Week two was a very busy and productive week for the Chéticamp River Salmon Association. On Monday, we welcomed Matthew Burns to the Association, who is an Aquatic Resources graduate from St. Francis Xavier University. Matthew is pleased to be spending his summer helping to lead restoration work on Aucoin Brook, as well as helping to work on other projects. As Matthew was introduced to the Chéticamp River Salmon Association, other crew members removed old beaver dam blockages to help improve fish passage. On Tuesday, the second half of First Aid training was completed. On Wednesday, the crew traveled to Mabou where we participated in a training session put on by Adopt-a-Stream. The morning was spent in the classroom learning about the basics of habitat restoration, the different structures that can be put into rivers, why they are put in, as well as how. In the afternoon, everyone went out onto the river and were shown how to put a digger log in, and got to put one in as a group. On Thursday, more beaver dam blockages were removed, alders were trimmed back, and garbage was removed from a section along the Aucoin Brook. On Friday, some of the crew headed out to Aucoin Brook where they removed large rocks clogging up digger logs, did some hand-rocking to strengthen the flow of the brook, and other repairs to help improve it.
One of the old beaver dams on Aucoin Brook before removal, making a large barrier for the fish to get through.
After taking the beaver dam out- it is no longer a barrier, and fish will be able to pass through again!