Stabilized Fording Sites
Since crop and pasture lands often straddle watercourses, providing safe crossings for livestock and equipment with reduced potential for negative water quality effects is critical. Additionally, watering livestock at rivers is often the only practical option for agricultural producers. The KWRC has used stable fording sites as both watering locations for livestock as well as crossings for farm equipment. The approaches are properly aligned and hardened, and the stream bottom is stabilized with hard rock to prevent erosion and rutting. Since 1994 the KWRC has installed 85 stabilized fording sites in the watershed.
Kennebecasis Watershed Restoration Committee
Worth Wading Into
Habitat & Riparian Zone Assessments
Habitat and riparian zone assessments are great ways to find out what types of habitat exist and how healthy they are. These types of assessments also identify issues facing the riparian and aquatic habitats of the Kennebecasis Watershed.
Sites found to be in need of restoration are added to our priority list. The assessment may also suggest methods of addressing the issues present so we can continue to move forward. When we identify a very healthy region we make sure to do follow up assessments and make recommendations to land owners and planners to ensure that area stays in a healthy, pristine condition.
We have completed over 350km of habitat assessments on our watershed to date. From smaller tributaries to the larger main channels, characteristics such as width, depth, riparian health, substrate composition, and bank conditions have been investigated.
In 1994 we completed our Kennebecasis River Habitat Assessment Project where more than 280kms of river were assessed. In 2011 there were 6 tributaries assessed for a total 38.2km. These were mainly 1st and 2nd order streams. The results of these assessments were presented in our 2011 Habitat Assessment report. We have also assessed habitat conditions at more than 400 culverts and we continue to assess various sections of our streams as needed.