Cattle Watering Project
The latest project that our club has executed was on a farm on Pinewood School road where cattle had full access to the river.
Phase 1 (about 12 years ago): The club installed a fence that created a buffer between the river and the pasture. While this fence is still in place, a local section of it was removed by the landowner to allow cattle access to the river (see picture 1). This led to significant erosion at the access point.
Phase 2 (2009): Cold creek fly fishers worked with the landowner to install a cattle watering system that fully excludes cattle from the creek. The project was started in September of 2009 and involved linking a water system from the land-owners house to a cattle waterer out to the pasture. In order to prevent freezing, the pipe needed to be buried deeper than 4 feet. The waterer itself has thick insulation and does not contain any heating elements. To prevent freezing, it relies on constant uptake of water by the cattle.
The project was completed in December 2010 and the cattle are successfully using the energy free waterer as their source of water. Cattle exclusion in the stream allows for the 3rd phase involving reconstruction of some of the eroded banks. While there is still much room for improvement, we feel that this collaboration between the landowner, Cold Creek Fly Fishers and the assistance from the Stewardship council is a good step in towards the overall health of cold creek.
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Cattle access river through a break in
buffer fencing |
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Cattle using the waterer installed by Cold Creek Fly Fishers
and the landowner |
Conservation day projects:
Every spring, we take on various smaller streamside projects such as tree and shrub planting, protecting trees in sparsely treed areas from beavers and placing in-stream habitat.
Bank rehabilitation:
High Density cattle grazing can cause river banks to erode. This happens due to the loss of vegetation that holds the bank together combined with the compaction and wear from cattle traffic. The club has a long record of riverside bank stabilization and was instrumental in establishing best practices in this field.
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