Introductory Bioengineering Course
The 2009 Introduction to Bioengineering Course was held in St. Clements on April 21st and 22nd, to an eager audience of conservation authority, consultant, municipal, provincial and federal agency staff. The course covered all aspects of bioengineering from theory to principals to permits and approvals to installation and construction techniques.
Presenters included Samantha Mason from Conservation Halton, Glenn Harrington from Harrington and Hoyle Ltd., Jack Imhof from Trout Unlimited Canada, Dave Beaton from Credit Valley Conservation and Harry Reinders from R&M Construction. All of these presenters provided their expertise on the subject at hand.
Day 1 included classroom presentations in the morning and most of the afternoon. At the end of the day, the group went out to harvest materials (mostly trees) that would be needed for the bioengineering site on Day 2.
On Day 2, the group was chauffeured around to a number of bioengineering sites that Harrington and Hoyle Ltd. had completed over the past 15 years in the Waterloo area. Each project was explained in detail as to its history, the purpose of the project, what structures were successful and suggestions for future projects.
The bioengineering site was located on Clair Creek in the City of Waterloo, where the group fabricated brush mattresses and fascines, and placed them along two outside banks to help stabilize the erosion of the creek.
Live stakes were hammered throughout the brush mattresses and twine was roped around the stakes and along the bottom of the fascines to help secure our structure in place. The group managed through the bitter cold to install all structures needed to help combat the erosion.
Many thanks go out to Samantha Mason for putting on a great introductory course for us novice bioengineers.
