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.

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.