Fish Project Proves Successful

At a park in Pictou County, a new initiative is taking the stress out of being a trout.

The Lansdowne Outdoor Recreational Development Association Park regularly lost about 10 per cent of its fish population to heat stress every year when the warmer weather brought the temperature of the pond above 20 C. Cold-water fish like trout are used to fast-flowing, cool water, which contains more oxygen than a slower-moving pond. But thanks to a new cooling system, not a single fish died of heat stress in 2002.

Association manager Dave Leese, who built the park with his father and other family members, said he's ecstatic over the success of the project. Using monitoring equipment on loan from the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, Mr. Leese is able to keep a close eye on the pond's temperature and oxygen content.

The whole system cost the association about $33,000. It was developed with help from the Innovations Branch of the Department of Environment and Labour, its regional office in Pictou, the agricultural college, Environment Canada and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Team work, crucial to the project's success, helped to find an affordable solution.

"Cost-effectiveness was a key consideration here," said Donald Burns, environmental analyst for Environment and Labour. "We got what we needed -- a grassroots solution for a grassroots problem."

Two wells were dug near the pond to pump in cooler water. The well water goes into the pond at about 10 C through a small waterfall and brings the overall temperature down three or four degrees to the low 20s.

"Exposing the water to air through the waterfall helps increase the oxygen in the water," said John Blanchard, a professor from the agricultural college who worked on the project. "This, in turn, is beneficial to the health of the fish."

The Lansdowne Outdoor Recreational Development Association Park, built in 1975, is designed to accommodate people with physical disabilities. The facility has won numerous achievement awards, including the Rick Hansen Excellence Award and the Award of Excellence for Innovation and Leadership from the Canada 2000 Parks and Recreation Association.