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 volunteer resources will enable us to do more!

The data collected from our FWC Bullock Creek watershed gathers seasonal(?) flow and chemistry baseline data, investigating surface water and groundwater baseflow (?) watershed discharge to the sea - components of any planned watershed/areal water budget or water balance work, and with potential uses for validating areal groundwater recharge potential models.  

General Watershed & FWC Creek Information:

The FWC October 2020 WCIT competition creek image was Bullock Creek, located in the North Island, Bullock Creek ("BLCK", or the "1999") watershed.  October's WCIT creek runs along one of the island’s northern peninsulas, and is located immediately north of Ganges Harbour (adjacent to another FWC Madrone Creek sampling area), with a single sea-outfall in the harbour’s broader "estuary" area.  The FWC WCIT image locations of the creek are adjacent to the Eagle Ridge Drive roadside and at a (large) Long Harbour Road culvert close to the creek’s sea-outfall.

• Bullock Creek is largely the single (principle) creek in the BLCK watershed, and at the coast is the watershed’s single surface water discharge to the sea.  The watershed is moderately developed, with the creek and watershed source area in the “uplands” of Trincomali Heights (close to St Mary's lake).  Important wetlands and the lake systems immediately below this upland area are likely to provide valuable rainwater catchment (groundwater recharge?) and surface water storage for the watershed as a whole.

• The BLCK Creek watershed is moderate sized, some 450 hectares (1,113 acres) in size (slightly smaller than the Weston Creek, CENTRAL island; and Cable Creek SOUTH island watersheds).

• The BLCK watershed receives something like 4,277,850,000 litres (1,130,090,000 gallons) of rainfall (precipitation, or surface water) per annum (water volumes are approximate with no consideration of surface/terrain conditions, nor rainfall variability within the catchment area).  By comparison with some of the island’s biggies(!) this is still a reasonable volume number.  

Historical & Other Watershed Insights:  

Aside from Barnett et al., (1993), McCullough (2011) and a small summer 2017 SSIWPA data collection effort we have no public data on the Bullock Creek watershed.  According to Barnett et al., a single Bullock Creek "no-flow" measurement was made in 1985/11/07 (it is not clear if this means not measured or no actual flow).  In-stream conditions are the result of low  stream gradients,  resulting  in  long  backwatering  distances  upstream  of obstructions and the creek system appears to have low summer flows McCullough (2011).   

Bullock Lake water level monitoring is currently ongoing as part of a SSIWPA run surface freshwater lake monitoring project on selected SSI Lakes.

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" & Other Watershed Notes - Reporting: 

Bullock Creek is assumed to be permanent (perennial) creek, the extent of groundwater feed for the creek system is unknown at present - FWC field work may determine more of what surface/groundwater components are present - TBD.  Freshwater (groundwater) chemistry for this island area is likely to be heavily influenced by the sedimentary rocks sequences of the Nanaimo Group, and possibly local strata parallel faults. Well data from this BLCK watershed area would help understand the relationships between surface and subsurface water chemistry and inflow and outflow.

There are identified challenges associated with the BLCK watershed’s resources, at least locally, with press articles on the area often appearing in the local media (search “Cedar Lane”), and the area often on the agenda in discussions in the SSI Watershed Protection Alliance (SSIWPA).  From the IT initiated 052109 GW Consultants report the BLCK watershed area has a “moderate”, topographic wetness (partly a function of the reduced rainfall associated with a smaller “water tower” in this lower elevation northeastern area?), and is considered a “low aquifer recharge potential area (figure 10 GW report) - the GW model seems valid…

The watershed has a moderate number of subsurface (ca 160) wells.  Anecdotally, given the narrow, elongate nature of the BLCK watershed and it's proximity to the coast saline intrusion may locally be a potential risk(?), cf. Klassen & Allen (1996) for futher insights into saline intrusion models. 

We have a very little FWC data from BLCK.  Ongoing SSIWPA lake and well monitoring in the area will give insights into the available water resources of parts of the area.  More local data collection would give improved insights into how this watershed (and related freshwater ecosystems) work, are impacted by seasonal (or climatic…) changes, and may help with an improved understanding of how surface water catchments in the island’s watersheds contribute to aquifer recharge.  

FWC Images and Videos:

Bullock Creek Watershed FWC field 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:

• Barnett et al., 1993., Salt Spring Island Water Allocation Plan

• McCullough M., 2011., Anadromous  Coastal Cutthroat Trout Habitat Reconnasiance. FLNRO.

• Willmott, T. Lange, J, and Morgen, J., 2013., Salt Spring Island Riparian Area Regulation Stream Identification - Bullock, Fulford, Maxwell, Stowell and Weston Watersheds., Madrone Environmental Services Ltd.

Cf. The SSIWPA online library for additional Technical-and-Scientific resources for the Bullock Lake watershed area.

Volunteers Needed

Access to Bullock Creek at its sea-outfall would allow us to refine our flow-to-sea estimates for this important watershed (our current FWC field location is further upstream, cf our SSIFWC webmap for locations).  As indicated in the October WCIT hint we have recently initiated FWC data collection in Bullock Creek, aside from these developing FWC field records there is no data available for the surface water systems of this watershed’s creeks or freshwater flow-to-sea!

Note - If you are interested in being involved in the field with a SSI FWC BLCK watershed group in this area, are willing to provide access for volunteers in this same watershed area or have a well (shallow or deep) that we can occasionally sample for surface to subsurface chemistry correlation work, please let us know.  Drop the SSIFWC Project Lead a line!