2018 SMRA NEWS Online (NXPowerLite Copy)

Page 6
2017 Habitat Committee Report
The SMRA has completed the fourth year of the multi-year West River (St. Mary’s) Habitat Restoration Project.
The 2017 work built on the restoration started in 2014 and to date almost twenty kilometers of the river
has been completed. The restoration includes a variety of structures that are aimed at creating a narrower
deeper channel with more pools. The upper portion of the picture shows the narrower channel with more
meander on the restored section as compared to the bottom portion of the picture where no work was done.
The narrower deeper channel increases juvenile survival over the summer and reduces winter ice production
that causes spring time damage to the river.
We have also planted numerous trees to reduce bank erosion and provide more shade along the edge of the
river. Another part of the restoration work is to use a “Sand Wand” to remove sand from the gravel spawning
beds on two of the tributaries to the West Branch. This enhances spawning conditions for both salmon and
trout.
What is even more exciting is the increased number of salmon using the restored area to spawn. Prior to
starting the work in 2014 a survey found only salmon 25 - 30 redds (places where salmon spawn) in the entire
restored area and this fall there were almost 200, a six fold increase. A similar section of the West Branch,
where no restoration has been completed, has had no significant change in the number observed redds. This
highlights the preference spawning salmon have for the restored habitat.
This restoration work is expensive and we could not have been able to proceed without the financial help of
our funding partners DFO (Small Craft Harbours & Recreational Fisheries Conservation Partnership Program),
the Atlantic Salmon Conservation Foundation, NSLC Adopt-A-Stream, and the Royal Bank.