SSI FreshWater Catalogue

SSI, NORTH Watersheds

"Mansell Creek (MNCK) Watershed "Notes"

- Dunbabin Park area to a coastal outfall in Long Harbour-

Last update 2024/01/31

SSI North Area - overview watersheds (colour coded, CRD, 2018) & watershed note areas

North Island, Mansell Creek (MNCK) Watershed

From our ongoing North Island, Freshwater Cataloguing - notes on the Mansell Creek 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. Additional volunteers in this area would be great!

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 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!

General Watershed & FWC Creek Information:

The August 2023 Which Creek Is It (WCIT) and the (FWC volunteer) submitted April, 2019 WCIT competition creek was Mansell Creek in located in the "Mansell Creek" watershed.

The Mansell Creek (MNCK) watershed is located in a little known, but oft visited (or at least travelled through...), north Salt Spring Island area, containing the Dubabin ribbon park. The watershed has a single, surface watershed, freshwater flow outlet - discharge to the sea, this is Mansell Creek. The creek discharges into a narrow, constrained and elongate, NW-SE oriented estuary area.

Since 2021 we have been collecting freshwater catalogue data from this North Island watershed creek system, If you are interested in being involved in please contact the SSIFWC Project Lead for further information.

The Mansell Creek Watershed - Mansell Creek

The Mansell Creek watershed receives something like 2,998,200,000 litres (792,041,021 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).
The Mansell Creek watershed’s size is not in-significant. In terms of its Ha size this watershed is “up-there” with Xwaaqw'um, and 9117 (Reginald Hill), though aside from a similar surface area to these central/south watersheds the Mansell Creek watershed shares few similarities.
A secondary creek system to the northeast supports Mansell Creek's near-coast flow
The Maracaibo Estates (subsurface) Water District abstracts water from within northern peninsula of the Mansell Creek watershed (and island) area. The watershed area has in excess of 70 known wells and no known licenced springs.
A water license exists on Mansell Creek 340m upstream of Mansell Road (C119153, PD 64779, PLAT 92.B.083.9.1). This license was for land improvement (an aesthetic pond dugout) located in-stream, that does not provide for consumptive use of water from the stream (McCullough M., 2011). Additional known freshwater licences for the Mansell Creek watershed might be available here http://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/wtrwhse/water_licences.input by entering a “stream name”. However, the linked BC water licences report treats all of SSI as a single watershed, so it is not possible to “pull” all freshwater licences in the “Mansell Creek" watershed area.

Historical & Other Watershed Insights:

The Mansell Creek watershed contains numerous ponds and wetlands and extensive low gradient fish habitat, with local beaver activity. From the literature Mansell Creek is a fish (cutthroat trout) bearing stream, with relatively low flows (Barnett, et al., 1993). Mansell Road is considered to be the upper limit for anadromous fish migration (McCullough M., 2011). A small part of the creek system has been modified to (re)develop in-creek Coho salmon habitat (SSI Salmon Enhancement Society, 1998).

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 Notes - Reporting:

It’s early days for detailed working model(s) for the Mansell Creek watershed, and the Mansell Creek field data does need to be integrated into developing island-wide hydrological models. Some big picture observations/interpretations can be made:

Year-round surface flow, though seasonally low, indicates some groundwater baseflow into the creek system during summer.
The "upland" areas of this narrow north island watershed remain forested (albeit as ??? generation forest). Continuous flow in this perennial creek system highlights the importance of watershed land cover in maintaining surface area aquifer (and creek) health.

Mansell Creek shows typical groundwater controlled seasonal flow and chemistry variability.

A crude, inverse, relationship between creek water temperature and air temperature, and conductivity variability through the summer (groundwater) and winter (precipiation dominated) indicate a seasonal groundwater (baseflow) contribution to this creek system - cf What is Conductivity?

The creek shows a strong precipation vs rainfall relationship with an initial flow-lag response likely attributable to initial ground saturation levels.

FWC Images and Videos:

Mansell 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.
SSI Salmon Enhancement Society, 1998., Habitat Restoration and Salmon Enhancement Program.
McCullough M., 2011., Anadromous Coastal Cutthroat Trout Habitat Reconnaissance. FLNRO.
Manley, D., & Stewardson, M., 2014., Salt Spring Island Riparian Areas Regulation Mapping Project. Mainstream Biological Consulting, sponsored by IT.
Islands Trust, Salt Spring Island Official Communiyt Plan Bylaw #434, 2008 Map 6 - Community Water Systems.
CRD, SSI Dunbabin Park and trails.

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