About

We are the Salt Spring Island FreshWater Catalogue (SSIFWC) project group, working under the auspices of the SSI Water Protection Society (WPS).

Specific SSIFWC project objectives are
- raise community awareness of the island’s surface
freshwater diversity
- gather data for island freshwater resource quantification and quality work
- steer (watershed) stewardship community preservation/management activities as appropriate

Various SSIFWC project volunteer roles are available. In the field: as part of (or leading) an island watershed community group, as an individual "streamcatcher" and as water feature scouts. There are also roles available in data handling (trend analysis, graphing, map manipulation etc) and historical literature research.

To date the project team consists of >25 field and “office” project volunteers (and the number is growing)

Field volunteers are starting up and/or working across ca 15 watersheds, ca 20 creeks and a small number of wetlands, gathering a variety of data, including:
- creek "on/off” status
- creek flow rates
- water chemistry (Ph, temperature and conductivity
As at February 2019 the project team have acquired freshwater data at over 500 points.

To find out more, and/or to get involved, please contact the SSIFWC project lead at jamssiwater@gmail.com

Our SSIFWC project supports the
“engage in and to otherwise promote the
scientific study of and research into water resources” aspect of the WPS.

Please note that the SSIFWC data on Water Rangers (this SSIFWC Project) is only updated periodically, from a field data collection toolset and database developed by the SSIFWC project team.
If you are interested in being involved in data collection for the project please contact the project lead at the email above.

As a result of the SSIFWC software used to collect the data, it can be be shared "live" with agencies of interest (FLNRO, Islands Trust), various NGOs (Water Rangers, SSI Conservancy), and with individuals who find the information collected of value for their work (island mapping staff - conservation and emergceny planning). We are working on improving linkages with a number of the organisations mentioned here. If you are interesting in tapping into the SSIFWC data set please drop the project lead (details above) a note.

Training

We plan to use a variety of experienced scientists, from hydrologists, aquatic ecologists, to hydrogeologeologists as "educators" for our citizen science groups. These educators are folks who have the relevant knowledge and experience, are largely on the island, and are willing to share their knowledge at "educator events".

The project lead carries out field "startup" sessions for new volunteers and information on ongoing work and "working models" is carried on our SSIFWC Watersheds Facebook group community website: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SSIFWCWSG/

We have now acquired two Oaktons the “ Oakton PCTSTestr™ 50 Waterproof Pocket pH/Cond/TDS/Salinity Tester, Premium 50 Series". A "how to use a Scoffer flow meter" for our SSIFWC project work is in planning.