Drainage and Fish Habitat Prepared by Jennifer Lamoureux, Aquatic and Fish Habitat Biologist

Drain Types  Municipal Drains – created under the Drainage Act  Private Drains – are ditches or a system of underground tiles that farmers construct on their own property in order to drain their land.  Mutual Agreement Drains – are private drains that have been constructed through an agreement between two or more landowners. The drain is registered on the property title through the Land Registry Office.  Award Drains – were constructed under the Ditches and Watercourses Act. This Act was repealed in 1963, but some award drains still exist.

Municipal Drain Classification System  The Municipal Drain Classification (MDC) System was developed by DFO, Conservation Authorities and other partners to strike a balance between the requirements of the Federal Fisheries Act and the Provincial Drainage Act by streamlining the review and approval process related to impacts of drain maintenance activities on fish habitat.  This has resulted in quicker timelines for Fisheries Act reviews to be completed.  RVCA reviews approximately Municipal Drain cleanouts each year in the watershed.  Typically there is a 10 day turn around between when the CA is notified by the Drainage Superintendent of potential drain maintenance works to when the project is processed.

Municipal Drain Classification Types  There are seven drain types that result from the assessment (Type A, B, C, D, E, F, NR) and each type has varying sensitivities with respect to drain maintenance work.  The following parameters are assessed: flow type (perennial vs. intermittent), temperature (cold, cool, warm water), fish species, and aquatic habitat conditions.

Municipal Drain Classification and Ontario’s Class Authorization System

Municipal Drain Classification Map

Fish Habitat provided in drains  Cover: areas that provide escape from predators, competitors and high flows.  Food: the type and amount of food produced is dependent upon substrate and riparian characteristics of the drain.  Reproduction: fish require appropriate substrate and water quality for successful reproduction.  Migration routes: some fish species travel great distances within a drainage network to spawn and carry out their life processes.

RVCA Field Staff Sampling a Drain

Fish species captured in various RVCA municipal drains  Northern pike  Muskellunge  Smallmouth bass  Largemouth bass  Walleye  Bluegill  Pumpkinseed  White sucker  Black crappie  Rock bass  Creek chub  Common shiner  Golden shiner  Central mudminnow  Blacknose shiner  Brook stickleback  Finescale dace  Spottail shiner  Northern redbelly dace  Fallfish  Fathead minnow  Johnny darter  Longnose dace  Brassy minnow  Mottled sculpin  Tessellated darter  Banded killifish  Blackchin shiner A total of 28 species of fish have been captured in municipal drains in the month of July or August

Spring and Summer Comparison

Drains that have been sampled

Drains that have been sampled ctd

Drain Maintenance Mitigation  Sediment and erosion control measures to protect downstream fish and fish habitat  Timing – if the proposed work can be done while the drain is dry in July or August this minimizes potential sediment releases and avoids harming fish  Avoid working during elevated flows -rain events, storms or seasonal floods  Re-vegetate areas along the banks where they have been disturbed by seeding/planting  No in-water work between March 15 th and June 30 th to protect fish during spawning

Good Examples of Drain Maintenance

Poor Examples of Drain Maintenance

Tools for our Municipalities  In the spring RVCA provides annual updates and mapping to each municipality with Municipal Drains.  We have an agreement with adjacent Conservation Authorities to identify a lead to report to shared municipalities in an effort to be cost effective.  We provide a cover letter, digital and hard copy maps, excel spreadsheet and a GIS shape file of the data to each Municipality.  We offer pre-maintenance meetings on site with the contractor and the Drainage Superintendent to offer site specific mitigation advice.  RVCA also monitors during the maintenance work.

Summary  The MDC system attempts to balance the needs of drainage for agriculture areas while protecting fish habitat that is used by species for cover, food, spawning and nursery habitat.  Similarly, Conservation Ontario is working towards striking a balance between the requirements of the Conservation Authorities Act and the Provincial Drainage Act by streamlining the review and approval process related to impacts of drain maintenance activities on municipal drains.  There was an opportunity for the public to provide comments on this new process on the EBR earlier this year and very few comments were received.  MNR, OFA, DSAO, OMAFRA, CA reps met in May to review the comments and there was consensus on the revisions.  The revisions are going to MNR and OMAFRA for approval with implementation expected in 2013.

Highlights....  Less than 4% of RVCA’s 406 drains require a site specific review  The remaining 96% are quickly processed.  Since 2002 we have received a total of 146 Municipal Drain cleanout requests from our member municipalities and we have approved 145.  These approvals occur within 10 working days.  This program has been a positive example of balancing the needs for agricultural drainage and the aquatic ecosystem.  Other drain types are not covered under this system however the Conservation Authority works to review drain maintenance in a timely manner on those applications.