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The Grand River watershed newsletter May/June 2014 • Volume 19, Number 3 What’s Inside: Features Trout Stockers . 1 Heritage River About the heritage rivers . 3 Taking Action Race director award . .4 Tree planting . 5 Doon valley . 5 Now Available Waterloo county tours . 6 Foundation Natural playground . 6 What’s happening REEP’s RAIN program . 7 Summer camps . 7 Trout stockers big and small Conestogo at work . 8 Calendar . 8 By Janet Baine a few hours away. GRCA Communications Specialist The fish can survive only for a short time after or 12 springs, Waterloo resident Brad Knarr the long trip from the hatchery. There is a rush to get them into the river quickly to give them the has volunteered to organize the brown trout Cover photo F best possibility of survival. release into the Conestogo River. Community members stock Dozens of volunteers show up set for a full day fish in Mill Creek, Cambridge, An electrician by trade, Knarr is also a keen of work no matter the weather on fish stocking each year. angler. It takes him a week of legwork to get ready days. They are members of Friends of the Grand Photo by Robert Messier. for the two stocking days when thousands of River and the Conestogo River Enhancement small fish arrive at the river. Workgroup (CREW) as well as others who want to “It’s my way of giving back to the fish and the help. For example, staff from Google’s Kitchener river,” says Knarr, who is quick to add that he has office spend the day stocking fish using rented no intention of giving up his volunteer position. canoes. Google has a program to allow staff The week before the stocking begins, Knarr members to volunteer for a day and still get their knocks on the doors of the landowners — mostly wages. Student volunteers from Linwood Public farmers whose properties border the river. They School come each year thanks to their teacher generously allow volunteers onto their property Kathy Puskas, who organizes the field trip for each year, but they need to be asked and to know them. when the volunteers will come. The overwhelming success of the trout stocking Fish are brought from a Ministry of Natural in the Grand River began 25 years ago, and Resources hatchery — either Chatsworth Fish volunteer Al Newsome has taken responsibility for Culture Station in Grey County or the Harwood this part of the program for the past few years. station south of Peterborough, both of which are Newsome and Knarr both do the same thing on www.grandriver.ca Grand River Conservation Authority High school students in hip waders bring some brown trout in a bucket to their new home in the Grand River. different rivers. of programs such as this,” says Robert Photo by Robert Messier They line up volunteers by sending out an Messier, an ecologist with the GRCA. email message which gets posted online and In the beginning, stocking was led by the Al Newsome has organized stocking of the passed around among people who have staff from the Ministry of Natural Resources, Grand River for the past few years, but has volunteered with the program for almost two volunteered before. There is always a good but now Knarr and Newsome have taken the mix of ages and backgrounds for volunteers. decades. He started in order to find out where lead. the fish are, but now it is his way of giving “Most volunteers are fisher people who The Ministry of Natural Resources staff back to the river that he fishes five hours a day fish the river or just want to help because it’s have the vitally important job of bringing the during trout season. Newsome lives on Lake fun. They range from doctors and lawyers to fish, thanks to the Ministry of Natural Scugog, but is a seasonal camper at Elora teachers and general workers. There is a Resources Fish Culture program. Gorge Park. common bond. They all want to help and perhaps give something back, Knarr says. Brown trout are not native The volunteers bring bucket after bucket Brown trout are not a native fish species, of fish to the river at a variety of spots. Or but they have adapted well to conditions in they load up canoes with trout and then the Grand and Conestogo rivers. This is release them a few at a time as they paddle especially true below the two big dams — down the river. the Conestogo and Shand. These dams are “Some projects, such as stocking, benefit operated in a way that brings the cold water tremendously from the extra help and from near the bottom of the reservoir into enthusiasm provided by the citizens. It is the river below the dam. The cold water really impressive to see how they take charge cools down the water for many kilometres downstream, making it cold enough for brown trout. This is called a tailwater fishery. For many of the anglers who participate in the stocking program, this is a way to give back to the river and help improve the fishery. Knarr grew up in the area and remembers fishing the local rivers as a child. After the stocking is all done, he takes another day off work to go fishing on the Conestogo. This trophy brown trout caught in early May in Newsome is on the Grand River every day the tailwaters below Shand Dam measured during trout season. He now knows all 38 29" by 18" and weighted in at over six kilos. It locations where the trout are stocked, so he is one of the brown trout provided by the Brad Knarr gives directions to volunteers. knows where to find them. MNR fish culture program. Page 2 Share the resources – Share the responsibility Heritage river facts From the longest river to the shortest ltogether 1,150 kilometres of rivers •There’s a Tragically Hip song called the have been designated as Canadian HERITAGE RIVER Speed River and inspired by this river. Heritage Rivers within the Grand •Starts southeast of Fergus close to Erin A and flows through Guelph Lake Park to River watershed, including the Grand and its •Origin of the name: Early Mennonite Cambridge, where it joins the Grand four main tributaries. settlers named the river the Conestoga River. Nearly a million people live within this because of its resemblance to the •Guelph Lake Dam is on the Speed River watershed which is the biggest in southern Conestoga River in Pennsylvania. In 1865, •Guelph’s John Galt Park, has had a Ontario. It covers 6,800 square kilometres the postmaster of the Village of Conestogo Heritage River plaque installed in 1999. and is bigger than Prince Edward Island. All altered the name to Conestogo, and an the creeks, streams and rivers add up to 1895 history book stuck with this spelling The Eramosa River about 11,000 kilometres of waterways within for the river as well, so this spelling •40 kilometres long the Grand River system. remains today. •Origin of the name: Local history books Do you know which main tributary is the •The second longest tributary of the Grand say it is named after Un-ne-mo-sah, an shortest, which is named after a famous River, the Conestogo originates near Indian word meaning dog. There is also Scottish river and which one the Tragically Damascus in North Wellington and enters evidence from books and the internet that Hip wrote a song about? the Grand River at the Village of it could refer to a specific kind of dog: Conestogo. black dog, dead dog or dog leg. Exactly The Grand River •It incorporates the biggest reservoir in the which native language is murky. There is •311 kilometres long watershed, Conestogo Lake. no "m" in any of the Six Nations •Origin of the name: The river has had •The Conestogo River has a stocked brown languages. Ojibway dictionaries give many names, but the one which stuck trout fishery, with stocking managed and "animosh" as the translation for dog. A came from the French explorers. carried out by volunteers each spring. book called The Dog's Children: •The source is near Dundalk. •A Heritage River plaque was placed in St. Anishinaabe Texts Told by Angeline •Has a large reservoir in the north called Jacobs in 2004. Williams tells many Ojibwe/Anishinaabe Belwood Lake that is formed by the Shand stories about half-dog people. Dam. The Speed River •Starts near Ospringe and flows through • Millrace Park, Cambridge, has had a •71 kilometres long Guelph where it joins the Speed River at Canadian Heritage River plaque since •Origin of the name: John Galt named the the Boathouse. 1994. Speed River because he was impressed by •It is the shortest of the four main the power of the river's current. The name The Nith River tributaries of the Grand River. was intended to connote success, fortune •Lots of groundwater enters the Eramosa •167.5 kilometres long and prosperity, according to the book River, keeping its waters cool and clean. •Origin of the name: Named after the Cambridge: the Making of a Canadian City •A Canadian Heritage River plaque was seventh longest river in Scotland which by Kenneth McLaughlin. placed in Halton Hills in 2004. flows through Dumfries, Scotland. •The Nith River is the longest tributary of the Grand River from its source, north of Millbank in Wellesley Township, to Paris, where it enters the Grand River. •The troublesome Nith River has no reservoir and floods occasionally around New Hamburg and Ayr.

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