Tag Archives: sturgeon

River at Risk – Wanapitei River – Sturgeon Chute – Painting by Aleta Karstad

By Linda Heron on Thursday, June 26th, 2014
Posted in Art, Media, Rivers at Risk, Sturgeon Chute, Wanapitei River
Sturgeon Chute, Upper Rapids (oil on canvas, 12 x 16 in.)

Aleta Karstad – 1 October finds me painting at the upstream rapids of Sturgeon Chute on the Wanapite River, 6.7 kilometres northwest of Hartley Bay. To get just the right angle on the rapids, screened by flaming leaves of an overhanging Red Maple, I’m standing on a narrow grassy ledge, the small of my back leaning against a cold wall of smooth granite, with the feet of my easel only a few centimetres from the edge. About two metres below, courses the fast deep water….  To read Aleta’s notes and purchase her paintings, click here to visit Aleta’s website.

For more information on Sturgeon Chute – click here.

 

Effects of Dams & Waterpower on River Ecosystems, Fish & Fisheries: Not Green for Fish, by Dr. John M. Casselman, Adjunct Professor, Dept. of Biology, Queen’s University – Presentation to ORA at Annual General Meeting

By Linda Heron on Monday, November 25th, 2013
Posted in American Eel, Climate Change, Dams, Energy, Fish Bypass, Fish/Eel Mitigation & Recovery, Hydroelectric, Impacts, Lake Sturgeon, Media, Presentations, River Concerns, Rivers at Risk, Species at Risk, Studies & Reports, Turbines

Download (PDF, 6.68MB)

Surging Sturgeon Success Story – by Laurent Robichaud, Friends of Grassy River

By Linda Heron on Monday, November 25th, 2013
Posted in Fish Bypass, Fish/Eel Mitigation & Recovery, Lake Sturgeon, Media, Presentations, Species at Risk, Studies & Reports

Below is a presentation made to the Ontario Rivers Alliance at their Annual General Meeting on 23 November 2013.  Check out the notes below as well.

Download (PDF, 6.59MB)

This document is a collection of events and recent developments related to the re-introduction of Lake Sturgeon in the Upper Reach of the Mattagami River near Timmins Ontario.

It was back in 2002 that the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources approached Club Navigateur La Ronde and the Timmins Fur Council to be partners on a project to re-establish lake sturgeon population in the upper reach of the Mattagami River near Timmins Ontario. In the Lands and Forest archives of the early 1900s were records of sturgeon spawning activity observed at Wawaitin Falls by a conservation officer of those early years of the Porcupine mining camp. Log drives, dam construction and subsequent operation combined with fisheries led to population drops to unsustainable levels. Continue reading →

Surge in Sturgeon – Great work Larry!!

By Linda Heron on Saturday, August 3rd, 2013
Posted in Lake Sturgeon, Mattagami River, Rivers at Risk, Species at Risk
By Benjamin Aubé

TIMMINS – Call it the Timmins version of Jurassic Park.

An ancient creature that once lived alongside the dinosaurs is slowly returning to the Mattagami River, an area where it once thrived.

A century ago, when settlers first set up shop in what became the Porcupine mining camp, lake sturgeon measuring up to six feet and living over 100 years were not uncommon in the area.

But due to increased industrial activity, overfishing and a general lack of knowledge on the subject, the once-thriving local population of the fish nearly disappeared.

Recently, lake sturgeon in the entire southern Hudson Bay drainage basin have been designated as a species of “special concern.”

In 2002, various local community and conservation groups concerned about the giant fish’s endangered status and apparent disappearance from the region put their minds together and started the Mattagami Sturgeon Restoration Project.

Continue reading →

High Falls, Sturgeon River – 1993 Dam Project – MNR Report abandoned in 2006

By Linda Heron on Friday, April 12th, 2013
Posted in Dams, Hydroelectric, Interviews, Media, River Concerns, Rivers at Risk

Click here to Listen to this episode of Tapestry.

Season 18: Episode 29

Anthony Lawlor is an architect who has made it his job to find the sacred in the ordinary. He and Mary talk about how the divine is not limited to churches, mosques, synagogues and temples. Lawlor says you can find it everywhere, if you just look  – even in your own kitchen.  For more on our show and our guests…
I’m drawing your attention to the interview at 34:40 min.:
After that, we visit a place where a construction worker dug up something he didn’t expect to find. In High Falls, Ontario in the fall of 1992, a dam project was at a crucial phase. The plan was to generate hydro and provide development for the local economy.However, a skull and two bones showed up after several days of heavy rains. Testing revealed they were human remains, and suddenly, the site took on a whole new meaning for the nearby Poplar Point Ojibway First Nation.Many Ojibway believe that wind and rushing water are vital for communication between the living and the dead. The dam would block the voices of many ancestors. Jody Porter‘s documentary, This Powerful Place, explores the difficult questions faced from the perspective of one of the band’s elders and an archeologist hired to investigate.

Black Sturgeon River Dam Decommissioning – Virginia Rook to Minister Gravelle

By Linda Heron on Sunday, February 10th, 2013
Posted in Dams, Impacts, River Concerns, Rivers at Risk, Studies & Reports, Sturgeon Chute, Wanapitei River

Virginia Rook
RR 2, Site 10, Comp 4
Alban, Ontario P0M 1A0

February 5, 2013

Honourable Michael Gravelle
Minister of Natural Resources
Suite 6630, 6th Floor, Whitney Block
99 Wellesley Street West
Toronto, Ontario M7A 1W3
Fax to: 416 325-5316

Dear Minister Gravelle:

Re: Black Sturgeon River Dam decommissioning

I have recently read Technical Report No. 06-03 produced for the Upper Great Lakes Management Unit – Lake Superior. This is a very thorough report that states that the collapse of the Black Bay walleye fishery coincides with the dam construction1. It states that many costly mitigation attempts were made to improve the fishery in the area, with little or no improvement.
The final recommendation of this report is to remove the dam.

I find it interesting that the major concerns were regarding the collapse of the commercial fishery and the loss of the recreational fishery. The report claims that if the dam was removed “Black Bay walleye population that is sufficiently recovered to permit recreational angling on Black Bay would be worth several hundred thousand dollars per year to open-water anglers from Thunder Bay alone.”2 To me, this means that the main concern of the Ministry of Natural Resources is all about profits!

I struggle to understand this. Continue reading →