Since Fish Creek Provincial Park opened, Calgary's population has more than tripled, and the natural ecology of the park has suffered. The park spans 13.48 square kilometres and hosts four million annual visitations. The Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society (The Friends) works to conserve and protect Fish Creek as its health is critical in supporting the Bow River Watershed.

The Friends are working towards creating a State of the Watershed (SOW) report for Fish Creek, which will develop into a Watershed Management Plan. Historically, the Friends have not been able to perform any in-stream work due to lack of capacity, lack of baseline water quality data on Fish Creek and the high time requirement associated with applying for provincial Water Act permits. In 2021, the Friends began collecting watershed data, including performing trout redd surveys, installing data loggers and performing bi-weekly water sampling. The next step is to get trained in the CABIN sampling protocol, which will give a more complete picture of the health of the creek. Once they understand the state of the watershed, we can create a Watershed Management Plan for Fish Creek and begin to perform in-stream restoration activities aimed at restoring fish and wildlife habitat.