Newsletter May 2001

Annual General Meeting 2001

The 2001 Annual General Meeting will be held on May 28, 2001. We will again be at the Metchosin Golf and Country Club house at 7:00 p.m.

Earth Day

Several members joined the Coalition of Langford Residents and the Metchosin Farmers Institute to clean up the Luxton Fairgrounds. Much debris was cleared out of the creek and several people vowed to return in September to get the stuff left under water. It’s really amazing just how much trash ends up here. Plastic containers were the most common item, but we found plenty of broken glass and metal. We even found a place where someone had been dumping large quantities, like wheelbarrow load size, of dog manure into the creek from the roadside, possibly from a kennel operation.

The number of people who showed up was very encouraging and since there seems to be no way to stop the dumping of stuff in the parking lot bordering the creek perhaps having this as an annual event will be better than ignoring the situation. We met up with a fellow who drives a rig similar to the ones which are always parked here. He was quite unaware that this entire lot is part of the Luxton Fairgrounds and felt that the operators of the rigs there were also. This creates a large problem for Fairground events when patrons cannot park here due to space used by the rigs. The institute is working to find a solution which would accommodate all interests.

Projects 2001

The structure as planned would be to have a single clay rise in the stream bottom about 20 cm high and covered with a protective rock cover. There would be two built in the Firehall creek section just above the confluence and one in the main channel. These will create a slightly deeper pool behind them. As well as providing more fish habitat directly it is hoped this will reduce the leaching of naturally occurring iron into the water and to increase the oxygen content.