The SaltSpring Elementary School (SSIES) “Ganges Creek Stewardship Project” was initiated with an activity of an unstructured walk along the creek to the estuary. This raised the importance to studying Ganges Creek was that it needed protection leading to many studies along the creek. Teachers found that "helping" the creek nurtured their sense of caring for something. Planting ferns and shrubs in the riparian, and releasing salmon fry that had hatched from eggs incubated in the classroom into the creek triggered a sense of student engagement. Students undertook a variety of studies
Helping to rehabilitate the creek, by placing gravels in the creek for salmon redds, and planting in the riparian area represent actions for sustainability of the creek. These are activities that deal with the water in the creek as habitat. The students wanted to deal with water in general and the sustainability of drinking water in the community but we chose to delve into this topic after the students had made a personal connection to the creek habitat. |
revealed low productivity. No bivalves were found in these plots and only marine worms were found. There was a smell of both sewer and sulphides when the quadrat plots were studied at depths of 10 to 30 cm.