CBC News - Low water flows at popular fishing creek on Grand River a concern for cold water fishery
Low Flow Condition Report published by the Grand River Conservation Authority: https://apps.grandriver.ca/waterdata/kiwischarts/lw_flowcondition.aspx
Yet another CBC News article highlighting the ongoing degeneration of hydrologic systems across Canada due to the stresses of climate change, this time in Aquanty’s own backyard.
The summer of 2022 has been characterized by low flows across the Grand River Watershed, with 7 of 12 gauging stations having below normal (50-70% of normal summer flow) to critically low (<30% of normal summer flow) flows at the date of publication.
At Whitemans Creek near Brantford, flows are extremely low (30-50% of normal summer flow), and this has local conservationists worried for a variety of trout species which call the stream home.
The long-term viability of cold water fisheries and health of stream and river ecosystems across Canada are in danger, and the Canada1Water project aims to bring these risks into the light. By combining highly-advanced, integrated surface-groundwater models with the latest regionally-downscaled climate forecasts for river basins across Canada, we hope to identify the risks to ecosystem goods and services that Canadians rely on for recreation, agriculture, industry and domestic water supply.
Click here to read the article on CBC News.
“The Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) said the levels at Whitemans Creek, a cold water tributary that leads into the Grand River between Paris and Brantford, is below 50 percent of normal levels for the summer and indicated it could impact the cold-water fishery.
”This year it’s been extremely rare that the flows are about one-third of what the average should be for late summer. The ground is so dry that we need like one or two days of constant rain so we can penetrate that dry land so that the water then gets into the stream, not just by flowing off the surface, but filtering up through the water table and into these streams and they’re their tributaries,” said Larry Mellors, the co-vice president of the Middle Grand Chapter of Trout Unlimited Canada”