Article content continued

“It’s not surprising that you … suddenly have lots (of water) and the next minute, almost, there is nothing there,” Czarski said.

And this creates a risk for flooding in places where floods have not traditionally happened.

“One of the major action items is to understand how climate is going to affect the high flows, low flows and everything in between. We’re hoping to move forward with a study (because) in the lower areas (of the Jock watershed) the concern is the effect of flooding to homeowners along that stretch,” he said.

“It could well be” that floods will shift off the known floodplain, he said.

“Just look at areas of the Ottawa River that we never thought would be touched. It’s an open book on how these areas are going to be performing in new climatic conditions. I guess the onus is on us as well as the City of Ottawa to better understand that, so that efforts can be made to better protect residents.”

“It is going to present us all kinds of different challenges.”

In many ways the little Jock is holding its own against two kinds of pressure: Subdivisions near its mouth and agriculture farther upstream. The current study compares it to data from 2008.

Mostly it rates as “fair” in water quality, which is an assessment of how well the water can support aquatic life. Mostly it is swimmable as well, where the water is deep enough.

“For the most part it seems to be holding its own,” Czarski said. “So the overall message is that the Jock is stable but we have dropped below some very important ecological thresholds in terms of forest and wetland cover” — the natural landscape beside a river that protects it.

The challenge now is to protect headwater areas in order to help the quality of the river downstream, he said. The Jock begins south and west of Franktown.

Just like the much larger St. Lawrence and Great Lakes, the Jock and the Rideau itself are patchworks of many small ecological stories that combine into a complex whole.

tspears@postmedia.com

twitter.com/TomSpears1