Antigonish Rivers Aquatic Restoration & Monitoring

Description: The goal of this project is to address the lack of high-quality spawning and juvenile rearing habitat found in James River, Antigonish County. Restoration sites have been selected as part of a watershed restoration plan that was completed in 2021 in partnership with the Nova Scotia Salmon Association (NSSA).

Three well-established restoration methods have been selected to remediate the main issue found in James River: Clean spawning gravel will be added to the channel as the majority of the substrate has been scoured down to bedrock. Instream structures (digger logs, deflectors, rock sills) will also be installed. A spawning gravel pilot project was carried out in 2022 and was found to improve spawning habitat. In 2023, a restoration project, partially funded by FCAS, was successfully completed in James River with the installation of 15 instream restoration structures and the addition of clean spawning gravel. During post-project biological monitoring (redd count surveys), the instream structures were observed to be supporting the deposition and natural sorting of spawning gravel added to the river and this was noticeably successful in creating available spawning and rearing habitat. In 2024, ARA will continue restoration efforts in James River through the installation of 10 instream structures and additional spawning gravel installations into the river. The project will work through a 1 km section of river downstream from the 2023 work site to restore approximately 17,000m² of aquatic habitat.

In 2023, the ARA began restoration efforts in North Rights River with the installation of 15 structures (digger logs, deflectors, rock sills), and plans to continue this project in 2024 by installing 15 new structures. This section of the project will result in 1km (10,000m²) of habitat being restored. Prior to the 2023 restoration, baseline habitat data was collected (HSI Surveys, Temperature data, electrofishing surveys, Redd counts), and post-restoration data will be collected over a 4-year period. In 2024, post-restoration data collection will commence to track the success of the instream restoration work in North Rights River.

During 2024, the ARA also plans to carry out year three of monitoring in Pinevale Brook, the restoration project that was funded partly by FCAS in 2022. The monitoring activities include temperature surveys, Habitat Suitability Index surveys, Biological Surveys (Redd Counts) and Electrofishing surveys. The monitoring program measures the success of the instream restoration projects and tracks the change in aquatic habitat and population densities of Atlantic salmon.