Yellow Fish Road™ Hits the Maritimes

Yellow Fish Road™ hits the Maritimes. Trout Unlimited Canada’s Yellow Fish Road™ program welcomes two new environmental organizations as partners.

Northeast Avalon ACAP (NAACAP)

Northeast Avalon ACAP became a Yellow Fish Road™ partner beginning their program in July as part of their Neighborhoods Streams Project (funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada’s EcoAction program). The Neighbourhood Streams Project runs from June 2016 to May 2018. As this project is geared towards improving storm water quality, the Yellow Fish Road™ Program was an obvious fit. All of the storm drain paintings were arranged by, performed by, or supervised by NAACAP staff.

NAACAP had a four person student team (a Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador Green Team) work on the project over the summer months in 2016, with a focus on the Southlands Neighbourhood of St. John’s, NL. During the summer months, the Green Team painted storm drains throughout the Southlands neighborhoods. In total, they painted 67 storm drains on ten streets, and distributed 100 hangers. The Green Team presented to five groups on climate change and non-point source pollution. In November, thanks to unseasonably good weather conditions, NAACAP had a community storm drain painting event with the After School Program at the Southlands Community Centre. During this event, nine drains were painted and 54 door hangers were distributed with the participation of eight children, two Community Centre staff, one NAACAP staff member, and one NAACAP volunteer.

Kennebecasis Watershed Restoration Committee (KWRC)

             Telegraph Journal Article

Kennebecasis Watershed Restoration Committee had a great first year partner experience with TUC’s Yellow Fish Road™ program. They hosted a volunteer event in Hampton, NB in August, 2016, where they painted 31 storm drains with 11 volunteers. After the event their six summer staff members went out and finished painting the remaining 144 drains they had outlined to complete this summer. In total they painted 175 storm drains and distributed 250 informative door hangers in Hampton, NB this summer. The Town of Hampton has since contacted them with plans to paint the remainder of their storm drains next summer, 2017. We anticipate expanding our reach into Sussex, NB as well.

The Sussex Herald and the Telegraph Journal wrote stories on the programs importance to the communities to make people more aware about the link between storm water drains and surface water. “From an environmental standpoint storm water education is necessary…”Clean water is important”, says Ben Whalen, KWRC’s Program Manager. “Heavy soaps from washing your car, for example can actually end up in the natural environment and pollute our surface water if you wash your car directly over top of a storm drain.” He also says that “awareness is important from an infrastructure standpoint. The more water you add to your storm water system the more likely it is to have a shorter lifespan, breaking down quicker will require taxpayers to invest in more ongoing maintenance.”