O U R N A T U R A L H E R I T A G E<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WARING’S CREEK – PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thursday, June 03, 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Picton Gazette readers will recall a special 15-week series that ran in place of the regular Outdoor Rambles column last year at this time, celebrating a few of the natural heritage features in Prince Edward County. These columns were sponsored by the Prince Edward Stewardship Council, and are archived on my website at www.naturestuff.net<\/a> . This week, we are pleased to add one more to that collection on a very special natural heritage feature in the area \u2013 Waring\u2019s Creek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Prince Edward County doesn\u2019t boast the extensive watersheds like the Moira, Napanee and Salmon Rivers of neighbouring municipalities, the smaller watercourses are still very significant in their own right. Among these is the 17.3 square kilometre Waring\u2019s Creek watershed which is contained wholly in Hallowell Ward, running from the town of Picton and draining into West Lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1993, a group of some 40 concerned and dedicated residents formed the Waring\u2019s Creek Improvement Association, with funding for some of their projects coming from the Prince Edward County Conservation Dinner, the Environmental Citizenship Initiative and from private donations. As a former important cold water trout stream, once boasting the presence of a fish rearing facility near its headwaters, association members were keen on returning the creek to its former significance. The fish rearing facility began operation in the 1930s, acting as a substation to the fish hatchery at Glenora, now Glenora Fisheries Research. Used primarily for the advanced rearing of Atlantic salmon and brook trout during the summer months, the facility provided important data from which actual stream flows in this section of the creek could be predicted. The facility operated until 1955 at which time it was closed as a result of the raceways filling with sediments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the many projects the Waring\u2019s Creek Association embarked on was attempting to control this ongoing silting problem by the placement of brush bundles in the creek to trap the silt. Extensive tree planting along the creek edge to control soil erosion was also done as well as developing a Watershed Report Card for the creek. In addition, extensive water quality sampling was done for macroinvertebrates (benthos) which served to determine nutrient loading by identifying which tolerant species were present. Living organisms have proven to be excellent indicators of ecosystem health along with both indicator bird and amphibian species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1998, with monies coming from the Environmental Farm Plan Greencover Program, a new partnership was formed with the purpose of completing on farm projects. The Waring\u2019s Creek Improvement Association worked with the Prince Edward Stewardship Council and other organizations to complete several demonstration projects within the watershed. This successful partnership resulted in the completion of four new environmentally friendly stream crossings, one new livestock fence, and over 10,000 native tree seedlings planted on 5 different properties in the watershed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, 17 years later, the need to characterize the state of the health and direction for sustaining the wellbeing of the creek is as important now as it was then. Increasing development pressure and agriculture continue to present challenges. The creek passes through some of the most productive agricultural land in Prince Edward County. Farming operations here tend to be very diverse, ranging from vineyards and market gardening to a chicken layer operation and dairy farms. The headwaters where much of the development pressure exists are important to protect because of their water storage capabilities, and ability to gradually release water downstream contributing to baseflow conditions. Even the cattail marshes at the mouth of the creek are vital to fish and bird communities. This is a special addition to the collection of columns written last year by Terry Sprague on the natural heritage of Prince Edward County, sponsored by the Prince Edward Stewardship Council. For more information, check out their website at<\/em> http:\/\/www.ontariostewardship.org<\/u><\/em><\/a> .<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" O U R N A T U R A L H E R I T A G E WARING’S CREEK – PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE Thursday, June 03, 2010 Picton Gazette readers will recall a special 15-week series that ran in place of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-columns","category-picton-gazette"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturestuff.net\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturestuff.net\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturestuff.net\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturestuff.net\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturestuff.net\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/naturestuff.net\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":510,"href":"https:\/\/naturestuff.net\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions\/510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturestuff.net\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturestuff.net\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturestuff.net\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The Prince Edward Stewardship Council, Waring\u2019s Creek Improvement Association, Quinte Conservation, as well as a number of miscellaneous conservation groups are all partnering organizations and stakeholders in this ongoing exercise of formulating a Waring\u2019s Creek Watershed Fisheries Management Plan for the watershed. It is a long term plan to improve the fisheries in Waring\u2019s Creek for the benefit of the community and for the targeted brook trout species. <\/p>\n\n\n\n