BEAUFORT WATERSHED STEWARDS

All activities were carried out by 35 active volunteers. - Stream monitoring of 19 creeks; install discharge rate measurement equipment; sampling for tire contaminant (6-PPD-Quinone) in 5 creeks; carry out well monitoring; calibrate and maintain equipment; researching and writing watershed health report: 822 hrs - Fundraising: 628 hrs - Resistivity Sounding and aquifer mapping research projects: 600 hrs - Community Outreach: presentations of the Tsable River Watershed Cumulative Effects; participate at events such as the Youth Media Project; ‘Power of Forests’ Town hall meeting (Nanaimo) Eco-Fair Mark Isfeld Secondary School (Courtenay) Fanny Bay Summer Market the River Never Sleeps (Fanny Bay) Family Watershed Day (Courtenay) École Puntledge Salmon Day (Courtenay); continuous efforts to reach out with the K’ómoks and Qualicum First Nations: 225 hrs - Training for First-Aid and Streamkeeping (Benthic Invertebrates): 96 hrs - Communications: ongoing development of website content and maintenance; work on promotional items such as decals t-shirts; ongoing submission new articles to the Fanny Bay Flyer Down By the Bay and Lighthouse Country newsletters; paper submissions to the BC govt for Rosewall Creek Pit expansion project and Natural Glacial Water bottling plant: 310 hrs - Monthly board and sub-committee meetings and affiliated environmental stewardship meetings: 434 hrs - Administrative duties including correspondence grant writing policy development secretarial and treasurer duties; entering stream sampling data into DataStream Canada's free and open access platform for sharing water data: 987 hrs A total distance of 8 060 km was traveled by volunteers.

We added 6 creeks for stream sampling in the Bowser/Qualicum Bay areas; - We installed a high-quality piece of equipment in the Tsable River providing continuous monitoring for 5 water quality parameters; - In partnership with the Vancouver Island University we sponsored for a second year a GIS practicum student. This helped us display our mapping work on our website; - We initiated a trend analysis of our stream sampling data (of 3 watercourses) by hiring a consulting firm; we had our Groundwater Monitoring Program reviewed by an expert in the field. - We had our data management reviewed by an expert in the field; - In collaboration with a youth film maker we produced a 4-min promotional video.