Lakes – Fall 2002
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FALL 2002 e all live in the Tod Creek water- Saanich, and Prospect Lake Community shed — the area that drains to Association. Wwetlands, streams, lakes, Tod Creek Thank you to all the local residents who estuary, and eventually the Saanich Inlet. It is have contributed articles for this issue. All a beautiful place to live but comes with many watershed residents are invited to contribute Welcome responsibilities. to future issues. If you have any interesting The second issue of Watershed Connections pictures, information about the watershed To the second issue of Watershed Connections, a is focussing on the lakes in our watershed. (current or historical), or any other relevant volunteer publication for Our lakes may look beautiful, but Prospect information, please email wconnections the Tod Creek watershed, Lake in particular is in serious trouble, as a @shaw.ca or phone 479-1956. Letters to the distributed in February, report recently commissioned by Saanich editor are also encouraged. — EDITOR June and October each year. proves (page 8). We have tried to present you with the facts and also some actions to help The purpose of Watershed Below: The clean, quiet waters of Durrance Lake are a Connections is to connect mitigate problems. Please see page 9 to read popular swimming and fishing area for residents of the Greater Victoria Regional District.This 8.4 hectare lake the community and about a very comprehensive workshop being with a maximum depth of 16 metres is part of the Mount provide information organized by the CRD, Municipality of Work Regional Park. that will assist watershed residents to live and work in an ecologically sustainable manner, in harmony with the watershed environment. Watershed Connections is produced by three members of the “Friends of Tod Creek Watershed” stewardship group, with articles contributed by watershed residents. Please contact us by email if you would like to receive a pdf version. We invite comments and submissions from members of the community. Please contact us at 479-1956 or email wconnections @shaw.ca Five Lakes and a Ghost Photo: Ivan Hunter ur watershed contains five lakes and What are we doing to protect the water that a ghost lake. Prospect, Killarney, passes over, under or through the land on OMaltby, Little Maltby and Durrance which we live? Judging by the pollution in are still with us. Alas, Heal is no more. Prospect Lake (see article by Adriane Pollard Anyone who has glimpsed the snow- on page 8), many of us in the watershed are Durrance capped Olympics over Prospect Lake or seen doing things, often unknowingly, which affect the mist rise on Maltby or watched the the water as it passes us. We all need to learn mergansers on Killarney knows the beauty of more about how we can live here without Killarney a lake. The expanse of water, smooth and causing dreadful things to happen to our reflective or rippled and busy, is the showy groundwater, streams and lakes. part of the water in our watershed. The creeks — MARY HAIG-BROWN Little Maltby and streams that flow into the lakes and take the water to the sea at Tod Inlet are more inti- Maltby mate views of the water. A mink working its way upstream, a mallard with her family of Watershed Gallery yellow and brown fluff heading down to the Prospect lake, a heron standing so still by the side of the stream all remind us of the busy life that goes on in the streams. Perhaps the least obvious part of the water system is the ground water, which we do not see but we certainly know about when our wells run dry or get polluted. All these views of the water are MARY HAIG-BROWN views of one entity. Each part is affected by is a long time resident what happens to any of the parts. and a member of The Because lakes are the showiest parts of our Friends of Tod Creek water system, it is there that we first notice Watershed. problems arising. The concerns that have been expressed about the quality of water in Prospect Lake over the past thirty years are Woody Thomson photographed this Great Blue Heron at concerns for the whole watershed. In order to Maltby Lake.We are interested in publishing any local pictures address these concerns we have to look at the you may wish to share. Please contact us. whole watershed. How are we living in it? Learning from Heal Lake Former Heal Lake n the summer and fall of 1991 the Capital the area. During an Regional District (CRD) drained Heal Lake initial stage of cool Ito expand the regional landfill. As might be and dry climate, expected in a natural lake on the coast, the 13,000-10,900 years exposed sediments revealed many large logs, ago, lodgepole pine superbly preserved, to the point that they had woodland or forest to be cut with a chain saw. As the lake-bottom occupied the area. We mud was removed, my students and I sampled even uncovered cones of pine in the lake’s An aerial view of these logs and the sediments to study the his- deepest sediment. Shrubby alders predominat- Hartland Landfill. tory of the surrounding landscape and climate ed briefly for about 500 years until 10,500 The former Heal Lake (current Phase 2 filling stretching back to the melting of the region’s years ago during a brief cold spell. Pieces of area) is circled. glaciers 13,000 years ago. The excellent lodgepole pine tree trunks ended up in the Brentwood Bay and the preservation of numerous visible and micro- lake at that time. Rapid warming at 10,000 Saanich Inlet are at the top of the photo. scopic plant fossils and annual growth rings in years ago led to the appearance of Douglas- Photo: CRD tree sections provided an unparalleled oppor- firs in the region. A climate warmer and drier Environmental Services tunity to carry out a comprehensive investiga- than today from 7,000 to 10,000 years ago tion of the history of our area. Greg Allen at fostered patches of Douglas-fir woodland in a the University of Victoria studied the pollen landscape of grasses, bracken fern and rocky The tree-ring record remains, while Qi-bin Zhang looked at the knolls. Douglas-fir forest and wide-ranging from Heal Lake has tree rings, both working toward graduate oak stands covered our area 4,000-7,000 years degrees in the University’s School of Earth ago as the climate cooled and moisture proven and Ocean Sciences. increased. Between 3,000-4,000 years ago to be one of the Uplands on southern Vancouver Island modern Douglas-fir forests took shape and were free of glacial ice before 13,000 years western redcedar became an important wood- longest in the ago, and the Heal Lake area between 12,000 land species. Abundant logs of Douglas-fir world. and 13,000 years ago. Heal Lake at about 128 and a few logs of redcedar bear testimony to metres above sea level was located well above these forests of the last 3,000 years. the limit of marine inundation (about 75 m). Qi-bin Zhang’s study of the Douglas-fir Of greatest Marine water deposited the heavy clays in tree rings going back to almost 5,000 years interest is a sudden lower elevations of the Tod Creek valley. ago suggest that spring moisture varied In the lake basin the 5-10 metre thick markedly over the interval. Of greatest inter- and persistent sequence of sediment included mostly a fine est is a sudden and persistent drop in the drop in the growth textured jelly-like material called gyttja (a growth rate (change from fat to very thin Swedish word) interrupted midway by greyish rings) about 3800 years ago. Exactly what this rate about 3,800 white volcanic ash and near the base by a thin means is not yet clear, but it seems to have years ago. silty zone. Gyttja is lake muck. The ash was occurred at about the same time as climate deposited from the atmosphere about 6,800 throughout north western North America years ago when Mt. Mazama erupted in shifted from one state to another. From this Oregon to form Crater Lake. The silty layer we suspect that climate does not change grad- RICHARD HEBDA is a long time resident in the corresponds with a sudden and profound ually but rather does so suddenly, a lesson we watershed. He is Curator of cooling and instability about 10,900 years should heed with the threat of global warming Botany and Earth History ago. The lake was ringed by a peat deposit over our heads. Incidentally, the tree-ring at the Royal British formed from poorly decomposed plant debris record from Heal Lake has proven to be one Columbia Museum and is in shallow water. of the longest in the world. an Adjunct Associate Pollen analysis of the lake sediments One small lake, one great story, and prob- Professor at the University revealed the following vegetation history for ably more to come. — RICHARD HEBDA of Victoria. natural history Space Invaders Periwinkle lants are great world travellers. Hitch- take several years of hard work to eradicate hiking via wheels, hulls, clothes, freight, them, but the return of our native spring wild- Pgrain shipment and ballast, going first flowers is a joyous reward. Along our water- class in seed packets, botanical shipments and ways, a close watch should be kept for purple Daphne tourists’ luggage, plants find their way around loosestrife, a pretty plant with spires of purple the world.