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Article printed in the Manitoulin
Expositor
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
By Jim Moodie
Manitowaning-“I’m still kind of getting
my feet wet,” says Seija Deschenes of
her new role as project coordinator of
the ambitious and widely envied
Manitoulin Streams initiative.
Come spring, as rehabilitation work
begins again in earnest at several
high-priority sites along the Manitou
River, her feet may become almost
permanently soaked.
For now, Ms. Deschenes, who hails from
Sudbury but has lived in Little Current
for the past four years, is only
figuratively damp as she wades through
files, maps and funding applications in
her Manitowaning office. The Township
of Assiginack is acting as host of the
river stewardship program this year, and
the new coordinator is quartered in a
corner of the (presumably watertight)
municipal building.
“Right now I’m familiarizing myself with
everything and working on a lot of
funding proposals, as well as getting
organized for the spring,” says Ms.
Deschenes. “It’s a big learning curve,
but it’s exciting, too, to get things
rolling.”
Each year the Manitoulin Streams program
dedicates resources and manpower to a
few of the 100-plus sites originally
identified for rehabilitation on the
Manitou River and Blue Jay Creek,
depending on landowner co-operation,
funding and volunteer help available.
This summer, the organization has
pinpointed four or five new sites, all
on the Manitou River, where it plans to
undertake rehab projects, says Ms.
Deschenes.
The biology grad assumed her new
position on January 15, taking over from
previous project coordinator Sean
Barfoot. But whereas her predecessor
was hired on a one-year basis,
Manitoulin Streams has been able to
engage Ms. Deschenes for a three-year
contract.
The not-for-profit organization notes,
in a press release, that having Ms.
Deschenes on board for a three-year term
“will give Manitoulin Streams the
progressive edge and consistency needed
to move forward with watershed
restoration initiatives on the Blue Jay
Creek and Manitou River.”
Ms. Deschenes comes to the job with
impressive credentials. For the past
three years, she has worked with the
Ministry of Natural Resources in
Espanola conducting a fisheries
community assessment and assisting in
the introduction of muskellunge to the
Spanish River. Prior to that, “I worked
with the Co-operative Freshwater Ecology
Unit in Sudbury, which is a joint
venture between Laurentian University,
the MNR and the Ministry of the
Environment.” She has an honours
degree in biology and did
fisheries-related research and
rehabilitation work on Killarney’s
acidified lakes with Laurentian biology
professor John Gunn.
The fish biologist relishes her new role
with Manitoulin Streams, which is
setting an example for other areas of
what can be accomplished through
co-operation and ingenuity. “It’s a
community-based project and it’s
currently the largest (of its kind) in
northern Ontario,” she notes. “It
provides really good economic benefits
and can be a model for the rest of the
province. So yeah, it’s pretty
exciting.”
At the moment, the focus of the
organization is still on the Blue Jay
Creek and Manitou River, as many of the
sites first identified as requiring
attention on these cold-water streams
remain to be tackled, but Ms. Deschenes
says “we’re planning to expand our
mandate to include other cold-water
streams on Manitoulin like the Mindemoya
River, Kagawong River and Bass Lake
Creek. We’re starting to look at that,
but it’s still in its infancy.”
Other future plans include involving
school groups in tours of the
rehabilitated sites and encouraging
academic study of the work that is being
conducted. “Eventually, we’d like to do
some monitoring of the sites, and see
what the effects are,” says Ms.
Deschenes. “We could get some
university or college students involved,
and someone might want to do their
Master’s degree on it. It could be
fisheries related, or focus on
fur-bearing animals or invertebrates.
It would be a great learning device.”
In the meantime, Ms. Deschenes is still
learning the ins and outs of the
organization, and memorizing all the
twists and turns of the streams that are
slated for rehabilitation work. But
she’s already well attuned to the
general assignment.
“The main thing,” she says, “is getting
the ecosystem back-the wildlife, the
water quality. And making sure they’re
not degraded anymore.”
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