|
Watercourse Protection Projects
Halls Creek
Rehabilitation Project
Stream
clean-ups |
Past and Present
Conservation Initiatives
The Halls Creek
watershed faces the same problems as other urbanized areas. The
environmental impacts of urban development are incremental. Their
repercussions of individual activities are not easy to perceive.
Thes may interact and will accumulate over time. In the end, the
environmental impact of all these activities can inflict substantial
damage to aquatic and terrestrial species as well as social, cultural
and economic costs on municipalities.
The need for conservation
initiatives within the Halls Creek watershed was emphasized over
tan years ago. A "Working Paper on the Restoration of Halls
Creek" (1990) was written by Dr. Alyre Chiasson, a biology
proffesor at l'Université de Moncton. This document evaluated
the environmental condition of the Creek and made valuable recommendations
for its restoration. The report also contains a summary of an
eloctro-fishing survey conducted in 1990 in the North Branch Halls
Creek wetland and where the North Branch crosses theTrans Canada
Highway.
According to Dr.
Chiasson, Halls Creek has an immense potential for education and
tourism, which could be exploited by the surrounding City of Moncton.
He suggested that developing interactive educational programs,
such as fish rearing or habitat signage, or interpretiveor interpretive
conservation areas, such as wetland refuge, would heighten environmental
awareness on watershed issues, contribute to the rehabilitation
of Halls Creek, and promote vitality within the community.
Dr. Ciasson alsounderlined
the need for physical work, such as bank stabilization, garbage
clen ups, and the importance of divertong all sewage effluent
to the treatment plant. In addition, the issues of mitigating
sediment and other types of pollution was underlined as being
very important.
Twelve years later,
urban development and the perpetuation of other impacts continue
to have a toll on the Halls Creek environment as nothing has been
done to mitigate these. The community is beginning to realize
the immense cost of the lost of ecological fonction and natural
beauty. The Halls Creek Rehabilitation Project is a forum in which
community based institutions and working groups, such as Beaverbrook
School, the Mountain Environmental Group, the MacAleese St. Group
and the Dowd St. Group can come together to find solutions to
problems within their community.
|
