Restoration of Porters Brook and post-removal monitoring, 2025

The Porters Brook culvert, located on Nashwaak West Road, was ~40m upstream from an important holding pool for salmonids in the Nashwaak river. As per phase one of the project, the impassable culvert was removed in 2024. The area was re-sloped to match the surrounding environment (2:1 slope), and fish passage is now possible as step-pools with large boulders, cobble, and fine sediment were installed as the culvert was removed. NWAI has funding through an AERF grant with the DFO to monitor fish passage and continue to restore the riparian area from 2025-2027.
NWAI will follow the management plan developed by Boreal Environmental Consulting Services in 2022 for reforesting the disturbed area with a variety of native shrubs, tree species, and native grasses. Trees and shrubs planted on site will be locally sourced and grown. Post-construction monitoring of the site in 2025-2026 will include thermal monitoring, surface water quality, eDNA sampling, electrofishing monitoring, CABIN sampling, and flow monitoring to gauge the success of the culvert removal.