Characteristics:

• Second largest watershed in West Vancouver
• Originates on Black Mountain plateau. Flows down forested mountainside where it is joined by water from Dick Creek and Eagle Lake, and Whyte Creek and Whyte Lake as well as several small tributaries. Appears in urban area at Cranley Drive, flows between Cranley Drive and Bluebell Drive, under Marine Drive, beside Telegraph Trail before discharging to Fisherman’s Cove at Thunderbird Marina.

Watershed Use:

• Residential: approximately 90 houses in the watershed
• Nelson Creek hatchery is located about 300 m upstream of Cranley Drive, raises chum and coho for West Vancouver creeks
• Water supply: water is diverted to Eagle Lake from mainstem and gathered from Dick Creek Tributary for use as West Vancouver municipal water supply
• Park: Nelson Canyon Park set aside for municipal water supply
• Fish: coho to Cranley Drive impasse, chum to Marine Drive, cutthroat throughout, steelhead to Marine Drive

Concerns:

• Classified as endangered by Fisheries and Oceans Canada because of extensive modification by development (ie. dammed and dredged) and estuary lost
• Water diversion from mainstem into Eagle Lake and potential for reduced base flows and elimination of high fall water needed for spawning salmon
• Fish migration barriers have resulted from the dredging to create the marina which eliminated the of lower 75 metres of the creek and the estuary and limited access at mouth for spawning fish (above 14 ft tide), the culverting at Thunderbird Marina and under Telegraph Trail, Marine Drive and Cranley Drive, and the channelization of creek through urban area
• Possible future development in upper watershed and associated problems, including an increase in imperviousness, a loss of wetlands and tributaries, construction of a storm drain network resulting in altered water quality and quantity, encroachment into riparian zones, channelization of tributaries and bank alteration and increased erosion into the creek.

Watershed Projects:

• Restoration: 2001 proposal for fish ladder at creek mouth, baffles installed in box culvert at Marine Drive in 1999, baffles installed in the culvert at the mouth of Nelson Creek on Thunderbird Marina property in1997, and a series of drops and pools created with large boulders in the lower 100 m section of the creek in1972
• Hatchery built above the highway in 1991. Releases chum and coho fry to creeks in West Vancouver
• Annual fall spawner surveys from 1997 onwards
• Stream survey, West Vancouver Streamkeepers, 1997