Pigeon Creek Watershed

Pigeon Creek Watershed
Summary

Pigeon Creek originates in storm sewers draining the neigbourhood southeast of the intersection of St. Johns Street and Moray Street. Water passes through a culvert and daylights on the north side of St. Johns Street in front of the bingo parlor. Pigeon Creek then flows north for approximately 100 meters before entering another culvert on the south side of the CP Rail line. This culvert runs for approximately 500 meters below the CP Rail line and the IPSCO property, daylighting again just south of Murray Street. Pigeon Creek enters another culvert on the south side of Murray Street, emerging on the south side into Shoreline Park. Here it flows for approximately 50 meters to Pigeon Cove on the southeast corner of the Port Moody Mudflats.
Pigeon Creek watershed is bordered to the south and west by the Slaughterhouse Creek watershed, to the east by the Suter Brook Creek watershed, and to the north by Burrard Inlet.

Fish: Chum (Onchorhynchus keta) anadramous Cutthroat Trout (Onchorhynchus clarki clarki), three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and prickly sculpin (Cottus asper) are resident in Pigeon Creek. Coho (Onchorhynchus kisutch) often stray in from neighboring Suter Brook Creek and Noons Creek.
Wildlife: a few prominent animals inhabit this watershed, including coyote, deer mouse, great blue herons and green-backed herons.
Vegetation: Shoreline Park around Pigeon Cove is dominated by western hemlock, western red cedar and deer fern. The northeast section of the watershed covers a section of a grove of black cottonwood and willow.
Residential: predominantly single-family residential houses as well as a GVRD housing project. High density apartments are planned for the former IPSCO site.
Industrial: several businesses operate along St. Johns Street.
Parks and recreation: The mouth of Pigeon Creek flows through Shoreline Park.
Other: CP Rail has a right-of-way that runs east-west through the watershed.

The majority of this stream is culverted and runs underground; however, daylighting is planned for sections of Pigeon Creek on the former IPSCO property.
Stormwater constitutes the majority of instream flows, resulting in an erratic flow regime. Water quality monitoring shows potential water quality issues.
The black cottonwood / willow community is regionally / provincially blue-listed (of special concern) as are the great blue heron and green-backed heron.

Ongoing water quality and fecal coliform monitoring by Port Moody Ecological Society.
Future daylighting of Pigeon Creek on former IPSCO property by Polygon Homes Ltd