News Release Archive

YOUTH CONSERVATION CORPS--HOME IS WHERE THE DIGGER LOGS ARE
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This summer, the four members of the Nova Scotia Youth
Conservation Corps are enhancing fish habitat in the Little
Sackville River by installing digger logs and other river
structures enabling salmon to return home. Most of their work
will be under the guidance of the Sackville Rivers Association.

Digger logs are structures put in rivers to create mini-water
falls so that the force of the falling water creates pools below
the logs. The deeper water is beneficial to salmon returning home
from their winter migration to the waters around Greenland.

"It's pretty amazing that the fish go all the way to Greenland
and find their way back to Sackville. By making the river deeper,
we'll reduce the temperature of the water and cut down on silt so
their trip is easier," says crew member, Miriam MacKinnon.

This summer's work is a continuation of the Sackville Rivers
Association's long term management plan to make the Sackville and
the Little Sackville healthy rivers again.

In addition to their river work, the Sackville crew --- Alice
Kent, Miriam MacKinnon, Andrew Houlihan and Kellie Manning
--- will also be facilitating workshops on environmental
education for children, youth, and adults in the Sackville area
to ensure that the work that they have begun is understood by the
local residents and will not be undone after the summer is over.
Their objective is to make people realize that the Little
Sackville is more than a ditch -- it's a living eco-system.

The Nova Scotia Youth Conservation Corps is a program of the Nova
Scotia Department of the Environment offering meaningful
employment to young people between the ages of 17-24 while
providing communities with much needed environmental services.

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Contact: Alexandra Widmer   902-424-8207

         Richard van Ingen  902-865-9238

trp                     July 23, 1996 - 9:25 a.m.