In November 2022 we planted over 250 plants from Streamside Native Plants over several days with the help of over 20 volunteers recruited through NALT, as well as a group of students from Ecole Hammond Bay.  In February 2023 a small group got the last few plants in the ground!

• Douglas Fir
• Grand Fir
• Big Leaf Maple
• Black Hawthorn
• Western Yew
• Red Osier Dogwood
• Salmonberry
• Oregon Grape
• Sword Fern
• Stink Currant
• Red Elderberry

This work was funded by a grant from the Pacific Salmon Foundation, and is carried out in partnership with the City of Nanaimo Partners in Parks, professional biologists, and the Snuneymuxw First Nation.

If you have visited Neck Point Park in Nanaimo you have passed over Walley Creek where it flows into Hammond Bay.  This section of the creek, upstream of Morningside Drive, flows between private properties and a piece of City of Nanaimo park land.  The park is enjoyed by students from École Hammond Bay Elementary School and children from the surrounding neighbourhood.  It has a small wetland with potential habitat for salamanders, frogs, and all sorts of mammals and birds.  Illegal dumping of yard waste and garbage over the years has done serious damage to a steep slope on the north side, eroding the bank and degrading the riparian zone.  It is the location of one of our RDN CWMN water quality monitoring sites, and an area where we have worked hard removing garbage and invasive species in the past two years, with help from Grade 7 École Hammond Bay students.  

In May 2016, NALT offered a Streamkeepers workshop on Departure Creek.  Nina was able to attend the two full days of training, and became an official Streamkeeper!  As a group we decided it was time to visit Gail Adrienne, NALT's Executive Director,  to thank her for connecting us, and to ask her advice about what to do next.  She suggested working with Dave Clough to plan for riparian planting.  This would help establish shade and prevent erosion of the banks of the creek.

Gail also had great information about the history of Walley Creek. She said it is one of the last creeks in Nanaimo that is open to daylight along its whole length, and that it is known for having year round flow.  She knew that the Georgia Basin Ecological Assessment and Restoration Society (GBEARS) did a small project to restore a culvert along Walley Creek many years ago.   She suggested we do as much research as possible into the history of the area so we would know what to realistically aim for in terms of restoration.  She alluded to many (ahem) interesting diversions of the creek by people who live beside it, especially in the strata neighborhood at McGuffie and Hammond Bay Roads.

Finally Gail suggested we officially become the Walley Creek Streamkeepers, as a committee under NALT.  This solved our dilemma about how formal our group should be and how to apply for grants for the work we want to do.  It's official - we are the Walley Creek Streamkepers!