2024

Granted $7,000 for Black Bay and Cold Creek habitat enhancement

Project Objectives:

The removal of the dilapidated buildings and dumped materials on the property will improve habitat quality in these areas and remove harmful chemicals that are likely leaching into the soil, replacing them with native plants, shrubs and trees. In addition, the removal of the perched culverts will improve the fish passage between Cold Creek and Lake Superior. There is approximately a 40m2 area to be restored around the perched culverts, including the sections impacted by machinery to pull the culverts out. The length of the bank to be replanted is approximately 20m.

Aquatic species require access to freshwater habitat for rearing and spawning. The migrations of fish species (both upstream and downstream) can be restricted by many factors including perched culverts which can block fish access to important spawning and rearing areas such as the mainstem, tributaries, ponds, and wetlands” (Culverts and Fish Passage, 2024). On the NCC protected lands, the stream has created an alternative route around the culvert, however this may not be sufficient in width and depth to support the fish species that use it, is unlikely to exhibit the same conditions of the natural stream pathway and can still inhibit larger fish from passing.

Possible fish species to benefit from the restoration of Cold Creek include brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), white sucker (Catostomus commersonii), naturalized rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and several native lamprey species which likely spawn in the creek.