spring Island" magazine.
2022/08 our first (and in 2022/11 a second) foray into FWC water quality oriented field sampling was kicked off in a successful "Fulford Bay Stewardship Water Quality Pilot (FBSWQP) field session. Water quality objectives have been outlined, sample field parameters defined, field sites selected, water quality samples selected and results are in from the lab! More on this collaborative stewardship initiative, in a future SSIFWC Watershed Stewardship Group Fulford Bay Stewardship Water Quality (FBSWQP) project Facebook post, or perhaps in other media...
2022/07 an "Amazing Importance of Watersheds" essay by Quyên Fernandez, a FWC project youth volunteer, Salt Spring Island Middle School. Quyên was the winner of a 2022 Environmental Activist award hosted by the Institute for Sustainability Education & Action (i-sea.ca).
2022/07 following an approach by OceanWise, we organised a collaborative watershed lands cleanup effort at the WPS Old Lowther Creek watershed, Larmour Lands. What a great group and event, we shared local watershed knowledge, and the OceanWise team helped - more on this in a SSIFWC Watershed Stewardship Group SSIFWC WPS Larmour Lands Facebook post.
2022/06 the Stqeeye' Learning Society - WPS, FreshWater Catalogue collaboration group led a Nature Salt Spring field event - Xwaaqw'um Watershed Restoration Past, Present, a Future" with some great questions and dialogue from the community who came along. More on this in a SSIFWC Watershed Stewardship Group Xwaaqw’um Stqeeye’ Learning Society - SSIFWC WPS Facebook post.
2022/05 - following a Gulf Islands National Park - Rain Coast - FirstNations field trip reviewing the Fulford Bay watersheds and our "seven creeks in seven watersheds" freshwater catalogue data collection sites, we are in ongoing conversations regarding leveraging our 4 year+ FWC water quantity oriented data in an island freshwater quality oriented "Pollution Tracker" study (see above). Leveraging data integration and stewardship groups collaboration (2+2=5)? More to follow!
2022/04 we have refined our FWC data manipulation workflows in Excel. This enables us to simplify data compilations for charting and QC/analysis. With these improvements in-place, and the visualisation tools on our beta-test FWC DataStream's Pacific freshwater site, we can do more (and be quicker) on our island's fresh (surface and ground) water data QC and in developing "working models" for the various sites/areas!
2022/03 a FreshWater Catalogue World Water Day meet-up at a local watershed steward's home, and a World Water Day article in Driftwood on our FreshWater Catalogue project
2022/03 we are developing a SSI Watershed Stewardship documentary film (working title "Shaped by Water" (as at May 12th here is the film-making fund-raising campaign website)!
2022/02 our TSS-FWC project collaboration on a TSS led Maxwell Watershed EcoAction project started during February 2022, with a field programme now defined. More available in our "Maxwell Creek Watershed" note and in our SSIFWC Watershed Stewardship Group SSIFWC - TSS - Maxwell Creek watershed project Facebook post
2022/01 we now have our SSIFWC datasets, from our volunteer data collection network, more accessible and interrogatable - via a live "Pacific DataStream" FWC data link - FWC Datastream. This Data Stream interface gives access to basic FWC charts, maps & statistics.
2022/01 our FWC Weston Creek watershed dataset has been shared with the CRD to support an ongoing Weston Lake Water Budget study, and will be used in this important central island study
2022/01 we have started discussions on a new Fulford Harbour (FH), or Fulford Bay watersheds stewardship group!
With some of recent donations we have acquired two more Oakton field chemistry devices to support our island-wide(ish) network of Oakton's, hosted by selected FWC volunteers!
2021/12 our WPS "Freshwater Salt Spring" educational, school/youth video short is available (some 1000 hits to-date) !!!
2021/11 Starting up on our SSI Schools (re) engagement with a "watersheds" school programme,, under development with help from key teachers. We now have a student friendly (TBD...) "Forest Stumps" data collection app, for student "Older Growth" mapping and visualisation... with a class-room programme in place to support a "Mapping and Our-Place" programme.
2021 Q3, during the appropriate time/place (ie late summer, outdoors) we hosted a couple of "FWC Stewardship Group community get-togethers, to say thank you and to share our island freshwater and project news. These events were well received, and will be repeated in 2022... when conditions allow.
The WPS had a booth at the 2021/09 Fall Fair. We had over fifty folks swung by, from the whole spectrum of SSI society, end members and those that we need to bring on board with that delicate water balance story. We have acquired some additional WPS/FWC volunteers and a few more interested in what we are doing. There is clearly a gap in the market in-terms of a need for an "information supplier"
We had a "FWC science project - maps island water, three years, in" update article in the 2021/08/18 Driftwood
We have been onboarding some of our recent SSIFWC volunteers, for home office and field work components of our project, in the north in the Duck Creek and central Ganges Creek watersheds, and re-booting work in the Mansell Creek, 9178 (Fernwood) and McFadden Creek watersheds, and in the westerly Fulford Creek watershed "source area"
Our Stqeeye’ Learning Society - FreshWater Catalogue (FWC) programme collaboration in support of the Quw'utsun, Stqeeye’ Learning Society (SLS) watershed restoration work in the "Xwaaqw'um Watersheds" is ongoing, with three temperature data loggers monitoring creek flow and groundwater baseflow. Thank you "Team SLS"
Our SSIFWC webmap now features charting for our FWC (18) sampled wells (under a dropdown menu "Charts- Wells")
We are investigating funding for a "SSI Watershed Stewardship" documentary video - any suggestions or interested in supporting this effort have a look at our Transition Salt Spring (TSS) Ecological Research Network (ERN) "Seeking Volunteers" webpage, and/or please contact the SSIFWC project lead for further information
We have a "new" Marsh-McBirney water flow meter, to compliment (or was that replace...) our Swoffer velocity metre for flow measurements under more challenging (high) flow conditions at our key creek sampling sites. Field training for this this device is has been done, with Team Kingfisher.
Other News
Field, homeoffice, our data, our video(s)...
Videos
Interviews with the Quw'utsun, Stqeeye’ Learning Society at Xwaaqw'um, some of our “Team Stowell” school youths (and “significant other” adults) took place for the Our SSI Water youth/student school video short. Pulling this script together, and the visual threads, has made a delicate water balance video short a reality (see above). Next(?) that full blown "SSI (Watershed) Stewardship" documentary video, we are currently looking for help with fund raising ($$$) and a production team.
Reporting
Here is our end April, 2021 SSI "SSI Foundation Reporting 202104, Water Preservation Society, SSI FreshWater Catalogue (FWC). Spring 2020-2021 Grant Period, Award No. S202016 report. We are currently working on a "FWC field (processed) data, compilation & interpretation, and (raw) data management guidelines - for FWC data analysis working group(s)" document for volunteer and interested community use.
Creek Cataloguing (mapping & naming)
On that longer term, creek renaming (and naming!) freshwater cataloging initiative, we are now up to Salt Spring Island creek-to-be-named 47! We are starting to work on a local, SSI-centric and dedicated "SSI freshwater features" basemap map, to incorporate as a backdrop for our SSIFWC webmap, and for conversations on creek and watershed naming and updating watershed boundaries... both key FreshWater Catalogue project deliverables!
We are collecting well chemistry data!
You may have read that our FWC field chemistry data (from the Oakton) gives valuable insights into the components of our surface creek freshwater and can, in some circumstances, be used to back-out the groundwater component of our streams (especially with the integration of well data!). This is important stuff for any determination of how groundwater contributions (so-called baseflow) influence our island’s surface steam “health” (and our island’s groundwater supplies…).
The “FWC Oakton chemistry reveals groundwater contributions” story-line was confirmed in a recent FWC summer project study by Simon Fraser University (SFU, study details here). A key recommendation of the SFU study, to get a better handle on the relationships between stream groundwater base flow and that groundwater from deeper levels, was to obtain Oakton chemistry samples from more SSI wells (shallow and deep) we are now collecting data from fourteen island wells. This FWC basic well chemistry sampling will provide more local insights, beyond the limited SSI well chemistry records currently in the public domain. Hence this new FWC data collection effort!
Funding
During the course of 2021-2022 we had donations for further FWC "field" equipment, a laptop (for data logger data downloads), two additional Oaktons, some of those rather useful foldable rulers and a laptop field table! Our remaining donation monies are being used to top up our Oakton recalibration fluid supplies!
We had the funds for a standalone "Our (SSI) Water", video short by our SSI youth/school group, this project kicked-off on 15th April, 2021 with projected short video delivery by end August 2021 (actually this was December, 2021). A full blown 2 "Our (SSI) Water" youth/adult video script/storyline, with insights into the ongoing island freshwater studies, is an element of a five part "Freshwater on SSI - A Delicate Water Balance?" stewardship video, being undertaken under the auspices of the Transition Salt Spring's (TSS), as a project of the Ecological Research Network (ERN) working group. The "Our SSI Water" script was reviewed, and used to develop a $$,$$$ costing for a collaborative, longer stewardship, grassroots engagement/film festival documentary film. Investigations into donations and grants for this SSI Stewardship community "documentary" are ongoing... with our fund-raising and status website available! Please contact the film project coordinator for further information on donations or on getting involved.
The final part of our 2020-2021 Spring SSI Foundation Grant spend has now been allocated/spent, with some additional Oaktons (and re-calibration chemicals), and field water sampling kits for schools partly deployed. Reports on how are Foundation grant spends and how these were used in our FWC project are on our Reports webpage. As "continued customers" the Canada-wide watershed stewardship group, Water Rangers, have very kindly provided us with free field kit restocking chemicals (x 2!) for our school field kit bags.
Volunteers
We gather new Volunteers from our regular SSIFWC Volunteers Needed webposts we continue to gain more support, with small(ish) local stewardship communities developing when conditions permit.
Our Webmap
Our SSIFWC webmap drop down "Charts" now contain information on some revisited north island sites, new Central Fulford Creek and Ganges watersheds charts, an update on the sites developed by our volunteer in the 2112 watershed, and a selection of shallow and deep wells (currently 19) from which our volunteers are now collecting data.
Our SSIFWC Website
On this website some of our FWC "Watershed Notes" are now available under "Resources". These notes continue to be developed, so please check back regularly for updates. Recent website updates in our Notes include the addition of something on Capel Keppel, Duck Creek (including the St Mary Lake sub-watershed) Madrona Creek, Cusheon Creek, Fern Creek, Larlow Creek, Soule Creek, Ruby Alton, the 9110 (Ruckle area) watersheds (etc!), with that on Xwaaqw'um area watershed notes in review with the SLS and work recently completed for '2112" ("Cable Creek").
We now have around 150 "users" on our website over each 90 day period, 40-50 users per month and 10-20 per week!
Our Data Collection
Our SSI FWC Cloud database capturing field data from island wide reconnaissance and regular field site visits is at 7,000 data entries - comprising volunteer input from some 20 island watersheds, additional, "local detail", data collection in six of these, and the addition of some shallow and deep well chemistry data entries (19 regularly sampled wells) to support interpretation of linkages between the surface water and groundwater!
See the SSI FWC webmap for the various field and well location(s), and charts for all of our regular sites, have a look at SSIFWC Data Access to access the dataset(s), our new(ish) FWC Pacific Datastream visualisation and download site, or our developing Watershed Notes for information on some of our FWC Local Detail project areas and more.
Our Data Management
We are doing data management..., for sites where coordinate data collection and minor data entry errors arise. These data quality control updates are needed to ensure that we can chart and interpret the data being collected in the field. We have been working on onboarding an Excel data analyst/charting wizard to support further data QC and interpretation.
Our Data Sharing
We have a periodic FWC data share arrangement with Water Rangers, a Canada-wide freshwater stewardship group, coordinating volunteer water quality data collection across the country. Judging from the Water Rangers webmap showing Canada-wide volunteer field data collection our recent FWC data share with Water Rangers (some 2700+ field data points), puts the WPS, FWC project in a "pole position" for one of the largest community area/watershed science efforts, across Canada! We set up access to our field data via a FWC Data Stream link, as a part of Data Streams Canada-wide data sharing platform - our information is available and downloadable from this site and the Data Stream website has some great simple visualisation tools.
Which Creek Is It (WCIT)?
Our monthly FWC "Which Creek Is It?" competition continues to run on our SSI FreshWater Catalogue Watershed Stewardship Gp Facebook page. We are currently running our forty seventh month's WCIT entry, though with only three "winners" to-date...
Other News
Additional FWC Field Sites/Watersheds
A FWC field data gathering effort is taking place in a core area of the Fulford Creek watershed in the beautiful Mereside/Ford Lake and western uplands source area.
Have a look at our Fulford Creek (FLCK) "Ford Lake area" FWC Stewardship Group Facebook page for further updates - a new Local Detail project area.
A new FWC field data gathering effort in the Bullock Creek (BLCK) watershed area was up and running, but is now awaiting a further reboot. Have a look at our Bullock Creek (BCLK) FWC Stewardship Group Facebook page for further updates.
New FWC field data collection areas have been established in the "9076" Cusheon Cove watershed. Have a look at our Cusheon Cove (9076) FWC Stewardship Group Facebook page for further updates.
We are collaborating in a Transition Salt Spring (TSS) - FWC Maxwell Lake watershed sampling programme, in place as a part of the TSS EcoAction project within this important watershed area.
We have rebooted our North Island sampling sites!
Browse our SSI FWC webmap for the various watersheds, FWC field location(s) and charting, and some interesting island context layers (from the drop-down menu on the left-hand side). Charting for our FWC wells coming soon to our webmap.
Note - We are always looking for volunteers to help out in these and other new field data collection areas, to help with historical insights to the watershed area, or access to local creek sampling points. Contact the SSIFWC Project Lead for further information.
FWC Watershed Area Updates
“Local Detail” Weston Creek watershed sampling and active data loggers are in place for two key sites in the Weston Creek watershed, at both Weston Lake inflow and outflow sites, with regular data downloads undertaken. These are to investigate Lake groundwater inflows, and Weston Creek watershed discharge to the sea - both key components to any planned local Weston Lake water budget and watershed water balance work!
Supplementary “Local Detail” Weston Creek watershed sampling was done in a FWC Weston Lake Profiling session in September 2020. This investigatation was to determine if there is any evidence for groundwater inflows along the “Weston Lake fault” - which may influence Weston Lake groundwater (baseflow) recharge...
See our Weston Creek watershed notes for further details.
Xwaaqw’um watershed sites through summer and winter monitoring has been ongoing, We are moving towards re-installing improved data logger setups and we now have an additional Local Detail project area! We have been privileged to be involved in discussions on how the FWC work may help understand the impact of the various wetlands and watershed restoration works being undertaken by the Stqeeye' Learning Society, a Quw'utsun run non-profit charity. We are actively collaborating in the field with the SLS, collecting field data with 24/7 data logger deployments associated with key Xwaaqw'um area sites, with regular data downloads - as volunteer resources (and Covid) allow.
We have a first FWC timelapse camera at one of the field Xwaaqw'um field locations, though unfortunately in the early days the camera fell-over with the weather change (lesson learned). The the time-lapse results.
Homeoffice Updates
With schools in sesssion and SSI Foundation grant funds given for this school kit for some of our island schools, we have been exploring options for school engagements during Covid, and for volunteers to support a 2022-2023 (and beyond…) school programme. Options for direct, significant face-to-face school engagements are changing (improving?). However, a combination of class-room video sessions, and (in conjunction with other SSI interest groups) school input to a further "SSI Stewardship video" (Shaped By Water) is being investigated. Either, or all of these, are very much in line with our WPS, FWC projects education/outreach efforts and those of other island stewardship groups - a work in progress on video funding and making.
An "Our SSI Water" youth/school video short is currently in the making! A SSI Stewardship video project is in start-up mode, with island interest groups engaged, a draft script developed for a core video 2 "Our SSI Water" and fund-raising being pursued (as a resource for schools. the community, and beyond!).
Our FWC - Simon Fraser Univerity (SFU) summer project reporting is available SFU FWC. The results of this SFU work have been shared/discussed with the SSI Watershed Protection Alliance (SSIWPA) Technical Working Group (TWG) - to continue our engagements on developing more informed island water budget and groundwater recharge models.
We have more FWC new volunteers (Dan, Lewis, Anne) helping with field work (see above) and with homeoffice activities: (data management(!), FWC article copy, map making, etc) or in "start-up".
Our FWC Field Data Collection App (V3) has been successfully rolled-out and now includes (amongst other features) data capture for “wells chemistry” - with an ongoing "wells data gathering request" to our SSI freshwater interest group.
We have additional Oakton hosts - offering the FWC Oaktons at a field or well location near you.
Our SSI FWC webmap updates include the addition of SSI LOT boundaries so that we are clear on our field access, where our data collection is taking place and where we need permissions, and new, regular field location, charts.
Our SSI FWC website (this one) is being populated with island freshwater resources, information for our volunteers, and on volunteering!
Our November 2022 Volunteers Bulletin is now available.