We will be planting some potted plants and weeding in the upland areas of Kus-kus-sum.
Spring Planting and Weeding at Kus-kus-sum
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Forage Fish Symposium
The forage fish team has been busy planning the Coastal Forage Fish Network Symposium. Hosted on Zoom, this event brings together researchers, experts and community citizen science volunteers to share research highlights from across Vancouver Island and beyond.
Kus-kus-sum Spixls – Restoration Time-lapse
Luke Phillips from LSP Media has helped us create what he is calling Spixls – crowd sourced time lapse photo documentation of a site.
Eelgrass Expansion in Baynes Sound
This summer, Project Watershed staff and volunteers will be getting their feet wet to increase habitat connectivity in Baynes Sound. As part of our multi-year Aquatic Ecosystems Restoration Fund project, we will be conducting an eelgrass transplant off the coast of Gartley Point near Royston.
Eelgrass Washer Tying 2024
We have a new and unique volunteer opportunity: washer tying for eelgrass restoration! You can participate in this hands-on activity by signing up below and stopping by our office to pick up the necessary supplies between 10am – 3pm Monday – Thursday.
Seal Monitoring 2024
Join Jay and Virginia from Project watershed for our Seal or Pinniped monitoring citizen science project at Kus-kus-sum. Observations will be made throughout the spring and summer at various locations from Condensory Road Bridge toward Kus-kus-sum along the Courtenay River Estuary.
Project Watershed receives $1.4 million to support forage fish research!
Project Watershed is very excited to announce the award of $1.4 million dollars of funding from the BC Salmon Restoration and Innovation Fund to support our forage fish research, monitoring and restoration!
Winter works at Kus-kus-sum
Project work at Kus-kus-sum isn’t taking a holiday break. In early January, you may have seen some large machines near the wall – we got some excited phone calls about this! However, they were not there to start removing the wall, they were there to take important soil cores to analyse a patch of soil near the wall.
Wanted: Herring Observations
As you may know, Project Watershed has been researching forage fish and their habitats for many years now. To date our work has focused on beach spawning forage fish, specifically Pacific sand lance and surf smelt.
Pacific Sand Lance Day Success
December 8th was the first annual Pacific Sand Lance Day!
These skinny forage fish are understudied and important to our coastal ecosystem. Sand lance have over 100 known predators, and are particularly important to nesting sea birds. This eclectic fish buries into sandy sea beds, hibernates all winter, and spawns on beaches!
The Spawn is On!
Pacific sandlance eggs ~ Aaron SchmidtBeach survery ~ Tom GrimmerSand sample under microscope ~ Aaron Schmidt Our winter Pacific sand lance season was kicked off with eggs being found on Cortes Island on November 6! Later in the month eggs were found at Shingle Spit...
Planting Success at Kus-kus-sum Fall/Winter 2023
A huge thank you to all our industrious volunteers and supporters who came out to assist with our fall planting at Kus-kus-sum!