What We Do

Over the past 19 years, we have led the effort to provide environmental stewardship services within the four contiguous watersheds in Southern Inverness County.

The Inverness South Anglers Association was established in 2004 at the behest of the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. ISAA was created to provide environmental stewardship services within the four contiguous watersheds in Southern Inverness County. Over the past 19 years, ISAA had provided sustainable environmental stewardship to the four main watersheds totaling an area of 501.5 square kilometers. Between the four watersheds, a total of 15 watercourses have received habitat restoration. ISAA had installed hundreds of structures and maintains each structure on an annual basis to ensure they continue restoring habitat.

Each year ISAA completes an 18-week season of habitat restoration beginning the first week of June, and ending in the last week of September. The season always starts off with winter damage assessments & maintenance. After that is complete, we then move onto a new installation project or will continue a project from the previous season on the same watercourse. This is when all new structures are built which usually consist of different variations of digger logs, deflectors, rock sills and bank stabilization either done by hand rocking or machine. The restoration work we do positively impacts the watersheds we work in as it protects, enhances, and creates habitat for Atlantic Salmon and Trout. Stream restoration is also great for ensuring migratory access is available for fish migrating upstream for spawning and cold water refugia.

Starting in 2023, ISAA will be implementing a monitoring program that was created in 2022 in partnership with the Nova Scotia Salmon Association. There are four main components to the monitoring plan such as water temperature data collection, habitat suitability index assessment, electrofishing, and redd counts. By implementing a monitoring program, ISAA will be able to quantify the impacts of their restoration efforts, and to capture the current conditions within the watershed. This will help identify any changes that occur on each watercourse restored and will help identify areas where future restoration work is needed. By applying all four components of this monitoring program to the watersheds ISAA restores – it will help ISAA create a baseline of data to build upon each year so progress can be measured.