Cook Street closure
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Council hopefuls campaign Daniel Palmer News staff
Sail, sail, sail, sail away
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A group of small sailboats sail past several moored boats off Cadboro Bay Beach, as viewed from Cadboro-Gyro Park.
Douglas Creek: ‘The last of the best’ Five-year restoration project is delicate work in watershed of Mount Douglas Park Daniel Palmer
basically destroyed the creek over a number of years,” says Wick, pointing to slick, grey clay and muddied puddles full of water striders surrounding the digger. “In a week from now, you’ll never know this equipment was even here,” he says. As president of the Friends of Mount Douglas Park Society, Wick is overseeing a five-year plan to restore Douglas Creek to its former glory as a salmon-bearing stream. The project, now in its third year, is being supported by Saanich Parks as well as the Pacific Salmon
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Darrell Wick walks briskly along a temporary mulch road in Mt. Doug Park, as small pink flags demarcate the narrow drive through western red cedar, Pacific dogwood and Douglas fir roots. As Douglas Creek appears over a fern-covered slope, a mammoth digger delicately piles boulders and tree roots along the edges of the eroded creek bed. “There were huge storm surges that washed out all the beds and
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Foundation and has a one-month window in which to complete the work each August. There are two end goals: to stop erosion and to make the creek bed appealing to returning chum and coho salmon and cutthroat trout. “Originally, this was salmonbearing when Gordon Head was farmland,” Wick says. “We’ve had some salmon return in the last number of years, but we want to improve that.” As Gordon Head became urbanized with impervious surfaces like roadways and rooftops, the water
no longer soaked into the ground but instead was funnelled directly into Douglas Creek through stormwater piping. The creek’s sole water source today is stormwater runoff, a fact that often leads to poor water quality after a summer dry stretch. “We’re going to be increasing the weir at the top of the creek,” Wick says. “The sediment will sink, while floating oil pollutants are dammed there and can be skimmed off.” PlEASE SEE: Salmon restoration, Page A7
Several fresh faces are hoping for a seat on Saanich council in the upcoming election, while a vocal critic of the region’s sewage treatment project is gunning for mayor. Richard Atwell, best known as director of the Sewage Treatment Action Group and for promoting an alternative sewage treatment plan, announced his intention to run last week. Atwell becomes the first challenger to Mayor Frank Leonard ahead of the Nov. 15 election, a position Leonard has held since 1996. Atwell plans to push for a governance review of the incapacitated Capital Regional District if elected. All eight councillor incumbents are likely to run again and will face at least three new candidates. Fred Haynes, a former biochemist now in the publishing industry, launched his campaign at the Heritage Café on West Saanich Road Thursday. Haynes is chair of the Saanich Community Associations Network and is a past president of the Prospect Lake District Community Association. PlEASE SEE: Newby, Plant vie for council position, Page A6
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