Originally published in Surge Currents, August 2020
By Ginny Vassal, Read Island
The occasional grounding of the Hoskyn Channel dock became much more pronounced in September 2018. The stream at the base of the ribbons re-routed itself towards the dock following heavy rains; the up-stream clear-cutting most likely caused the concentrated run-off that moved large rocks and cut a deep channel with stream sediment running directly towards the dock.
As sediment built up under the dock, the dock started going dry on the NW corner at most low tides, effectively reducing the dock space available, and putting stress on the ramp and dock.
Permissions
SRD began the process of applying for Fisheries permission to do the needed work, and received Fisheries permission to do sediment moving in early February 2020 (a Fisheries window), however, found at that time the tide wasn’t low enough to do the desired work. However, they were able to re-route the stream run-off away from the dock. An application was made to Fisheries to excavate the sediment further in June-July, the next Fisheries window.
Permission was received for July 4th. So on the afternoon of July 3rd, Murray Abercombie’s crew of Troy and Jay rolled the ramp on to the dock, and detached the double chains holding the dock to the shore.
July 4th – Guided by Steve from Precision (required marine biologist supervision), the excavator (Ellison) dug out sediment while the small dump-loader moved it to the opposite side of the beach and offloaded. The dump-loader wasn’t able to keep place with the excavator, so the excavator continued to dig and moved some of the sediment to 10 – 15’ away. Visiting kayakers were able to land and take off while the work was going on.
You might wonder why the small excavator was used? It was chosen to be able to “walk” down and back up the cement ribbon driveway without doing damage.
And the result?
It’s a pleasure to see that not only has the dock been returned to the pre-September 2018 ability to hold boats, the re-directed stream channel done in February was reinforced.
Thank you to Michael McGregor of SRD for co-coordinating and making sure this work was done, and hiring knowledgeable Quadra businesses wherever possible to make it happen.