SSI, NORTH Watersheds
Madrona Creek (2017) Watershed "Notes"
- Norton Road-Leisure Lane, south side Long Harbour peninsula and Ganges bay north-
LAST UPDATE 2022/07/15
Embedded Files
SSI North Area - overview watersheds (colour coded, CRD, 2018) & watershed note area
North Island, Madrona Creek (2017) Watershed
North Island, Madrona Creek (2017) Watershed
From our ongoing North Island, Freshwater Cataloguing - notes on the Madrona Creek ("2017", informally MDCK ) watershed area. Cf. the SSI FWC webmap for field locations and charted information (where available).
The content of these "Notes" entries is dependant on the information that is currently available, from FWC volunteer work, FWC reporting or from other sources. A big thank you to our FWC volunteers for contributions in this area.
Note - if you have additional insights into this area (the watershed, it's creeks or wetlands), can help with site(s) access, or are interested in being involved in data collection for this project area, please contact the SSIFWC Project Lead.
For now these watershed notes draw heavily on 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 field measurements and and area research will enable us to do more!
The data collected from FWC "Local Detail" field work in the Madrona Creek watershed targets gathering creek flow, and chemistry, baseline data - to examine variations in seasonal creek flow (and chemistry), to determine year-to-year creek variability and the extent of potential groundwater contributions to the creek(s) within the watershed.
The field work will investigate surface water flow, and potential groundwater baseflow(?) inflow along the creek system - components of any planned watershed/areal water budget or water balance work, with potential uses for validating (ground-truthing) areal groundwater recharge potential models. In the longer term this data may provide insights into environmental and climate-change related surface and ground water levels.
General Watershed & FWC Creek(s) Information:
General Watershed & FWC Creek(s) Information:
Madrona Creek is located in the North Island, "2017" (or informally Madrona Creek, "MDCK") watershed. The main creek has a relatively simple path with minor tributaries, wetlands, and probably springs, contributing to the main creek flow. For this watershed a"Local Detail" data sampling is being undertaken at various points along the creek, in order to determine lateral variability and to review longer term watershed sites/sampling strategies.
The creek system has a sea-outfall in the Madrona Bay estuary. Access to a suitable near sea-outfall (watershed discharge to-sea) measurement site is not currently available.
Madrona Creek was an August 2019, Which Creek Is It competition entry.
Madrona Creek watershed overview (Lidar backdrop), and various Madrona Creek FWC wetland and creek field locations. For "active" FWC field site-specific flow, chemistry and precipitation charting based on FWC volunteer data collection and SSI school weather station data Cf. the SSIFWC webmap.
Madrona Creek watershed overview (OpenStreet map backdrop), and various Madrona Creek wetland and creek images
The "2017" ("Madrona Creek") watershed
The "2017" ("Madrona Creek") watershed
The 2017 watershed is one of the medium-small watersheds on the island, some 152.5 hectares (376.8 acres) in size
The watershed receives something like 1,448,750,000 litres (382,719,000 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). It is similar in size to the central island Monty Creek and Old Lowther Creek watersheds
The 2017 watershed captures about a fifteenth of the water volume captured by the island’s largest watershed
Madrona Creek is the principle creek in the 2017 watershed (see posted 2017 watershed area map), with this creek system being the single sea-outfall from the watershed
Within the watershed area are approximately 36 groundwater wells and several springs
The 2017 watershed is a part of the Ganges Harbour North aquifer subregion. The watershed has the potential to be impacted by it's proximity to the Ganges urban area.
Historical & Other Watershed Insights:
Historical & Other Watershed Insights:
There are indications of some local creek/watershed stewardship activities taking place along Madrona creek (with blue tape indicating a "streamside management area"). It is not known who is managing this local freshwater stewardship work.
On Madrona Creek the SSI Salmon Enhancement Society (1998) have historially rebuilt a (1980s) spillway to ensure that this was stable and passable to fish. This creek has a unique run of mini-trout.
Note - any 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:
FWC "Citizen Science" Watershed Reporting:
Within the 2017 watershed Madrona Creek is a relatively simple, axial watershed creek system, with limited, and small, second-order stream segments amd possible local spring contributions. Year-round (or seasonal) creek flow has not been systematically documented to-date.
As at 2021/02 we approaching 9 months FWC field data collection from sites within the watershed.
FWC field data graphing - examples illustrating developing watershed working models. For further site specific "dynamic" charting cf. the SSIFWC webmap
FWC findings to-date indicate that Madrona Creek may be at least partly a permanent (partly groundwater fed?) creek system - TBD.
Provisional chart compilations of creek/pond water temperatures and chemistry variations, from FWC field measurements across the various sites, suggest the impact of surface water storage (warming and surface water chemistry "blending") at "Nicks Pond", vs potential groundwater(?) baseflow or spring inflow contributions (freshwater cooler, more elevated conductivities) at other Madrona Creek sites.
An inverse relationship between creek water vs air temperature at the various creek measurement sites may suggest (local?) groundwater components and inflow(s) within the creek, from it's tributaries and springs, or increased canopy/vegetative cover (shade) at some of the measurement sites...
Provisional correlations between creek flow and conductivity (at two measurement sites), give a surprisingly strong correlation between these two parameters. This data supports a potential groundwater inflow contribution within the creek. A robust correlation also suggests a potential mechanism to calculate (semi -quantitatively) seasonal variability in groundwater (baseflow) inflow(s) into the Madrona Creek. Differences in conductivity (Ram Springs, Upper Ganges CMP) and between flow vs conductivity correlations upstream (Upper Ganges CMP) and downstream (small weir) suggest discrete groundwater inflows within the watershed main creek catchment - TBD.
Groundwater inflows may control the year-round surface flow of the Madrona Creek watershed creek system. Confirmation of the extent, and quantitative contribution of any potential groundwater inflow to the Madrona Creek system, is a part of the further field data collection programme, for a full calendar year (or more...).
Groundwater baseflow (and watershed discharge to sea...) are important components: supporting the maintainance of fish-bearing streams, of areal freshwater budget/balance determination, and groundwater recharge/discharge modelling.
Note - for multiple SSI creeks, we know that we have a technique for using freshwater chemistry to determine a (crude) groundwater (baseflow) component to the total streamflow.
Note - for background reading, on how conductivity vs flow correlations might be used to determine (semi-quantitatively) groundwater contributions in-creek, Cf. What is Conductivity; Millson (2020) and Howe and Allen (2020).
Potential groundwater inflows (“base flow”) and springs within the 2017 watershed and Madrona Creek may be associated with boundaries between sedimentary rocks (sandstones and mudrocks) - of the Nanaimo Group. It is quite possible that the “major faults” within and along the watershed also play a role in groundwater inflow into the creek system.
From the 112109 GW Consultants report the 2017 watershed area, and Ganges Harbour North aquifer subregion, are in an area of "moderate" to "poor" aquifer recharge potential. Further baseline data and ground truthing is required...
Local data collection gives improved insights into how this watershed (and related freshwater ecosystems) work, are impacted by seasonal (or climatic…) changes, and will help with an improved understanding of how surface water catchments in the island’s watersheds contribute to aquifer recharge and local water resource availability...
FWC Images and Videos:
FWC Images and Videos:
2017 (Madrona 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:
Other Local Area Resources:
Barnett et al., 1993., Salt Spring Island Water Allocation Plan.
Hodge, W. S., 1995., Ground Water Conditions on Salt Spring Island.
SSI Salmon Enhancement Society, 1998., Habitat Restoration and Salmon Enhancement Program.
Manley, D., & Stewardson, M., 2014., Salt Spring Island Riparian Areas Regulation Mapping Project. Mainstream Biological Consulting, sponsored by IT.
GW Consultants., 2019., Salt Spring Island Groundwater Recharge Potential Mapping for IT, circulated with 2019/10 meeting reporting.
Howe K., & Allen D., 2020., - Linkages between Stream Chemistry and Groundwater Chemistry, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, SFU.
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