Care of Joseph Creek - Comment Continues

It was shocking this winter to see an area of Joseph Creek’s realigned course bordered by industrial machinery, which perched precariously close to the sensitive creek bed. Trees had been bulldozed to the creek’s edge along with pipes and pieces of metal. The view from Joseph Creek Village was and is still not pretty. No attempt appears to have been made to clean it up. Adjacent to this eyesore is an area of land, which the city paid to have carefully restored with native planting. Regulations suggest a six metre riparian zone along all creek edges in order to protect the flora, fauna and water quality necessary for all important water sources.


An enquiry to council was made about this situation and subsequently a written email was sent to administration on March 8th to enquire whether any action had been taken to remedy this situation. To date no reply has been received and the mess beside the creek remains. With the opening of a new pet store in the vicinity and a well-known furniture store also in the area one would think it would be important to set an example to tourists and shoppers of how we manage our water sources. The example present for all visitors to see is an embarrassment.

It is interesting to note we received this comment from Alberta in response to our original post....

Gord Ball has left a new comment on your post "How much should we care about Joseph Creek?"

While I don't live in this area, I've spent quite a bit of time in the East Kootenays on business travel, and would certainly like to settle in this area, coming up to my "slower" years. As an avid fly-fisher of over 45 years, I've learnt a fair bit about fisheries habitat and their ecosystems, plus I worked at Trout Unlimited's National office for a number of years during the '90's. I can tell you that Joseph Creek is probably one of the most important tributaries to the St Mary's/Kootenay basin. As we know, mature spawning fish are migratory by nature. After the spawn has hatched, the fry need to be in a protected environment for up to a year. The natural riparian cover that Joseph offers is "perfect" as a spawning/incubating stream. Joseph, however has a bitter/sweet problem and that would be the choke/spill-way reservoir above Cranbrook. It supplies a constant supply of crystalline water to the city, as well as supplying Joseph with the same quality supply of relatively constant temperate water (cool in summer, warm in winter). This regulated flow, however, is a problem in itself in that the natural flushing that should happen year-in/year-out from spring run-off is non-existent during low run-off years (I hope this year is different?). Consequently, our "national rodent" has been able to become well established in the lower reaches of Joseph. The St Mary's/Kootenay drainage is highly regarded by recreational users and naturalists due to its’ prolific fishery...so "the fish" are there. They just can't get upstream into Joseph anymore, until the rodent barriers are removed!!! Again, along with the likes of Cherry (Mather), Gold, Little/Big Bull, and say, the Skook, Joseph Creek, due to it's natural riparian protection from fish predators, is a perfect stream to repair, protect, and maintain NOW!!!...And subsequently for generations to come! If any of you reading this have similar observations or interest, I'd like very much to hear from you. "gordball@telus.net" Thanks for listening...



Original posts can be read at:
http://livablecranbrook.blogspot.com/2011/02/should-we-care-about-joseph-creek.html
and
http://livablecranbrook.blogspot.com/2011/02/is-this-how-much.html