Brooks Aqueduct Trout Ponds & Millicent Conservation Site

Signage Upgrades

Millicent Conservation Site

Our first information sign replacement was at the Millicent Conservation Site.

This pheasant release site is located 21 km NE of Brooks and totals 770 acres. It is managed in partnership with the Alberta Conservation Association. Over 70,000 trees have been planted at the site over the years, which also contains a planted food plot. The Millicent site was an original Buck for Wildlife site with the last piece of property purchased in 1969.

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Brooks Aqueduct 

The second sign replacement took place at the Brooks Aqueduct Trout Ponds appox. 10 km SE of Brooks.

The 834 acre site contains a trout pond (stocked yearly by the GOA), 2 km of nature trails, and benches where the public can bird watch (or just sit and enjoy nature). This property also is part of a habitat enhancement project where over 12,000 tree and shrubs were planted over the past 6 years. 

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Additionally, this property contains many Ducks Unlimited wetlands for all wildlife and is a Pheasant Release Site.

We invite you to enjoy and explore both conservation sites!

Vern Potiuk Memorial Conservation Site

Major Irrigation Upgrade

The Brooks & District Fish and Game Association volunteers, and partners with County of Newell , Alberta Conservation Association , Alberta Wildlife Federation, Shortgrass Ecosystems and the Eastern Irrigation District have been working to improve the habitat at the  Vern Potiuk Memorial Conservation Site.

We give a sincere thank you to all partners on this project. The essential habitat upgrades would not be possible without your support in hours of donated time, equipment use and the over $15,000 investment in the irrigation equipment. 

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The 160 acre site is located approx. 9 km SW of Tilley. More information on this enhancement project will be presented in the coming months. Please keep checking our website and social media accounts for continuing updates.  

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 If you would like to be involved please contact the BDFGA at email:      Membershp.bfga@gmail.com    
 

The Brooks & District Fish and Game Association Volunteers Lester Janke and Rod Rosland with Alberta Conservation Association rep Tyler Johns installed a New Permanent Habitat Enhancement Sign at the Brooks Aqueduct Trout Ponds on  2024-09-17.

 This habitat project has seen for 10,000 trees and shrub's planted here with plans to add more in 2025,2026. 

 A big thank you to all the partners and sponsors that help fund this one of the biggest habitat projects the BDFGA club has ever taken on. Also a special thank you to habitat team  that took on this great project it would not been possible with all the time effort these volunteers put into this project with over 2,645 hours commit to this project so far.

 Please come check out this great work that has been done here.

The Brooks & District Fish and Game Association with its partner Alberta Conservation Association have installed a small craft boat dock at Inter-Lake locally known as Johnson Lake off TR 19-1 at the Inter-lake Conservation site. North of Brooks off of hwy 873 .
BDFGA Volunteer teams started this project in fall of 2023 by applying for grants, approvals and fundraising. With the prep work complete, the dock was installed on July 27, 2024. 
The public can access the lake to use paddle boards, canoes and kayaks to this body of water. 
With the funds raised from raffles, auctions, banquets, fundraisers, dinners and grants, the BDFGA is honoured to give back to the community of Brooks, County of Newell and residents of southern Alberta. 
We would like to thank the BDFGA with the Alberta Conservation Association and with over75 BDFGA members volunteer hours that were put into this project. 
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Please use respect, do not litter, and reminder to Clean, Drain and Dry your WaterCraft to Protect Alberta Waters from Invasive Species.

The Brooks & District Fish and Game Association , along with Ed Marquardt and Bill Cawston, help fund and install over 24 Mallard duck nesting tunnels here in the County of Newell. 

Fourteen tunnels were installed in the Bassano area and another 10 were installed in the Brooks area. They were installed across the Inter-lake, Vern Potiuk Memorial Conservation site, the Brooks Aqueduct, and Antelope Creek Ranches. 

 Hitory: Delta Waterfowl, with decades of research, have proven that  Mallard Hen nesting structures are an effective way to increase mallard nesting success by keeping the hen and her clutch of eggs out of the reach of mammalian nest predators. On the prairies, mallards that consistently use the hen house have high rates and experience up to 12 times more nesting success over mallards that nest in nearby upland grass cover.

 A Big Thank you to Ed Marquardt for leading this project.

 The Brooks & District Fish and Game Association, along  with local senior members, families, and sponsors, Baseline Earthworks LTD and HK Bobcat Services, installed 3 sitting benches at the Brooks Aqueduct Trout ponds on the nature trail around the lake which is about 2.1 km around. The trail starts at the east end of the parking and comes out on the west side of the parking lot.
 
 The trail is mowed by local residents and BDFGA volunteers. 

The Habitat Enhancement Brooks Aqueduct Trout Ponds is one of the biggest challenges our club ever has taken on with a budget of over $118,000.00.  Our project is on schedule and on budget because of the great volunteers, partners and sponsors.  This project started in 2021 with members of the BFGA  talking about what we can do to improve and create better habitat in the County of Newell.  We did some research by reading and talking to some of the older members, local residents and volunteers of the BFGA. 
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We put a team together to get  some ideas on how we could accomplish our mission.
We also needed to confirm what we had for water rights from the EID on twenty acres of land at the Brooks Aqueduct Trout Ponds.
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As of October 2022 the irrigation system is set up and a trail run has been completed.  The fall work is now done and we are ready to complete the field work  in the spring of 2023 . The tree and shrub order is confirmed and the order will place shortly for spring  planting in 2023.

 As of August 22, 2024,  The BDFGA Volunteers and our partner the County of Newell have been busy irrigating, mowing, and  weed trimming this area since we planted around 1,500 new seedlings and potted trees and shrubs in the June of 2024  this brought us over 10,000 trees and shrubs planted here in 2023, 2024 and are looking at adding another 300 potted trees and shrubs in 2024
Total Volunteer Hours to this project : 2613.75 hours up to July 30th, 2024
 
Why are Brooks & District Fish and Game Association members'  involved?   Since the club's first meeting in 1918, the Brooks Fish and Game members, partners and sponsors have been working hard, volunteering thousands of hours to habitat in the Brooks area.

Brooks Archery and Rife Range is one of our ongoing projects. We continue to work on making it better. We have currently added a set up for shotguns and are waiting on the final confirmation before it is open to range members.

 May 2022 600 shrubs and trees were planted to enhance cover for wildlife in the area. Grant was received from the ACA
Volunteers from Brooks and area 4-H, JBS Environmental, and BDFGA were on hand to plant the bushes and trees. With a good supply of water from the Eastern Irrigation District we can assure the survival of theses trees for future wildlife habitat.
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The ongoing maintenance of watering and weed control, mowing all be done by the volunteers of the Brooks & District Fish and Game Association members and ACA.
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Plans to add another 1200 trees and shrubs is planned for 2024/2025 through grants and other organizations that want to partner up with BDFGA and through the ACA.