Earlier this past April, TUC ran the second set of its Stream Rehabilitation Training course in Burlington, Ontario. The Stream Rehabilitation Training course has been developed over the last six years by TUC’s rehabilitation experts with assistance from other professional rehabilitation specialists and the University of Guelph. The six part workshop series is designed to provide a foundation for people, both volunteer and professional, in the fundamentals of how water interacts with its landscape to create wetlands and streams, how to assess where the problems with the health of the landscape and stream occur and then how to plan and implement appropriate solutions to restore the functioning and health of the aquatic environment, its water quality, channel health and coldwater fish communities. The full course has now been run three times over the last several years and over 77 people have completed the full course workshops.
With our rivers and streams continuing to deteriorate as a result of past and present practices, it is essential to train the local communities of volunteers and professionals to ensure that their local waters are healthy, productive and do not pose a problem to the environmental and economic well-being of local communities. The six part course leads students through an understanding of watershed and stream form and function, through how to assess issues and how to select the appropriate approach to resolve the stream and watershed’s problems. The course curriculum includes some homework, case studies, discussions with experts and a group practicum to determine real issues on several streams and determine potential solutions.
Right, students undertaking the practicum to determine the issues with a particular stream
Through support from Provincial and the Federal governments, Stream Rehabilitation Training course is being refined and planned for expansion to Western Canada and the Maritimes over the next year. The more people to know how to better manage and protect streams, the healthier our local environments will be. In the end, the fish will tell us if we are doing it right.
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