A project to reclaim the shoreline on Lehman creek near Cochin has now been completed.
It was a fisheries enhancement shoreline restoration project, said Kevin Jones, vice-president of the Lost Horse Creek Wildlife Federation. The federation spearheaded the project, which took about 100 hours of volunteer time to complete during the early summer this year.
"There was some shoreline that was made out of concrete retaining wall," said Jones.The structure was falling apart and causing problems on Lehman Creek.
The goal of the project was to restore that area back to its natural state and make it a natural spawning ground for the fish in the area, said Jones.
They were supported by the Cochin village council, whom the wildlife federation had approached asking permission to proceed with some in-kind commitment. About six or seven volunteers from the wildlife federation participated directly.
A fisheries biologist from the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, Adam Matichuk, was also there to give the team a hand for a couple of days. The team worked three days straight, and the entire project was completed in about a month.
The project was funded with the assistance of the wildlife development fund that the branch had access to, as well as financial help from the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation and the Resort Village of Cochin. Jones says the cost for the project would have been over $10,000.
The project directly affects an area between the two bridges in Cochin near where the Jolly Roger hotel used to be, Jones said.
They began by placing a silt fence in the creek to remove the existing concrete retaining wall, which had deteriorated in a number of spots. A mini-excavator was able to remove about a third of the wall, and then a big excavator was brought in to finish that work.
A skid steer loader was then brought in to give the bank the required slope and shape it. That took a number of hours to complete as the material was moved so as to not add to the cost of removal, but even with that plan 144 yards of mixed material was removed from the site.
The next step was the labour-intensive job of finding and hauling the rock riprap, with the rocks unloaded and placed by hand on the creek bank. The rocks were loaded from rock piles in the area. That took a 32-kilometre round trip of about five yards per load, with the rocks ranging from three to eight inches in diameter. Machine loading could not be accommodated due to the terrain and the owner of the land didn't want any damage to the habitat it was in.
Finally, after the rock was put in place the ground was scarified with the bucket teeth to create windrows, then the silt fence was trenched in along the top of the bank to stop silt from washing into the creek. Next spring, the wildlife federation plans to plant native vegetation that will grow low to the ground.
Jones says there will be a many lasting benefits from this project.
"In my eyes, it beautifies the area," said Jones.
Instead of the construction in the area, it is back to its natural habitat, he said, with nothing eroding back into the creek.
It also will mean fish enhancement as the creek will serve as a natural spawning ground, benefitting the wildlife in the area.
Jones says he is happy to see the project completed. "It's a good feeling," he said, adding that his wildlife federation is already organizing more projects to restore property along Lehman Creek.
