Hidden Creek Event - August 10Th, 2013

[Fishscape]

Anyone have links to the pictures on fb?

[WinstonConfluentus]

Hi again, thanks gang for your concern. It’s nice to know some of you really care about what’s going in my neighbourhood, but it’s not so nice to see how mean some of you get with each other. It’s not somebody’s fault, it’s everybody’s fault! Please don’t spend all your time worrying about who said what to whom, where the pictures are, or how did this happen? Right now we need you to stop all this dirt from coming in every time it rains!

[matt1984]

Hi again, thanks gang for your concern. It’s nice to know some of you really care about what’s going in my neighbourhood, but it’s not so nice to see how mean some of you get with each other. It’s not somebody’s fault, it’s everybody’s fault! Please don’t spend all your time worrying about who said what to whom, where the pictures are, or how did this happen? Right now we need you to stop all this dirt from coming in every time it rains!

 

flyfishy?

[bcubed]

I'm reposting this from Chris's post, as it deserves a watch...

 

http://landusekn.ca/resource/video-hidden-creek-case-study-headwaters-management

[bigalcal]

I have a pretty good idea where this area is but I don't know exactly. Is it about 11k W on the OMR road where the "bridge" is? I used to fish just W of there a LOT!! Went up once this year and it was dirty, haven't made it back. I'm definitely going to go up next week and investigate. I assume the road is still barricaded a few km's W of the "bridge". I have seen the OMR at the FTR bridge and it has been dirty for weeks, same with the Liv. Tough to find clear water down there with the erosion from the flood and the scattered thunderstorms and Spray River Sawmills ain't helping much!!

 

I'll take some pics..

 

It's been a weird year!!

[RedBeard]

I'm reposting this from Chris's post, as it deserves a watch...

 

http://landusekn.ca/resource/video-hidden-creek-case-study-headwaters-management

 

 

 

Thanks for posting.

[Taco]

Went for a walk up Hidden today, way too much overreaction around this effin' place for a thunderstorm (125mm of rain in a half hr) and 2 or 3 small creek bank slides. Willow Creek was murkier than Hidden..fished both.

[wingshooter]

Nice to see somebody get off their computers and put some relevance to this thread. Taco you don't ride a high horse do ya. Refreshing to see....

[DaveJensen]

Nice to see somebody get off their computers and put some relevance to this thread. Taco you don't ride a high horse do ya. Refreshing to see....

bingo.

[WinstonConfluentus]

I was up Hidden Creek and the Oldman above it yesterday and ran into one of my kiddos, he wasn't looking so good.

 

[WinstonConfluentus]

Oh ya, here's the third quad in my bedroom I was talking about on page one.

 

 

Some of them seem to be pretty carefull about it, not this bunch. They seemed to think it was fun to wreck my neighbourhood?!

[straightshooter]

For more information, please read this letter, which contains the map below.

Harvested area overlaid in yellow, creek in blue, access roads in red, and the section of road within 100m of the creek highlighted in yellow (nearly 2km in length).

 

The closest, publicly available rain gauge is at Pasque Creek:

 

Some background on Hidden Creek Bull Trout is available here, here, and here.

[Taco]

Pasque Ck is about 20 km away. My rainfall info came from the crew that's completing the logging company's decommissioning and I believe it. I was camped on upper Racehorse one memorial August afternoon when we received 250 mm of rain in 5 hrs while over at the Livingstone Forestry Station the dust never stopped blowing off the Trunk Road.

 

BTW apparently SLS is done logging in the OM valley for about 8 yrs

[WinstonConfluentus]

Hello again gang, I’ve been off courting the ladies in hope of maybe getting a date later this month. There’s some real lookers out there, but I’m still having trouble finding a good spot for a date. Hidden is still a mess and much worse when it rains, so I’m worried any gal I take there would just turn up her snout and head back downstream. I didn’t get all dressed up for this!

 

Wow, I was sure surprised at the last post from Taco; why anyone who fancies themselves an angler would seek to minimise the damage happening to our watershed is beyond me. I don’t get humans sometimes? If you want to know the truth, ask someone who knows something about watersheds not some fellow working for a logging company.

 

Someone was having their coffee and reading the paper by the river yesterday and I noticed the article was about my place: you folks might find this interesting:

 

http://lethbridgeherald.com/2013/08/commentary/opinions/shameful-legacy-of-hidden-creek/

 

I think this fellow might know a little something.

[straightshooter]

For what it's worth... From: http://www.spraylakesawmills.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/GDP_Map.pdf

[DonAndersen]

Folks,

 

Copied below is part of an email I got regarding the Hidden Creek sediment issue.

 

"As suggested SLS has been going into Hidden Creek weekly to monitor the stability of the road they built/reclaimed. As we have been discussing there were some sedimentation issues in the creek. Here are pictures that I was sent from SLS showing what they tracked to the source of sediment. Please note the slump was on the north side of the river while all logging was on the south side and some distance from this natural slump"

 

Natural Slumps occur here and there. One on the Cardinal River several years ago formed a small lake, one on the Bow below Caresland 20 miles is huge. It's in the Reservation

Other slumps have made the news from time to time. Frank Slide comes to mind.

 

That doens't mean however that we as fishermen should not be concerned. But this time we may have aimed @ a target that doesn't exist [yet].

 

 

regards,

 

Don

[Taco]

Folks,

 

Copied below is part of an email I got regarding the Hidden Creek sediment issue.

 

"As suggested SLS has been going into Hidden Creek weekly to monitor the stability of the road they built/reclaimed. As we have been discussing there were some sedimentation issues in the creek. Here are pictures that I was sent from SLS showing what they tracked to the source of sediment. Please note the slump was on the north side of the river while all logging was on the south side and some distance from this natural slump"

 

Natural Slumps occur here and there. One on the Cardinal River several years ago formed a small lake, one on the Bow below Caresland 20 miles is huge. It's in the Reservation

Other slumps have made the news from time to time. Frank Slide comes to mind.

 

That doens't mean however that we as fishermen should not be concerned. But this time we may have aimed @ a target that doesn't exist [yet].

 

 

regards,

 

Don

bada bing, bada boom

[DaveJensen]

To piggyback Don's post: which then begs the question who, among us, is going to stand up and be amongst the voices to ensure that logging in the valley isn't continued, tomorrow or 100 years from now? And to get involved to ensure it doesn't occur in like valleys in the future? We have some very sensitive ecosystems in the province. This doesn't mean reacting to something happening, it means reviewing logging plans, allocation plans, AOPs, etc, to ensure that things like logging Hidden Cr valley don't get past the planning stage. There has been some horrendous logging done in the province but it typically goes under the radar thanks to the O/G industry. The worst sediment loading culprit of all, road construction and its networks once established, really needs be addressed in reviewing in all industrial expansion into our 'back country'. Which all comes back to and ties into Martha Kostuch and the Sunpine Forest Products Mainline Road... cumulative impacts.

[troutfriend]

It is hard to make a stand towards stopping the SLS train when the conductor is also the regulator. Who is really driving this process? Alberta Forestry or SLS?

[WinstonConfluentus]

^{Hello again gang. Well I found me a gal and I even managed to find some clean water for us to hang out in (it’s not just one slump wrecking Hidden; it seems to be coming in from everywhere). You know, I thought it was true love; we built the most beautiful redd ever, I chased off a couple of teenagers who were hangin’ around checking her out and we had some great moments under the moonlight chatting ‘till the sun came up, but now, I haven’t seen her in days. I’m not the first fellow to be left sitting on the redd I guess.}

 

^{I was worried something might have happen to her, (there’s some scary looking folks hanging around lately), but then I hear my buddy saw her down past the Livingstone hanging out with her girlfriends. You know, the only thing I understand less than humans is girl-trouts. Oh well, maybe I’ll take a swim down there and see if she wants to hang-out this weekend; we could (wink wink), watch the Whitefish go by.}