FISHING
DAVE BROWN
Let them flourish and grow
Last spring, at the suggestion of Peter
Levick of the Ottawa Chapter of Muskies Canada, I attended the Brewer Park Pond Spring Community Tree Plant. It was sponsored and conducted by the
Brewer Park Pond Restoration Project and organized by the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA). Aquatic and Fish Habitat Biologist, Jennifer Lamoureux, guided the planting in association with the RVCA’s many project partners. The tree planting coincided with the final
phase of the project’s principle objective: rejuvenating the formerly landlocked Brewer Park Pond into a naturally functioning wildlife habitat area. Although the event was publicized as
being a tree planting exercise, it was much more than that. More than 120 people formed teams to
plant trees and also many types of terrestrial and aquatic vegetation. They didn’t leave until all 1,600 plants were in the ground, mulched and watered. Ken Taggart, the Ottawa Chapter
President, organized and led the Muskies Canada participants. Brewer Park Pond is in the core of
Ottawa, just north of the Rideau River, downstream from Carleton University in Ottawa South. If you look to the east over the Rideau River from the Bronson Avenue
14 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
bridge, you’ll get a reasonable aerial view of the site. Brewer Park Pond has undergone many
geographical changes in the last 60 years or so. Initially, it was a small group of islands situated within the confines of the Rideau River. That was until the 1960s, when the area was re-shaped and modified to produce a popular swimming hole and beach. However, by the 1970s, the pond was
closed to public swimming because of increasing pollution and health-related concerns associated with stagnating water. The pond’s demise as a sustainable
swimming hole shouldn’t have been surprising. It was a landlocked body of water that could not be replenished with naturally flowing water from the Rideau River or an underground spring. With no water flowing to oxygenate the water in the pond, it became a stagnant wasteland. It was suitable only for reptiles and as a breeding ground for water fowl. The pond was unsuitable for fish, and the
only way they ended up there was by being accidentally introduced by the odd heron or duck, or through the annual flooding of the Rideau River during spring thaw. Since the 1960s, many people have
believed the site could be rehabilitated so wildlife and fish could co-exist in an ideal urban setting – if only the right
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