Summer Crew Final Report 2011

8/4/2019 Summer Crew Final Report 2011

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SUMMER CREW 2011:

FINAL REPORT

Written by Conner St. Jean, Crew Supervisor



Introduction

The work of the first Stratford watershed summer crew can easily be put into two categories:

tree planting and stream work. We spent the majority of our time planting trees but we also

spent a great deal of time working in the streams, especially in the last 3 weeks of the summer.

Eight Weeks in a Nutshell

Initially we started tree planting at Jenkins pond;

planting by the stream to help create a buffer

zone. This was a large area, and there is still room

for further tree planting. Our planting added to

the planting completed through the TD

Greenstreets program. We assisted the Town of

Stratford with the Annual Strawberry Festival on

July 9.

We turned our planting efforts to Camp Gencheff. We planted in three different areas, along

the top of the cliff, under the spruce grove, and on “the point”, a narrow piece of land that

overlooks the south shore. This planting was in response to the camp’s Board of Directors

request for a wider variety of trees and shrubs throughout their area.

The next week started off with a rain day, although Colin

came into the Town Hall and helped the municipal

summer staff clean up during the morning. The following

day we began working with Public Works employees

doing non-watershed work such as weeding public

gardens and cleaning town buildings. This week we also

painted new lines in the parking lot in front of the

Stratford town hall. After we had spent some time planting trees at Kinlock creek, we began

planting at Keppoch Park (off Keppoch Road). Initially we planted along the edges of the park

Figure 1 Red Oak at Jenkins Pond

Figure 2 Camp Gencheff Understory

Planting



‘diversifying’ the tree life there; it was here where we ran into a wasps nest, and summer

student Sam Llewellyn was stung three times. Because she was suspicious of allergies I sent her

home. She was absent the next day due to a severe allergic reaction to the stings.

On August third we commenced stream enhancement in Kinlock Creek. We took the

time to carefully remove any fallen trees

which prevented the waterflow. Although we

collected over 10 large bags of garbage, the

stream seemed to be in relatively good

condition. While wading through Kinlock

creek, we discovered a bird’s nest which had

several small unhatched eggs in it; this was a

very interesting sight, although we were not

sure of the species of bird. After more tree

planting we finally began doing buffer zone assessment (BZA) on streams which had never been

looked at. In total we assessed 7 different watercourses. Many of them seemed to need work

done as many areas were heavily obstructed by fallen trees; at times it seemed almost

impossible just to walk through them. Amongst all the buffer zone assessments we also cleaned

up a very dirty pond by the south shore which was littered with broken buoys and various other

pieces of garbage. By the end of the day, we had

taken 6 bags of garbage out of it.

We went back and cleaned Kinlock creek which

proved to be quite an extensive task. During this

time we saw a skunk and summer crew member

Colin McEwen got strung three times by wasps. After

we were done of the cleanup we had taken over 10

large bags of garbage out of the creek.

Figure 3 Egg's Nest found in Kinlock Creek

Figure 4 Keppoch Estates Pond



On august 19th

we finally finished planting the last of our trees. I estimate that in total we

planted around 1,500 trees throughout the various planting sites mentioned outlined in the

summer timeline below. The rest of the final week was spent conducting buffer zone

assessments on by Aptos Rd and by Jenkins pond.

Figure 4 Summer Crew: Sam Llewellyn, Colin MacEwen

and Conner St. Jean

Recommendations

Although this is the first summer crew for the group, a few improvements could be made to this

watershed program. I believe it would be a good idea to have more gear to protect against

mosquitoes. The only bug spray I found to be effective was a can I bought which contained 30

percent DEET; anything less seemed to have little effect. Additionally, I believe having a crew

member with chainsaw certification would have been very useful. Some of the streams were

almost in to walk through because they were so heavily congested with trees.

In general, I think the summer was a success; we were proud to have played an

important role in the beautification and environmental restoration of the watershed. I was



happy to have had the job, and enjoyed working with the Stratford Area Watershed

Improvement Group.



Table 1 Timeline - Summer Crew 2011

Date Activity

Week 1

July 4

th

Orientation and watershed tourJuly 5th Tree planting at Jenkins’ Pond

July 6th

Tree planting at Jenkins’ pond

July 7th


July 8th


Weekend Assisted with Strawberry Festival

Week 2

July 11th


July 12th


July 13th

Tree planting at Camp Gencheff

July 14th

Tree planting at Camp Gencheff

July 15th Tree planting at Camp Gencheff

Weekend

Week 3

July 18th

Rain day

July 19th

Worked with Public Works weeding gardens

July 20th

Worked with Public Works painting parking lines

July 21st

Worked with Public Works painting parking lines

July 22nd

Tree planting at Kinlock Creek

Weekend

Week 4

July 25th


July 26th

Tree planting at Kinlock Creek and Keppoch Park

July 27th

Tree planting at Keppoch Park

July 28th


July 29th


Weekend

Week 5

Aug 1st


Aug 2nd


Aug 3rd Kinlock Stream RestorationAug 4

thKinlock Stream Restoration

Aug 5th

Tree planting at Keppoch Park, returned trays to Upton Rd

Weekend

Week 6

Aug 8th

Rain day

Aug 9th

Planted trees at Keppoch Park, pictures of watershed



Aug 10th

Planted trees at Kinlock Creek

Aug 11th

Planted trees at Keppoch Park

Aug 12th

Cleaned pond at Keppoch Estates, tree guarding

Weekend

Week 7Aug 15th

Vista Bay, Reddin park BZA

Aug 16th

The birches BZA*, Tree Planting at Keppoch Park

Aug 17th


Aug 18th


Aug 19th

Gold cup day : tree planting at Keppoch Park

Weekend

Week 8

Aug 22nd

Aptos and Creekside BZA

Aug 23rd

Garbage cleanup at Kinlock Creek

Aug 24th

Garbage cleanup at Kinlock, Jenkins pond BZA

Aug 25th Jenkins Pond BZA

Aug 26th

Jenkins pond BZA

Weekend

Week 9

Aug 29th

BZA assessment- Stream by soccer field.

August 30-September 1 Final Report (supervisor)

*BZA – Buffer Zone Assessment



Miscellaneous Photos











Documents

Summer Crew Final Report 2011