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Himalayan blackberry can be a real problem along riparian watercourses. In disturbed, sunny areas, it chokes out native plants and reduces biodiversity. It doesn't provide real shade to creeks and streams, and prevents older successional species like Fir and Cedar from getting established. Now Himalayan blackberry has a problem, and that's US! We've been using a mattock to dig out blackberry roots, and this small tool makes easy work of digging out the root balls. It's SO satisfying to clear a small area in a short amount of time. It's easier to carry out this work in the cooler months when we can wear long sleeves and pants to protect our skin from the thorns. Wearing thin gardening gloves with a thicker leather pair of gloves on top helps protect hands, though some thorns still manage to get through! We load the cut brambles on a tarp and haul loads away for disposal by the City. Over several years, we've been able to suppress the Himalayan blackberry enough at the Morningside culvert that native Thimbleberry are thriving. Along the gravel path to the tennis courts in Morningside Park, the Oceanspray are finally getting a chance. Persistence is paying off!   
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 Walley Creek is very different above and below Shores Drive. Where the creek flows past the RDN GNPCC its course has been altered so that it's cut off from ground water infiltration by a clay liner. To make stream flow even more challenging, the GNPCC removes ground water periodically to maintain the function of the settling tanks that treat the City's waste water. Some ground water does make it into Walley Creek below the Shores Drive bridge, and we want to maintain these base flows for fish habitat. Our focus on the RDN property is to improve the riparian area by replacing invasive Himalayan blackberry with native plants, as we've done in Morningside Park. Maintaining shade and native plant composition gives the greatest chance of survival for fish and other animals that live in and around the creek. On March 1, a strong group of volunteers used loppers and mattocks to remove fresh growth in an area we cleared a year ago. On March 3, a grade 7 class from École Hammond Bay moved soil and bark mulch into the polygons, and planted native ferns, salal, Oregon grape, and Oceanspray. It's exciting to continue working our way up the creek, involving great volunteers and students.   AFTER after  This fall we applied some of our PSF Community Salmon Program grant funds to an important planting effort in Morningside Park.  We had a strong, vibrant crew of over 30 volunteers from VIU, NALT, and the Dover Bay eco-club.
The riparian area here suffers from erosion during high flows, so we're stabilizing the bank using stakes and logs, with native plants in these terraces. We've also had great success adding a thick layer of topsoil and mulch to "planting polygons" created using logs. Some of the planting from previous years has succumbed to drought, deer browse, or erosion, so we replanted these areas to encourage success. We've found that continuing to add mulch, and create densely planted communities, gives plants the greatest chance of getting established. It's exciting to see ferns, Salal, hemlock, pines, and Oregon grape that we planted years ago thriving.    We have initiated a project with Frank J Ney school (upper reaches of Walley Creek) that would take place over three or more years, where we'd invite students and families of the elementary school to get involved with invasive species removal and finding a balance between children accessing the area for exploration and learning while encouraging ecological health. Module 8 of the Streamkeepers handbook is all about preventing domestic animals from having unlimited access to the stream. We sometimes joking refer to the children that play in the riparian area as livestock, but the truth is they can have a very serious negative impact on the plant community by unknowingly trampling everything while engaged in their busy imaginative and construction play. One teacher had the brilliant idea of telling the children that it hurts the trees when their "toes" (exposed roots) get stepped on. After a year of reminding the children, there are now ferns and salmonberry bushes growing up in between the trees "toes" in this place between the school and the creek. An important goal of our Streamkeepers group is providing opportunities for young people and their families to connect to nature, and enjoy the mental health benefits of time outdoors, especially in creative or community-minded endeavors. While we want to limit the children's access to the streambed (to protect aquatic invertebrates, salamanders, frogs, and fish) we want them to KNOW this place and learn with and from its seasonal cycles. We look forward to beginning this project with the school, as a learning opportunity, community building endeavor, and ecological restoration project.   
aerial photo of Frank J Ney Elementary and adjacent green space
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!
 First, our thanks to Milner Group for their donation of logs and stumps, to the Snuneymuxw First Nation and City of Nanaimo for help developing and carrying out this project, and to the Pacific Salmon Foundation for their support. The pamphlet below was developed to inform neighbors and other interested community members of the work plan.
This was our first "big" project, requiring temporary diversion of the creek to install two large woody debris structures. Previously, boulders were hand placed and brush bundles were installed along the bank to prevent erosion. These were mostly washed out during extreme rainfall events. For this project, volunteers filled sandbags and helped set up coffer dams to temporarily exclude fish access to the creek. Biologists carried out electro-fishing to move any fish in the work area to a safe location (none were found at this site). Two pumps were set up to remove water and make sure water with stirred up sediment didn't re-enter the creek. A small excavator installed logs and stumps in the banks of the creek. These are just touching the surface of the water now (at very low flow) so that as the water rises the space under the large woody debris will be protected from the scouring effect of high flows, and offer sanctuary to fish. Large boulders were added to the streambed to force the water to meander downstream, creating smaller pools that slow flow and improve habitat.
Logs and stumps installed at the Morningside CWMN location, to create a pool and prevent bank erosion during high flows.  Huge stump and boulders installed between the Morningside CWMN location and the culvert under Morningside drive.
 Project area in Morningside Park BEFORE thinning, January 2018On October 25 Walley Creek Streamkeepers met with Rob Lawrance and Margaret Pimlott from the City of Nanaimo, along with Dave Clough, RPBio, to create a plan for improving the biodiversity in a part of the riparian area in Morningside Park. City arborists then helped thin an unhealthy stand of fir and alder that had self-seeded in an area full of rock fill. This created space for volunteers to plant a variety of native plants to increase the biodiversity of this area, and improve the water-retention qualities of a wetland area adjacent to the creek.  Project area in Morningside Park DURING thinning/before planting, facing the gravel path and Ecole Hammond Bay Elementary. Project area AFTER planting, facing the creek and houses that back onto Walley Creek along Hammond Bay Road. 35 volunteers came out November 8, 2019 to help us improve the biodiversity in Morningside Park (Reach 2 of Walley Creek). They created polygons out of logs, moved 15 yards of topsoil and 7 yards of mulch, then planted 260 native plants and trees including snowberry, Indian Plum (Oemlaria), swordfern, Oregon grape, Douglas Fir, Western Red Cedar and pine. The day was a great success! High school volunteers from Dover Bay and Nanaimo & District Secondary schools brought energy and enthusiasm to the planting day. Rob Lawrance and Deb Beck from the City of Nanaimo volunteered their time, as well as many volunteers from the Nanaimo & Area Land Trust, Departure Creek Streamkeepers, and Snunuemuxw First Nation. We are so grateful to all the volunteers that came out and gave time, energy and expertise to this project!  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! Our group was formed when each of us independently contacted the Nanaimo & Area Land Trust wondering if any work was being done to steward Walley Creek in North Nanaimo. One of our members lives right where Walley Creek reaches the ocean in Hammond Bay; for decades she has watched and tended the stream, concerned by garbage washing downstream and the lack of care for the riparian integrity. The Executive Director of NALT, Gail Adrienne put us in contact, and we started by asking our local Fisheries and Oceans Community Advisor to help us. Biologist Dave Clough spent time with us walking the upper watershed, near Springfield Place, and the lowest part of Walley Creek, where it empties into Hammond Bay near Morningside Drive. We came up with a long list of priorities for further research and restoration activities, including:
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