Friends of Mill Creek Rangers: building environmental leaders for tomorrow

It’s almost time to get the chest waders ready and into the water.

In partnership with Friends of Mill Creek and the Grand River Conservation Authority, the annual search for youths, ready to work and learn outdoors, is on.

Since 2003, four local high school students and a crew leader are hired to undertake rehabilitation projects along Mill Creek.

“We did miss two years due to COVID-19, but this year will be our 20^th, with 20 different crews having taken part,” said Ron Wu-Winter, RPF, supervisor of Natural Heritage at the Grand River Conservation Authority.

For eight weeks throughout the summer, Wu-Winter says educational opportunities are combined with practical in-creek experience to provide a well rounded, hands-on experience.

“Generally, we look for students who have a strong interest in the environment and the outdoors, and who don’t mind spending all day in the stream, in the sun and rain, and with the mosquitoes,” Wu-Winter said.  

“The crew leader is usually a university student or very recent graduate who has some experience or academic background in either the environment or aquatic restoration. A big thing for them is project planning and being able to manage a small crew."

Friends of Mill Creek is a volunteer, community-based organization that supports landowners in rehabilitating Mill Creek. Organized in 1997, the group develops, promotes, and implements projects in the watershed that maintain and enhance Mill Creek as a cold-water stream.

 “The Friends of Mill Creek have strong objectives for this program, in doing good work in and around Mill Creek, but it’s also about developing an interest and providing exposure to students who already have an interest to the environmental field,” Wu-Winter said.

“There’s a sense of pride from the students who have already gone through the program and many have gone on to do all kinds of things.”

Students who have taken part in the program have gone on to work with for a variety of different  environmental organizations, including non-governmental and government, non-for-profit, and conservation authorities.  

Since it first began, 75 high school students have taken part, with 16 different crew leaders.

And for the rangers, Wu-Winter says it’s not just a great job opportunity. The program offers a rewarding learning experience.

“It is a summer job, and students are expected to work. But a special element of this, is that they have all kinds of work projects that they do on a daily basis,” Wu-Winter said.

“Almost once a week, there are enrichment days that include visits to places such as an aquatics lab at the University of Guelph. Students have worked for a day at the Green Legacy Tree Nursery potting trees, they have visited an aggregate site and learned about the aggregate industry, and they've also accompanied our crews when they do electro fishing.”

Wu-Winter says there is the opportunity to work and make money, but also to learn and be exposed to both the environment and learn all about ecological restoration.

“Students often do an end of year presentation and you can see the impact the experience has had on them,” he said.

Mill Creek is a spring-fed cold-water stream that originates in the uplands and woodlands/wetlands of Puslinch Township, that flows south-west through the Township and the City of Cambridge, where it joins the Grand River.

The upland moraine landform and the wetlands that border the creek, provide important rainfall and melt-water retention and infiltration that not only provides an important source of groundwater recharge, but also an excellent source of water that sustains Mill Creek, even in dry periods.

This discharge of good quality and cold temperature water supports a cold-water fishery in some reaches of the creek.

Brown Trout were first stocked in the watershed in the 1940’s. 

Some stocking in the vicinity of Soper Park, still continues today. Rehabilitation projects conducted by the Grand River Conservation Authority, Ministry of Natural Resources, and local fishing enthusiasts during the mid 1990’s increased brown trout biomass and spawning activity.

“There's something special about Mill Creek. It’s a cold-water stream and the habitat for some less common species like our brook trout. Its an indicator of a stream being fed by groundwater and that’s what makes it really special,” Wu-Winter said.

“Our friends of Mill Creek are really focused on its preservation as it goes past and crosses one of the busiest high ways in Canada, with lots of industrial activity around it. So, it really does need some TLC.”

Any students wishing to apply, can check the GRCA website in the next few weeks for application details.

“I’ve overseen the crews for the last couple of years, and we’ve just been so lucky to consistently see both crew leaders and groups of students who are so positive and engaged,” Wu-Winter said.

“They have alot of skills that I don’t now that I had at 16-17. And when you get a crew together of five people under 30, they do have a lot of fun.”