Adventure for Wilderness – Water, Irrigation, And Fish on the Carseland Canal, Sep 22, 2024
September 25, 2024
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Text and photos by Phillip Meintzer
What started as a cool fall morning quickly turned into a hot and sunny stroll along the irrigation canal near Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park.
This adventure was hosted by Eric Grinnell, a self-proclaimed naturalist who works as a fishing outfitter and is a member of the Trout Trust.
The Trout Trust is a relatively new environmental group which focuses on the health of trout populations in the Bow River, and to bring awareness to the issue of entrainment, where fish are displaced from rivers into irrigation canals.
Over the course of our two-hour walk, Eric taught our group how irrigation infrastructure (weirs, canals, and siphons etc.) functions to move water from the Bow River for use by irrigators, and provided a history on the problem of entrainment, which was identified as an issue more than 100 years ago – and remains unaddressed today.
Instead of spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars every year on fish rescue projects that move fish from the canals and back into rivers, the Trout Trust are hoping (with help) to pressure the government into implanting fish exclusion devices which would prevent (or at least minimize) entrainment in the first place.
Participants were fortunate to see various fish species swimming along the canals (an obvious example of entrainment in action), as well as a variety of bird species – including pelicans and a bald eagle – over the course of our morning.
We look forward to hearing more about this issue at Trout Trust’s upcoming talk at the AWA office on October 15th.
