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!

• 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.

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.

On 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. 

 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!

Each week since June we've been carefully watering the Oregon grape, ferns, Nootka rose, Snowberry, and Salmonberry that were planted in the riparian area back in March.  We are careful not to let any treated "tap" water enter the creek, but volunteers soak the mulch and soil enough that the plants have a chance to get established this spring/summer.  We have also spent many hours pulling invasive thistles along the gravel path.  This area was disturbed in 2015 when the RDN upgraded the wastewater outfall at Morningside Drive.  The City then replanted both sides of the path and installed an irrigation system to support Maple trees, Salal, Oregon grape and ferns until they were established.  The irrigation system is no longer being used, and the native plants are being choked out by opportunistic weeds.    While we focus on the riparian area and salmon habitat, we recognize the importance of this park land as a corridor and habitat for many other animals.  This is one of many tasks we take on in this "adopted" park.

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!

We have hardly begun, and already have a long list of questions about how to "improve" the creek.  If we look at Walley Creek through the eyes of DFO, our goal should be to restore its salmon-bearing qualities. 

An obvious step in that direction would be to remove a large boulder that's acting as a fish barrier near the mouth of Walley Creek where it drains into the ocean.  The rock is just a little too high for salmon to leap over, even with good fall flow.  Describing this problem to people elicits really creative solutions.  Get a crew of people together and roll it out to sea!  Blast it out with dynamite!  Put smaller rocks below it to create steps for the salmon to leap up!  Tie a piece of rope around the rock and tie the other end to a truck and haul it out of there!

Ah, not so fast says our biologist and consultant.  If we remove the barrier, what are we allowing salmon access to?  Coho salmon imprint on a certain area, but they are opportunistic.  They will try going up a small creek to see if it offers good spawning habitat.  If the habitat is poor, they'll swim back to sea and try somewhere else.  If we allow them access to Walley Creek now, we're just wasting their time unless we actually improve the spawning habitat higher up.

So for now the boulder is a low priority, while we consider our options for stream assessment.  The satisfaction of removing it will have to wait.