Sundial Creek

Sundial Creek is a cold water, trout-bearing stream in the heart of downtown Orillia. Urban stormwater runoff is mixing with the cold water stream and overloading it with siltation and pollution such as nitrate-nitrogen.

This site is monitored by Conservancy volunteer Jane Bonsteel. In the past, this site has also received attention from Jeff Cole's Environmental Studies Students at Patrick Fogarty Secondary School and other Couchiching Conservancy volunteers.

Sundial Creek has historic significance in Orillia as a source of water for hydroelectric generation, and as a cold-water creek sustaining cold-water fish species such as Brook Trout. It is sourced from underground springs originating further up Fittons Road that were known as the Fittons Springs in the 1800’s. The MNRF took efforts to naturalize the stream in the 1980’s by creating riffles and pools, to support a population of Brook Trout occurring naturally in the Creek. While the Creek is in many respects healthy, it is also under a great deal of pressure from urban development. The failure of siltation fencing from construction on Fittons Rd. in 2016 lead to the natural stream substrate being covered by a thick layer of sandy silt, which still remains today.

This site has been monitored since 2016. In 2020, moved the monitoring site a couple meters downstream (625791,4943075) to improve ease of access for testing.