The West River Antigonish is world renowned for its fall salmon fishing. If the weather conditions cooperate there can be no better place in Nova Scotia to angle Atlantic salmon than the West River. The West River watershed contains a number of important and highly productive tributaries such as Beaver River, Ohio River, James River and Brierly Brook to name a few. ARA has completed instream restoration projects throughout the West River using rock deflectors and bank stabilization techniques. On the tributaries the most common restoration technique has been the installation of digger logs.

As a result of widespread restoration activities throughout the watershed, the West River Antigonish contains some of the highest densities of juvenile Atlantic salmon in Canada. Prior to the formation of ARA, a local stewardship group, Habitat Unlimited completed extensive restoration work on James River and Brierly Brook. These projects were completed between 1994 and 2004 and they paved the way for stream restoration in Nova Scotia, demonstrating through scientific studies that digger logs could restore habitat and increase salmon populations. While Habitat Unlimited is no longer an active organization, ARA continues to maintain and replace existing structures that were installed decades ago.

In 2022, the ARA completed the “Atlantic Salmon Recovery & Conservation Plan for the West River Watershed” which is a guiding document for ARA’s future restoration efforts in the West River watershed. You can download a copy of the report by clicking the button below.

2023

With the funding received from the Nova Scotia Salmon Association’s Adopt-A-Stream program and the Foundation for Conservation of Atlantic Salmon, the ARA was able to restore a total of 42,000 m2 of aquatic habitat and 5,500 m2 of riparian habitat. We were also able to conduct baseline monitoring on several rivers to assess restoration potential and need as well as collecting post-restoration data to measure the effectiveness of our restoration projects over several years.

2022

A critical component of successful watershed restoration is a plan to guide groups through each year. The “Atlantic Salmon Recovery & Conservation Plan for the West River Watershed” was completed in 2022 (link in description above). Another important project was the James River spawning gravel pilot project. The objectives were to add clean spawning gravel and cobble size substrate into the river with the goal being improved spawning and fry rearing habitat in the James River downstream from the Town of Antigonish’s water supply dam.

With funding received from the Nova Scotia Salmon Association’s Adopt-A-Stream program and the Foundation for Conservation of Atlantic Salmon a total of 20,780 m2 of aquatic habitat was restored and 209,400 m2 of riparian habitat improved.

2021

With funding in place from the Nova Scotia Salmon Association’s Adopt-A-Stream Program the ARA was able to restore a total of 45,750 m2 aquatic habitat and 24,500 m2 of riparian habitat. The Upper Brierly Brook restoration and monitoring project began this year and involved the installation of 150 instream structures (digger logs, deflectors, rock sills) by a crew of 6 people.

2018

The South Right’s River Remediation Project was funded by the ARA and in partnership with the NSSA’s Adopt-A-Stream program. The South Right’s is very productive river and contains some of the highest quality water in Nova Scotia. However, fish passage issues near the bottom of the South Rights River caused by abandoned municipal drinking water lines was blocking the upstream migration of sea trout and salmon. The project involved the removal of remnant water lines and thus restored fish passage to over 40 square kilometers of pristine fish habitat.

More Projects

To find out what other projects have been completed through the years you can click on any of the profiles below. A new page will open up to showcase either a different watershed in Antigonish County or ARA’s community connection projects.

View Restoration Map

View Our Restoration Projects On A Map

The full scope of our project work can be seen across the county of Antigonish.
NOTE: This map was produced by the Nova Scotia Salmon Association
View Restoration Map