For now these notes draw heavily extracts from our monthly FWC "Which Creek Is It" Competition, from our Salt Spring Island FreshWater Catalogue Watershed Stewardship Group Facebook page, with "field note" addendums where additional information has become available.  Additional project and/or area volunteer resources will enable us to do more!

The data collected from any FWC field work in the 9110 watershed would gather year-round flow and chemistry baseline data, investigating seasonal watershed surface water flows and groundwater baseflow(?) discharge to the sea .  Key components of monitoring overall groundwater health, a key component to any watershed, or areal water budget/water balance, and input to validating groundwater recharge potential models.

General Watershed & FWC Creek(s) Information:

The 9110 watershed is located in the Central Island, a number of (ephemeral?) creeks, partly drain forest and wetland ecosystems across the area. There is no public information available on the seasonal (or perennial) flow in the contributing creek catchment areas.  

A 9110 watershed area King Cove area creek, was a March, 2021 Which Creek Is It (WCIT) competition image entry (creek-to-be-named XXIII, is part of a creek cluster discharging in the Kings Cove area of Ruckle Provincial Park.  The March 2021 WCIT images are from the most easterly of this Kings Creek cluster.  

The November 2022 Which Creek Is It competition images were taken at yet another unknown creek - creek-to-be-named XXXI, close to it's coastal outfall, bridge along the Bear Cove trail, in the Ruckle Provincial Park, to the east of the Ruckle Farm area.

Historical & Other Watershed Insights: 

Anecdotally... there are suggestions of relatively limited water supply in the 9110 watershed area.  The BC Ruckle Park masterplan indicates "sedimentary materials are characterised by low porosity and permeability. In these, movement of water is confined to secondary structures such as bedding planes, faults and joints. Records indicate that producing wells encounter one or more fracture zones" (Morris, 1987).  

Note - any other local insights, or interested in contributing to the historical/other notes on our islands' watersheds, please contact the SSIFWC Project Lead.

FWC "Citizen Science" Watershed Reporting: 

As at 2022/12 we have little FWC data from the 9110 watershed area.  Building on some limited observations on the ground (partly ground-truthing remote sensing data), a potential "working model..." for this beautiful watershed area.

The Ruckle Provincial Park, 9110 watershed area has variable, natural and heavily modified, moderate-low surface relief, with no known year-round creeks(???) and yet (apparently) has a reasonable freshwater supply for both the natural systems present and for the community (including agriculture)…. 

In the eastern, agriculturally modified, part of the 9110 watershed, significant parts of the watershed have seen their water courses modified (or even moved!), to accommodate early settlement and agriculture in the Ruckle Farm area.  The western parts of the watershed remain largely untouched (or are in the process of recovering from forestry activities…), and the two 9110 watershed areas are divided by a geological fault! 

In the western, uplands, 9110 watershed area, extensive natural forest and ground cover area are likely to still play a significant role in the watershed's health.  This natural source area setting, together with wetlands in the higher (and forested)  “hinter lands” supports groundwater (recharge).  A significant, through-going, NNW-SSE geological fault within the 9110 watershed perhaps played a local role in controlling the original, natural, valley wetland positions (with water table seepage near surface), and appears to play a role in present-day surface freshwater systems and freshwater access, with the through-going fault likely influenced early water diversion efforts, to accommodate agriculture and domestic/farm freshwater usage?!

Creek systems that originally ran west to east from the uplands (eg SE Creek-to-be-named XXXI), through intermediate fault controlled, wetland areas(?) into the Bear Cove area, may have been diverted to follow the NNW-SSE fault system to generate a sea outfall in the SE of the Ruckle Farm area (not east).   The November 2022 WCIT creek at the Bear Cove trail may be “a residue” of one of the original creek systems that originally had a sea discharge in the east, with the creek path (just) maintaining residues of its original course, across the two "divided" (natural and landscaped) watershed areas!

The locations of the King Cove area NE cluster of creeks (and/or associated spring lines?) may be influenced by the local NNW-SSE geological fault, and/or associated with a significant Comox Formation - Nitinat Formation unconformity (Greenwood and Mihalynuk, 2009) in this same watershed area. 

9110 (Ruckle) watershedFWC Images and Videos:

9110 (Ruckle) watershed images. Note - all FreshWater Catalogue images & videos copywrite belongs with the WPS and the FWC.  We are grateful for due acknowledgement of copywrite in any use or publication of these educational resources.  

Other Local Area Resources:

Relevant 9110 (Ruckle) watershed area literature is as follows: 

• Morris, J. R., 1987., Ruckle Park Master Plan. Ministry Of Lands, Parks and Housing Parks & Outdoor Recreation Division South Coast Region. 

• Greenwood, H. J., & Mihalynuk, M. G., 2009., BC Geological Survey, Open File 2009-11 Salt Spring Island Geology.

• BC Parks website, Ruckle Provincial Park .