The Langara location used to contain parts of two salmon-bearing streams, one flowing through the west side of campus and one the east side of campus at the corner of 49th Ave and Ontario Street. Both streams were culverted before the college was built, but some parts of the original stream can be seen in and just below the city owned Langara Golf course.
Parts of the stream could perhaps be restored and some exploratory work has been done to identify the best options for this. In the meantime, students and faculty have been honing their stream management skills through “streamkeeping”, which has been incorporated into several ecology courses offered through the Biology Department. The stream most often used for lab activities is Byrne Creek, in Burnaby.
The non-profit Pacific Streamkeepers Federation (PSkF) was formed in 1995 and now includes over 60 streamkeeper groups throughout BC, each focused on a particular watershed. The goals of the PSkF are to facilitate training, co-ordinate streamkeeper and enhancement efforts, and promote local management and appreciation of aquatic resources.Much of the focus is on salmon and trout, but streamkeepers emphasize that the health of the entire ecosystem needs to be maintained to support all of the species that make up the stream ecosystem.
Streamkeeper activities include fish, aquatic insect and water quality monitoring, but also often involve educational workshops, guided tours of streams, invasive weed removal, drain marking (many drains still lead to fish-bearing streams) and more. All work is coordinated with the appropriate municipality and with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
More info can be found on the PSkF website, or by contacting Dr. Frank Williams (fwilliams@langara.bc.ca), Biology instructor and member of the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers Society.
