Alberta has a fish problem

When Albertans think about species at risk in the province, they might think of caribou, bison, or grizzly
bears, but most probably don’t think of fish. Yet, several fish are facing rapid decline, and updates to
regulations framed to protect their habitats are starting to get more attention. Three fish are at risk in
the area: Bull Trout, Arctic Grayling, and Athabasca Rainbow Trout.
At a recent Woodlands County Council meeting, Bruce Nielsen, General Manager of Woodlands North
Inc., provided a status report on watercourse crossings in the County. Nielsen is a Qualified Aquatic
Environmental Specialist who specializes in ecological restoration. A watercourse crossing is where
water passes under a roadway, trail, or rail, through a culvert or under a bridge.
“They are very important, but people tend to think of roads and not watercourse crossings. They are
everywhere. They are owned by industry, owned by the government and are used by the public. That’s
what makes them very important. Watercourse crossings are bought when you purchase a road. When
you are trading off roads or whatnot, you are getting a watercourse crossing with it, and while the road
is an asset, the crossing is a liability,” explained Nielsen.
When a watercourse crossing is used by fish or has the potential to be used by fish, issues arise if fish
cannot safely use it either because the culvert is no longer at water level, causing a waterfall, or the
culvert is too small, creating a straw-like result on both ends. “When you put a culvert onto a creek, the
creek is flowing, and it’s a dynamic thing that moves left to right, up and down. When you force it
through a drinking straw on a roadway, it speeds up the velocity of the water going in and kicks it out
faster at the other end. So, the area upstream becomes an area of deposition. We’ve all seen those
roadways flooded where it goes right up to the road and over the top, and that’s just depositing layers
upon layers of important sediment that should be washing downstream, but it’s forcing it out the
backend, like a drinking straw, and eroding that away.”
Nielsen said the bottom line was that fish are in trouble, and the federal government is paying close
attention. “The older the area you’re in, the worse your crossings are because once you install a culvert,
you assume it’s good forever, right? It’s not. Culverts are a temporary crossing. This area is really old.
Carson, Judy Creek, that’s fifty, sixty years old, and those crossings are in terrible condition. I live on the
mountain, and those crossings are in terrible condition,” explained Nielsen.
He showed a culvert on the Freeman River as part of his slideshow. The culvert was small, and Nielsen
explained that the size of the opening, where the water flows through, matters more than people
realize. “The Freeman River is a destination creek for grayling fishermen, and all of the Freeman River
goes through that one little pipe.”
He then showed a culvert near Hinton that featured bottom arches. The bottom of the culvert was level
with the water rather than above it, allowing free flow for fish. “That’s what we are replacing crossings
with. That’s a picture-perfect example.” Nielsen said that bottom arches are even mandated in some
areas.
The problem for Woodlands County and many other municipalities is the cost required to replace the
aging infrastructure that was put in place with old regulations. “This is the result of what we did twenty,

thirty years ago. We thought we knew what we were doing because those were the best management
practices, and the regulations allowed us to do that, but those regulations have changed,” he said.
Nielsen showed a divisional map of the province that highlighted fish species stock. One map showed a
vibrant green map showcasing healthy fish populations. He then showed a map updated with 2018 data,
and much of the province had significantly changed. Some areas had lost their fish habitats entirely, and
much of Woodlands County, including the Freeman River, was in orange (low stock), with lots of red
(very low stock) around it. With many watercourse crossings in the County, the price tag to remediate
them all would be astronomical.
Inadequate crossings are more than just a Woodlands County concern. Nielsen explained that of the
292,542 fluvial streams in the province, meaning flowing water at all times, there are 43,974 crossings
over them, and roughly six to eight percent, around three thousand, are at risk, with about twenty-two
percent (about 7,000) considered moderately at high risk.
In 2015, the Alberta Watercourse Crossing Remediation Directive came out, which requires certain
things to happen and provides an inspection manual. “This essentially tells you that you have to
inventory. You have to classify the creek and the crossing. You have to spatially report it back to the
government, and you have to use that information to come up with a management plan. Slowly,
everyone is getting on board, but it’s taken years.”
Nielsen’s company, Woodlands North Inc., is cataloguing and assessing all of the watercourse crossings
in Woodlands County. During the meeting last week, Nielsen said they were forty-two percent done
with inventory collection and that there were 33 serious concerns so far. “Those high-risk crossings
mean they need to be replaced in order to be compliant.” He added that most were likely just
undersized.
Nielsen said if the federal government found a problem with a watercourse crossing, the owner would
have thirty days to fix it. By keeping current on necessary maintenance, Woodlands County, or any other
landowner with a crossing, could mitigate unplanned future costs. He then said there were three
primary candidates at the top of the list for restoring: one just off Groat Creek Road and two on East
Mountain.
Reeve Dave Kusch said they’d seen some culverts during their recent road tour. “I think for us, our
biggest thing, understanding that this is going to have to happen, is just trying to come up with the
funding to do it because it’s not a small ask.” Woodlands County successfully applied for funding to do
the water crossing survey with Woodlands North Inc. They are applying for provincial funding to
remediate two crossings next year.